Buying Motives - Definition, Importance & Types

Published in Marketing and Strategy Terms by MBA Skool Team

What is Buying Motives?

Buying motives are the motive to persuade the desires of people so that they buy a particular good or service. Buying motives relate to the feelings and emotions of people which generates a desire to purchase. Any person does not buy a product or service just because of excellent salesman pitch but he does also due to the desire generated within him towards the product or service.


Importance of buying motives

Understanding the buying motive of a customer is essential for a company as it helps the company to target the customer better. It means that the customer requires a particular product to fulfill a certain need. No matter how good a product is or how good the marketing is, unless the customer has a need it would not matter. This makes buying motive extremely important in business.

Motive and instincts are completely different keywords. Motives are voluntary made such that a particular stimulus will take place where as instincts are involuntary and generally inborn quality of a person.

Ex: Thirst is an instinct but aspire to buy a bottle of mineral water to quench thirst is a motive.

Types of Buying motives

Buying motives can be categorized into 2 types as follows:

1) Product Buying Motives

2) Patronage Buying Motives


Product Buying Motives

These are the factors or characteristics of a product that persuade a person to purchase only that product instead of other products available in the market. The factors can be physical appearance like design, size, color, price, shape etc. or can be psychological features like status, desire to reduce danger etc. They is divided into two categories: Emotional and Rational.

1. Emotional Product

If a person purchases a product without thinking much rationally (i.e. with less reasoning) then he or she is said to have persuaded by emotional product buying motives. There are around ten kinds of this type: prestige, imitation, affection, comfort, ambition, distinctiveness, pleasure, hunger and thirst, habit.

2. Rational Product

If a person purchases a product after thinking rationally (i.e. logically deciding) then he or she is said to have persuaded by rational product buying motives. There are around eight kinds of this type: security, economy, low price, suitability, utility, durability, convenience.


Patronage Buying Motives

These are the factors or characteristics that influence a person to purchase a product from particular shop instead of purchasing from other shops selling the same product. It can be divided into two categories: Emotional and Rational

1. Emotional Patronage

If a person purchases a product from a particular shop without thinking much about other shops, then he or she is said to have persuaded by emotional patronage buying motives.

There are around six kinds of emotional patronage buying motives: ambience of shop, showcase of products, recommendations by others, prestige, habit, imitation.

2. Rational Patronage

If a person purchases a product from a shop after complete analysis and reasoning then he or she is said t have persuaded by rational patronage buying motives.

There are around eight rational patronage buying motives: convenience, low price, credit availability, more services, efficiency of the seller, wide variety, treatment, reputation.

Hence, this concludes the definition of Buying Motives along with its overview.

This article has been researched & authored by the Business Concepts Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

Browse the definition and meaning of more similar terms. The Management Dictionary covers over 1800 business concepts from 5 categories.

Continue Reading:



Share this Page on:
Facebook ShareTweetShare on Linkedin