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CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR

Definition:
Consumer behavior refers to the mental and emotional process and the observable
behavior of consumers during searching, purchasing and post consumption of a product
or service.
Consumer behavior involves study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy and
why they buy. It blends the elements from psychology, sociology, sociopsychology,
anthropology and economics. It also tries to assess the influence on the consumer from
groups such as family, friends, reference groups and society in general.
Buyer behavior has two aspects: the final purchase activity visible to any observer and the
detailed or short decision process that may involve the interplay of a number of complex
variables not visible to anyone.
What influences consumers to purchase products or services? The consumer buying
process is a complex matter as many internal and external factors have an impact on the
buying decisions of the consumer.
When purchasing a product there several processes, which consumers go through. These
will be discussed below.
Purchase decision
Through the evaluation process discussed above consumers will reach their final purchase
decision and they reach the final process of going through the purchase action e.g. The
process of going to the shop to buy the product, which for some consumers can be as just
as rewarding as actually purchasing the product. Purchase of the product can either be
through the store, the web, or over the phone.
Post Purchase Behavior
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Ever have doubts about the product after you purchased it? This simply is post purchase
behavior and research shows that it is a common trait amongst purchasers of products.
Manufacturers of products clearly want recent consumers to feel proud of their purchase,
it is therefore just as important for manufacturers to advertise for the sake of their recent
purchaser so consumers feel comfortable that they own a product from a strong and
reputable organization. This limits post purchase behavior. i.e. You feel reassured that
you own the latest advertised product.
Factors influencing the behavior of buyers.
Consumer behavior is affected by many uncontrollable factors. Just think, what
influences you before you buy a product or service? Your friends, your upbringing, your
culture, the media, a role model or influences from certain groups?
Culture is one factor that influences behavior. Simply culture is defined as our attitudes
and beliefs. But how are these attitudes and beliefs developed? As an individual growing
up, a child is influenced by their parents, brothers, sister and other family member who
may teach them what is wrong or right. They learn about their religion and culture, which
helps them develop these opinions, attitudes and beliefs (AIO) . These factors will
influence their purchase behavior however other factors like groups of friends, or people
they look up to may influence their choices of purchasing a particular product or service.
Reference groups are particular groups of people some people may look up towards to
that have an impact on consumer behavior. So they can be simply a band like the Spice
Girls or your immediate family members. Opinion leaders are those people that you look
up to because your respect their views and judgments and these views may influence
consumer decisions. So it maybe a friend who works with the IT trade who may influence
your decision on what computer to buy. The economical environment also has an impact
on consumer behavior; do consumers have a secure job and a regular income to spend on
goods? Marketing and advertising obviously influence consumers in trying to evoke them
to purchase a particular product or service.
Peoples social status will also impact their behavior. What is their role within society?
Are they Actors? Doctors? Office worker? and mothers and fathers also? Clearly being
parents affects your buying habits depending on the age of the children, the type of job
may mean you need to purchase formal clothes, the income which is earned has an
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impact. The lifePerformence of someone who earns 250000 would clearly be different
from someone who earns 25000. Also characters have an influence on buying decision.
Whether the person is extrovert (out going and spends on entertainment) or introvert
(keeps to themselves and purchases via online or mail order) again has an impact on the
types of purchases made.
Maslows Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow hierarchy of needs theory sets out to explain what motivated
individuals in life to achieve. He set out his answer in a form of a hierarchy. He suggests
individuals aim to meet basic psychological needs of hunger and thirst. When this has
been met they then move up to the next stage of the hierarchy, safety needs, where the
priority lay with job security and the knowing that an income will be available to them
regularly. Social needs come in the next level of the hierarchy, the need to belong or be
loved is a natural human desire and people do strive for this belonging. Esteem need is
the need for status and recognition within society, status sometimes drives people, the
need to have a good job title and be recognized or the need to wear branded clothes as a
symbol of status.
But how does this concept help an organization trying to market a product or service?
Well as we have established earlier within this website, marketing is about meeting needs
and providing benefits, Maslows concept suggests that needs change as we go along our
path of striving for self-actualization. Supermarket firms develop value brands to meet the
psychological needs of hunger and thirst. Harrods develops products and services for
those who want have met their esteem needs. So Maslows concept is useful for
marketers as it can help them understand and develop consumer needs and wants.
CUSTOMER
A competitor, in order to achieve the loyalty of the customers, offer an endless
information flow on the products and services and thereby continuously educates the
customer about the opportunities in the market. Therefore today even an ordinary person,
is in possession of the large amount of data to use for the purpose of making a decision as
to which products/ services he would go in for. The competitive environment is making
the customer wisher day by day and he is able to take a large number of decisions on his
own. The experts advice of the olden days is being replaced by the customers own
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wisdom. This is making the market place more complicated and unpredictable. The
customer is getting smarter today and he is able to decide his own moneys worth and
therefore, organization across the board are `pursuing the customers views to streamline
their business strategies to remain customer- worthy.
People are the prime factor for any organization to maintain the effectiveness and
thus develop the right focus for the people, so that each one perceives as clearly as
possible his position in the cycle of growth and prosperity of the organization. Agendas
will have to be drawn in such a manner and communicated so effectively that the
individual is able to enjoy a meaningful life in the organization, endowed with authority
and responsibility for the role he plays.
One should be able to see for oneself the impact of the contributions one has
made towards the growth and prosperity cycle of the organization. As a matter of fact the
relationship between the people and the organization should be so designed that each one
is here to experience the pleasure of winning and pain of losing. People alone are of no
significance unless and until they have an intimate and continuous interaction with the
process.
Therefore organization have to take continuous care to update their quality of the
people and that of processes simultaneously so that a healthy relationship is built up and
maintained making the relationship happy and healthy one. This, when done, should
generate in people a sense of entrepreneurship ownership of the organization.

