Consumer behavior is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and all the activities associated with the purchase, use and disposal of goods and services, and how the consumer's emotions, attitudes and preferences affect buying behavior. Any individual who purchase goods and services from the market for his / her end-use is called a consumer. In simpler words consumer is one who purchases goods and services available in the market. Example- Tom might purchase a tricycle for his son or Mike buy a shirt for himself. In the above example both Mike and Tom are consumers. Consumer behavior deals with the study of buying behavior of consumers. Consumer behavior help as to understand why and why not an individual purchases goods and services from the market.

There are several factors that affect consumer behavior such as cultural factors: cultural factors comprises of a set of values and ideologies of a particular community or a group of individuals. It is the culture of the individual which decide the way he / she behaves. In simpler words, culture is nothing but values of an individual. What an individual learns from his parents and relatives as a child becomes his culture.

The consumer goes through a lot of stages before he/she buy a product or service. Tim went to a nearby retail store to buy a laptop for himself. The store manager showed him all the latest models and after few rounds of negotiation, Tim immediately selected one for himself. The basic analysis is that Tim need a laptop and when he went to the store there was variety to choose from.