Consumer Decision-Making Process

• Consumers product and service preferences are constantly changing
• Marketing managers require knowledge of consumer behavior to create a marketing mix for a defined market
• Consumer behavior describes how consumers make purchase decisions, and how they use and dispose of the purchased goods or services
• The study includes analysis of factors that influence purchase decisions and product use

Consumer Decision-Making Process

• When buying products, consumers generally follow a process consisting of:
  • Need recognition
  • Information search
  • Evaluation of alternatives
  • Purchase
  • Post-purchase behavior
• This five-step process provides a guide for studying how consumers make decisions
• Consumers decisions do not proceed in order through all of the steps, can end anytime, or may not lead to a purchase

Need Recognition

• The first stage of the consumer decision-making process
• Occurs when consumers face an imbalance between actual and desired states
• Need recognition happens when a consumer gets exposed to either an internal or an external stimulus
• Internal stimuli include hunger or thirst
• External stimuli come from an outside source like a restaurant recommendation, a package's design, or an advertisement
• Marketing managers can create wants on the part of the consumer
• A want exists when someone has an unfulfilled need and has determined that a product will satisfy it

Information Search

• After realizing a need or want, consumers search for information about the available alternatives to satisfy it
• Information search can occur either internally, externally, or both
• Internal information search recall information stored in the memory from previous product experience
• External information search seeks information in the outside environment
• Two basic types of external information sources: nonmarketing-controlled and marketing-controlled
• Nonmarketing-controlled information sources are not associated with marketers promoting a product
• Includes personal experiences; personal sources (family, friends, and coworkers); and public sources
• Marketing-controlled sources are biased toward a specific product, because it originates with marketers promoting that product
• External search depends on perceived risk, knowledge, prior experience, and level of interest in the good or service
• Knowledgeable consumers are less likely to search for additional information
• Search also depends on consumer's confidence in their decision-making ability
• Confident consumers have sufficient stored information and feel making the right decision

Evaluation of Alternatives and Purchase

• A buyers information search results in a group of brands, called the evoked set, which buyers will evaluate further and make a choice
• Consumers won't consider all available brands
• Setting standards helps evaluate alternatives
• One way to narrow the number of choices: pick an attribute then exclude any products that don't have it
• Also use cutoffs which are minimum or maximum levels of an attribute a product must pass to be considered
• You can also rank attributes in order of importance and evaluate products how well each performs on most important
• All products in original may change if new brands added to evoked set
• Marketing manager's goal: determine which attributes have the most influence on consumer's choice
• Brand names also have a significant impact on a consumer's ultimate choice. They simplify the consumer decision-making process
• Following the alternatives evaluation, the consumer decides which product to buy or decides not to buy a product at all

Postpurchase Behavior

• Consumers expect certain outcomes from the purchase
• How well expectations are met determines satisfaction level
• Marketing important: reducing lingering doubts that the decision was sound because consumers commonly have bad product/service experiences
• When people recognize inconsistency between values/opinions and their behavior, they feel an inner tension called cognitive dissonance
• Consumers reduce Dissonance by justifying decision through seeking new information or avoiding contradictory info
• Marketers help reduce dissonance through communication with purchasers
• Goal is to ensure outcome meets or exceeds expectations than disappointing

Consumer Buying Decisions and Consumer Involvement

• Consumer buying decisions fall along a continuum of three categories
  • Routine response behavior
  • Limited decision making
  • Extensive decision making
• The categories described using five factors
  • Level of consumer involvement
  • Length of time to make a decision
  • Cost of the good or service
  • Degree of information search
  • The number of alternatives considered
• Involvement determines in classifying buying decisions by time and effort spent evaluating the search and decision processes
• Routine response behavior deals with frequently purchased, low-cost goods/services, requires little search and decision time due to familiarity with several different brands in the product category
• With limited decision making, consumers have past product experience but are unfamiliar with current brands available
• Extensive decision making is when buying unfamiliar expensive or infrequent products, that is associated with high customer involvement that want to know as much as they can about the category of product with dissonance
• All of such may change as people learn a puppies meal preference which dictates their purchases

Factors Determining the Level of Consumer Involvement

• Purchase depends on five things:
• Previous experience where more experience results involvement decreases
• Involvement is directly related to consumer interests vary from person to person
• Perceived risk increases risk in purchasing
• Situation high involvement when risk presents itself.
• Social: visibility when a thing makes for an increase with products.
• Marketing varies dependent on the customer for high product purchases
• Consumers may not realize their products in the so marketing displays become eye catching with what is on sale/ display.

Factors Influencing Consumer Buying Decisions

• Decision-making doesn't happen independently but rather in the background of cultural/social influences

Cultural Influences on Consumer Buying Decisions

• These effect the deepest part influencing decisions by others that marketing must understand. _ Culture and values form through society that gives cultural norms. _ Customs form like bathing value is success through work.
• Culture becomes learned because norms dictate behaviour from family from parent/peers and can change depending how technology and famiy life takes affect leading to changes in public view/ awareness

Subculture

• A culture can be divided into subcultures on the basis of demographic characteristics, geographic regions, national and ethnic background, political beliefs, and religious beliefs
• People will find themselves in clustered states dependent location of birth or genetics.
• Marketers identify programs that need designing.
• Marketing campaigns are the norm, and major league teams may be in either of the two languages

Social Class

• Individuals who often socialize across themselves are like minded individuals.
• US structure depends on the individuals wealth by home and buying trucks not smoking Lifestyle determines class distinction. Education is a good indicator to determine how educated a consumer can be in a economic situation. _ Opinion influences peoples decisions because there are the individuals thoughts who can tell others their opinions.

Social Influences on Consumer Buying Decisions

• Consumers often get the opinions of others reducing evaluation/ search by increasing perceived risks, influence brand choice

Reference Groups

• All formal and informal groups influence the buying habits of that person that reference groups dictate who likes to know which brands
• Reference groups provide influence that change customers behavior. Tracking can help life happen, or make life harder

Individual Influences on Consumer Buying Decisions

• A buying situation can depend on individual genetics; as people go through life their personality changes depending on the situation.
• Marketing can depend on the buyers gender depending on the culture they reside in

Age and Family

• How old the family may lead to changes in family depending on how the life cycle evolves.
• A family life can change with experience and with family sizes depending if they are single and what style they are buying

Personality

• The way a family lives reflected in their self concept and life depending on the person's activity and interest depending people.
• The world changes so people change the way they shop which can alter people's motivation on what they wear and what they believe

Psychological Influences on Consumer Buying Decisions

• Decisions depend on psychological factors and how that influences motivation from interaction with their world that consumers relate to.
• Consumers use environmental factors while their decisions depend upon their situation.

Perception

• The world is full of stimulus with any input on any 5 senses
• Processing pictures for what they signal.
• People dont consider which to ignore leading to the consumers knowing what they are buying.
• Consumers dont tend to retain or even be attentive depending how they are led

Motives

• Marketers recognize the importance of cues to consumers and make sure that they are targeted.
• People will follow what another tells them in high quality for there to be value in what they are buying.
• Emotions dictate actions, and will depend whether the customer knows how they would be treated.

Learning

• Consumer behavior happens from what changes inside either. It is something that the consumer gains from.
• Actions by others can give the same change whether good or bad for the customer giving good memories.

An overview of the consumer decision-making process. Consumers generally follow a process consisting of: Need recognition, Information search, Evaluation of alternatives, Purchase and Post-purchase behavior. Consumers decisions do not proceed in order through all of the steps, can end anytime, or may not lead to a purchase.