Since the customer are the main focus of any organization its structure should be
so flat i.e., people fluently interact with the customer and maintain continuous feedback
about the customers moods and methods in order to shape its business portfolio and
strategies.

It is very important to find whether the fundamentals of the organization are
getting strong as desired. It is therefore rightly said that a well trained army with quality
arms and ammunitions and with a sense of involvement can got the nations frontiers inn
desirable and dependable manner similarly: people at the operation level with superior
competency and capability supplied with superior products and strategies can acquire a
place for an organization in the market place. Retail outlets are the contact points of the
customers and therefore the image of the organization largely depends upon the quality of
the people managing the interventions and transactions at the level.
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The Consumer Market:
The consume market consists of all the individuals and households who buy or
acquire goods and services for personal consumption. The simplest model consumer
buyer behavior is the stimulus response model. According to this model marketing
stimuli ( the four Ps) and the major forces (economic, technological, political, cultural)
enter the consumers black box and reproduce certain responses.



Complete model of consumer behavior
Stimuli
(marketer
dominated,
other)
External
search
Memory
Internal
search
Exposure
Attention
Comprehension
Acceptance
Retention
Search
Need
recognition
Alternative
evaluation
Purchase
Outcome
s
Dissatisfaction Satisfaction
Individual
differences
resources
motivation
&
involvement
knowledge
attitudes

personality,
values, lifestyle
Influences
culture
social class
family
situation

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Social factors influence buyers behavior. A persons reference group-family,
friends, social organizations, professional associations- strongly affect product and brand
choices. The buyers age, life-cycle stage, occupation, economic circumstances,
lifePerformence, personality, and other personal. Characteristics influence his or her
buying decisions. Consumer life-Performences the pattern of acting and interacting in the
world are also an important influences on purchase decisions.

Finally, consumer-buying behavior is influenced by four major psychological
factors- motivation, perception, learning, and beliefs and attitudes. Each of these factors
provides a different perspective for understanding the workings of the buyers black box.


Start
Consumer Decision-
Decision-Making
Postpurchase
Behavior
Purchase
Evaluation
of Alternatives
Information
Search
Need
Recognition





