Analele Universității ”Eftimie Murgu” Reș i ța. Fascicola II. Studii Economice Annals of „Eftimie Murgu” University Reșița. Fascicle II. Economic Studies vol. XXVI, ISSN 2344 – 6315 www.analefseauem.ro 206 ATTITUDE OF REŞIŢA CONSUMERS TOWARD THE IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMIC FACTORS IN THE PURCHASE AND CONSUMPTION PROCESS Adrian TĂNASE 1 Diana TĂNASE 2 Submitted: 25 th September 2019 Approved: 2 th November 2019 Abstract Attracting and retaining consumers and obtaining their fidelity, meeting their needs, in a way that exceeds their expectations, is the main objective of any organisation. Understanding consumer behaviour, however, has proven, over time, especially in practical activity, one of the hardest tasks to achieve, as on the demand carrier a number of factors act whose influence is more or less important, depending on the specific conditions related to space and time. Based on these aspects, the present paper aims at grasping the role of economic factors in the process of purchase and consumption, in the case of Resita Municipality consumers. Keywords: consumer, purchasing process, prices, incomes, living standards JEL : D11, M31 1. INTRODUCTION The customer, this guest of honour, is currently the centre of marketing experts’ attention, consumption being a defining element of individuals’ life, family life and community life. Consumer behaviour has been and represents one of the main topics of interest for sociologists, psychologists and, in particular, economists, and we encounter interest in this topic in the case of many foreign authors, starting with the 18th century, i.e. A. Smith (2003) for whom "the sole purpose of production is consumption", continuing with Veblen (1953) who talked about the relation between ostentatious consumption and social status, Keynes (1970) who introduced the function of consumption into economic theory, beginning with the stable empirical relation between consumption and income, Engel and Blackwell (1982), Becker (1994), Didier (1994), Zaltman (2007) and many others, but also in the case of Romanian authors such as Boier (1994), Miron (1996), Plăiaş (1997), Dobre (1995, 2000), Catoiu and Teodorescu (2004, 2007), Dinu (2010), Manciu (2012), Lala (2014), Tănase (2009, 2011, 2013, 2014), and in the works of these authors consumption is analysed both from the point of view of economics, and sociological, cultural and ideological perspectives. Studying and understanding consumer behaviour is undoubtedly a very difficult action, which involves a complex research process. The complex character of consumer behaviour is given by the multitude of 1 Associate Professor PhD., University Eftimie Murgu of Reşiţa, Romania, a.tanase@uem.ro 2 Associate Professor PhD., University Eftimie Murgu of Reşiţa, Romania, d.tanase@uem.ro