Influence of Lifestyles on Consumers’ Buying Behaviour

This paper examines the influence of the buyer’s lifestyle on his purchase behaviour and identifies the major characteristics of the seven lifestyles of the middle-class consumers of Delhi inetropolis. It future explores how these characteristics influence certain dimensions of their purchase behaviour, namely: (a) interest in shipping, (b) interest in trying new brands, (c) seeking friends’ advice on the choice of a brand, (d) preference for the store that backs up the product guarantee, and (e) store loyalty. This study has revealed that people belonging to different lifestyles have different interests in shopping. They also have differences among themselves on the motivation for trying a new brand that appears in the market, the importance they assign to the opinion of their friends about various brands and extent of store loyalty. These differences indicate that word of mouth communication is an important factor inducing new brand trial and that the retailer plays an important role in enhancing store loyalty.