Cultural, Social,


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CONSUMER PERCEPTION
It can be defined as the process by which an individual selects, organizes, and
interprets stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture of the world. A stimulus is a
unit of input to any of the senses. Examples of stimulus ie, sensory input include
products, packages, brand names, advertisements, and commercials, sensory receptor.
Marketers do not want their target audience to look only at the models in their ads.
They want to communicate something about their products as well. Marketers often use
attractive models,humour, other factors to attract the target markets interest. Information
processing is a series of activities by which stimuli are perceived, transformed in to
information, and stored. Information processing model has four major steps or stages,
a) Exposure
b) Attention
c) Interpretation, and
d) Memory
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The first three constitute perception.
Exposure occurs when a stimulus such as an Advertisement hoarding comes within the
range of a persons vision. Attention occurs when the information from vision pass on to the
brain for processing. Interpretation is the assignment of meaning to the received sensations.
Memory is the short term use of the meaning for immediate decision-making or the longer-
term retention of the meaning.
The basic components shown in the figure can be arranged into four groups:
1. Stimuli, which serve as the raw material to be processed.
The stages of processing activities, which are linked by arrows and mainly internal to the
customer.
Situational and consumer characteristics which can influence the nature of these
processing activities, and an executive system, which guides the process by regulating the type
and intensity of processing activities engaged in, at any time.
Consumer Buying Behavior
Possibly the most challenging concept in marketing deals with understanding why buyers do
what they do (or dont do). But such knowledge is critical for marketers since Wanting a strong
understanding of buyer behavior will help shed light on what is important to the customer and
also suggest the important influences on customer decision-making. Using this information,
marketers can create marketing programs that they believe will be of interest to customers.
As you might guess, factors affecting how customers make decisions are extremely complex.
Buyer behavior is deeply rooted in psychology with dashes of sociology thrown in just to make
things more interesting. Since every person in the world is different, it is impossible to have
simple rules that explain how buying decisions are made. But those who have spent many years
analyzing customer activity have presented us with useful guidelines in how someone decides
whether or not to make a purchase.
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In fact, pick up any textbook that examines customer behavior and each seems to approach it
from a different angle. The perspective we take is to touch on just the basic concepts that appear
to be commonly accepted as influencing customer behavior. We will devote two sections of the
Principles of Marketing Tutorials to customer behavior. In this section we will examine the
buying behavior of consumers (i.e., when people buy for personal reasons) while in the Business
Buying Behavior tutorial we will examine factors that influence buyers decisions in the business
market.
Why Consumers Buy
As we discussed in the What is Marketing? tutorial, customers make purchases in order to satisfy
needs. Some of these needs are basic and must be filled by everyone on the planet (e.g., food,
shelter) while others are not required for basic survival and vary depending on the person. It
probably makes more sense to classify needs that are not a necessity as wants or desires. In fact,
in many countries where the standard of living is very high, a large portion of the populations
income is spent on wants and desires rather than on basic needs.
In this tutorial when we mention the consumer we are referring to the actual buyer, the person
spending the money. But is should also be pointed out that the one who does the buying is not
necessarily the user of what is bought and that others may be involved in the buying decision in
addition to the actual buyer. While the purchasing process in the consumer market is not as
complex as the business market, Wanting multiple people involved in a purchase decision is not
unusual. For example, in planning for a family vacation the mother may make the hotel
reservations but others in the family may have input on the hotel choice. Similarly, a father may
purchase snacks at the grocery store but his young child may be the one who selected it from the
store shelf.
So understanding consumer purchase behavior involves not only understanding how decisions
are made but also understanding the dynamics that influence purchases.
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What Influences Purchasing
As we discussed the decision-making process for consumers is anything but straight forward.
There are many factors that can affect this process as a person works through the purchase
decision. The number of potential influences on consumer behavior is limitless. However,
marketers are well served to understand the KEY influences. By doing so they may be in a
position to tailor their marketing efforts to take advantage of these influences in a way that will
satisfy the consumer and the marketer (remember this is a key part of the definition of
marketing).


