There are several influences that affect the decision process. When looking for toothpaste, two major concepts that I would like to focus on are physiological influences’ and social influences’ when purchasing toothpaste. Physiological influences tend to impact a buyers.perception, motives, learning and attitudes and is generally an internal factor in decision making. Perception varies across each city since buyers are in different stages of the consumer buying decision process. For example, “Many people [in Bangalore] still clean their teeth with traditional products like Neem twigs, salt, ash, tobacco or other herbal ingredients” (Ludhiana 28). Other cultures have progressed in the buying decision, and have recognized the problem of poor oral hygiene. As a result, they have investigated relevant information to evaluate the alternatives prevalent with different brands of toothpaste. Attitudes also vary depending on the price and ease of access of a particular toothpaste brand. If a brand of toothpaste is not easily accessible, consumers will have a pessimistic attitude when evaluating the brand as a viable market competitor. For example, consumers’ in India were more likely to buy the major toothpaste brands since the product was available in both urban and rural areas. In contrast, the smaller local brands had more difficulty selling a specific brand of product due to the lack of both notoriety and access. “This goes to show that there is still scope for further improvement in the marketing and advertising campaign for the two Indian brands to make them competent with the market leaders like Colgate and Close-up” (Saha 31). As Colgate and Prepsodent continue to advertise their product through an aggressive marketing strategy promoting availability and access, they maintain a positive brand image. In contrast, social influences tend to impact the consumers’ buying behavior through a person’s culture, reference groups, social classes or media and are generally viewed as an external factor in decision making. For example, in India and Vietnam, consumers are most likely to use toothpaste are people between the ages of 18 to 30 who have attained education beyond high school. Studies indicate that although this age group understands the benefits of maintaining proper oral hygiene through brushing their teeth, they tend to be influenced more by