For the purposes of this tutorial we will break these influences down into three main categories:
Internal, External and Marketing. However, those interested in learning more about customer
buying activity may want to consult one or more consumer behavior books where they will find
additional methods for explaining consumer buying behavior.
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For the most part the influences are not mutually exclusive. Instead, they are all interconnected
and, as we will see, work together to form who we are and how we behave.
For each of the influences that are discussed we will provide a basic description and also suggest
its implication to marketers. Bear in mind we only provide a few marketing implications for each
influence; clearly there are many more.
Internal Influences: Perceptual Filter
We start our examination of the influences on consumer purchase decisions by first looking
inside ourselves to see which are the most important internal factors that affect how we make
choices.
Perceptual Filter
Perception is how we see ourselves and the world we live in. However, what ends up being
stored inside us doesnt always get there in a direct manner. Often our mental makeup results
from information that has been consciously or subconsciously filtered as we experience it, a
process we refer to as a perceptual filter. To us this is our reality, though it does not mean it is an
accurate reflection on what is real. Thus, perception is the way we filter stimuli (e.g., someone
talking to us, reading a newspaper story) and then make sense out of it.
Perception has several steps.
Exposure sensing a stimuli (e.g. seeing an ad)
Attention an effort to recognize the nature of a stimuli (e.g. recognizing it is an ad)
Awareness assigning meaning to a stimuli (e.g., humorous ad for particular product)
Retention adding the meaning to ones internal makeup (i.e., product has fun ads)
How these steps are eventually carried out depends on a persons approach to learning. By
learning we mean how someone changes what they know, which in turn may affect how they act.
There are many theories of learning, a discussion of which is beyond the scope of this tutorial,
however, suffice to say that people are likely to learn in different ways. For instance, one person
may be able to focus very strongly on a certain advertisement and be able to retain the
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information after being exposed only one time while another person may need to be exposed to
the same advertisement many times before he/she even recognizes what it is. Consumers are also
more likely to retain information if a person has a strong interest in the stimuli. If a person is in
need of new car they are more likely to pay attention to a new advertisement for a car while
someone who does not need a car may need to see the advertisement many times before they
recognize the brand of automobile.
Marketing Implications:
Marketers spend large sums of money in an attempt to get customers to have a positive
impression of their products. But clearly the existence of a perceptual filter suggests that getting
to this stage is not easy. Exposing consumers to a product can be very challenging considering
the amount of competing product messages (ads) that are also trying to accomplish the same
objective (i.e., advertising clutter). So marketers must be creative and use various means to
deliver their message. Once the message reaches consumer it must be interesting enough to
capture their attention (e.g., talk about the products benefits). But attending to the message is
not enough. For marketers the most critical step is the one that occurs with awareness. Here
marketers must continually monitor and respond if their message becomes distorted in ways that
will negatively shape its meaning. This can often happen due in part to competitive activity (e.g.,
comparison advertisements). Finally, getting the consumer to give positive meaning to the
message they have retained requires the marketer make sure that consumers accurately interpret
the facts about the product.
Internal Influences: Knowledge
Knowledge is the sum of all information known by a person. It is the facts of the world as he/she
knows it and the depth of knowledge is a function of the breadth of worldly experiences and the
strength of an individuals long-term memory. Obviously what exists as knowledge to an
individual depends on how an individuals perceptual filter makes sense of the information it is
exposed to.
Marketing Implications:
Marketers may conduct research that will gauge consumers level of knowledge regarding their
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product. As we will see below, it is likely that other factors influencing consumer behavior are in
large part shaped by what is known about a product. Thus, developing methods (e.g., incentives)
to encourage consumers to accept more information (or correct information) may affect other
influencing factors.
Internal Influences: Attitude
In simple terms attitude refers to what a person feels or believes about something. Additionally,
attitude may be reflected in how an individual acts based on his or her beliefs. Once formed,
attitudes can be very difficult to change. Thus, if a consumer has a negative attitude toward a
particular issue it will take considerable effort to change what they believe to be true.
Marketing Implications:
Marketers facing consumers who have a negative attitude toward their product must work to
identify the key issues shaping a consumers attitude then adjust marketing decisions (e.g.,
advertising) in an effort to change the attitude. For companies competing against strong rivals to
whom loyal consumers exhibit a positive attitude, an important strategy is to work to see why
consumers feel positive toward the competitor and then try to meet or beat the competitor on
these issues. Alternatively, a company can try to locate customers who feel negatively toward the
competitor and then increase awareness among this group.
Internal Influences: Personality
An individuals personality relates to perceived personal characteristics that are consistently
exhibited, especially when one acts in the presence of others. In most, but not all, cases the
behaviors one projects in a situation is similar to the behaviors a person exhibits in another
situation. In this way personality is the sum of sensory experiences others get from experiencing
a person (i.e., how one talks, reacts). While ones personality is often interpreted by those we
interact with, the person has their own vision of their personality, called Self Concept, which
may or may not be the same has how others view us.
Marketing Implications:
For marketers it is important to know that consumers make purchase decisions to support their
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self concept. Using research techniques to identify how customers view themselves may give
marketers insight into products and promotion options that are not readily apparent. For example,
when examining consumers a marketer may initially build marketing strategy around more
obvious clues to consumption behavior, such as consumers demographic indicators (e.g., age,
occupation, income). However, in-depth research may yield information that shows consumers
are purchasing products to fulfill self-concept objectives that have little to do with the
demographic category they fall into (e.g., senior citizen may be making purchases that make
them feel younger). Appealing to the consumers self concept needs could expand the market to
which the product is targeted.
Internal Influences: LifePerformence
This influencing factor relates to the way we live through the activities we engage in and
interests we express. In simple terms it is what we value out of life. LifePerformence is often
determined by how we spend our time and money.
Marketing Implications:
Products and services are purchased to support consumers lifePerformences. Marketers have
worked hard researching how consumers in their target markets live their lives since this
information is key to developing products, suggesting promotional strategies and even
determining how best to distribute products. The fact that lifePerformence is so directly tied to
marketing activity will be further examined as we discuss developing target market strategies
(See Targeting Markets) tutoria
Internal Influences: Motivation
Motivation relates to our desire to achieve a certain outcome. Many internal factors we have
already discussed can affect a customers desire to achieve a certain outcome but there are
others. For instance, when it comes to making purchase decisions customers motivation could
be affected by such issues as financial position (e.g., Can I afford the purchase?), time
constraints (e.g., Do I need to make the purchase quickly?), overall value (e.g., Am I getting my
moneys worth?), and perceived risk (e.g., What happens if I make a bad decision?).
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Marketing Implications:
Motivation is also closely tied to the concept of Involvement, which relates to how much effort
the consumer will exert in making a decision. Highly motivated consumers will want to get
mentally and physically involved in the purchase process. Not all products have a high
percentage of highly involved customers (e.g., milk) but marketers who market products and
services that may lead to high level of consumer involvement should prepare options that will be
attractive to this group. For instance, marketers should make it easy for consumers to learn about
their product (e.g., information on website, free video preview) and, for some products, allow
customers to experience the product (e.g., free trial) before committing to the purchase
Internal Influences: Roles
Roles represent the position we feel we hold or others feel we should hold when dealing in a
group environment. These positions carry certain responsibilities yet it is important to understand
that some of these responsibilities may, in fact, be perceived and not spelled out or even accepted
by others. In support of their roles, consumers will make product choices that may vary
depending on which role they are assuming. As illustration, a person who is responsible for
selecting snack food for an office party his boss will attend may choose higher quality products
than he would choose when selecting snacks for his family.
Marketing Implications:
Advertisers often show how the benefits of their products aid consumers as they perform certain
roles. Typically the underlying message of this promotional approach is to suggest that using the
advertisers product will help raise ones status in the eyes of others while using a competitors
product may have a negative effect on status.
External Influences: Culture
Consumer purchasing decisions are often affected by factors that are outside of their control but
have direct or indirect impact on how we live and what we consume. One example of this are
cultural factors
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Culture represents the behavior, beliefs and, in many cases, the way we act learned by interacting
or observing other members of society. In this way much of what we do is shared behavior,
passed along from one member of society to another. Yet culture is a broad concept that, while
of interest to marketers, is not nearly as important as understanding what occurs within smaller
groups or Sub-Cultures to which we may also belong. Sub-cultures also have shared values but
this occurs within smaller groups. For instance, sub-cultures exist where groups share similar
values in terms of ethnicity, religious beliefs, geographic location, special interests and many
others.
Marketing Implications:
As part of their efforts to convince customers to purchase their products, marketers often use
cultural representations, especially in promotional appeals. The objective is to connect to
consumers using cultural references that are easily understood and often embraced by the
consumer. By doing so the marketer hopes the consumer feels more comfortable with or can
relate better to the product since it corresponds with their cultural values. Additionally, smart
marketers use strong research efforts in an attempt to identify differences in how sub-culture
behaves. These efforts help pave the way for spotting trends within a sub-culture, which the
marketer can capitalize on through new marketing tactics (e.g., new products, new sales
channels, added value, etc.).
External Influences: Group Membership
In addition to cultural influences, consumers belong to many other groups with which they share
certain characteristics and which may influence purchase decisions. Often these groups contain
Opinion Leaders or others who have major influence on what the customer purchases. Some of
the basic groups we may belong to include:
Social Class represents the social standing one has within a society based on such
factors as income level, education, occupation
Family ones family situation can have a strong effect on how purchase decisions are
made
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Reference groups most consumers simultaneously belong to many other groups with
which they associate or, in some cases, feel the need to disassociate
Marketing Implications:
Identifying and understanding the groups consumers belong to is a key strategy for marketers.
Doing so helps identify target markets, develop new products, and create appealing marketing
promotions to which consumers can relate. In particular, marketers seek to locate group leaders
and others to whom members of the group look for advice or direction. These opinion leaders, if
well respected by the group, can be used to gain insight into group behavior and if these opinion
leaders accept promotional opportunities could act as effective spokespeople for the marketers
products.
External Influences: Purchase Situation
Purchase Situation
A purchase decision can be strongly affected by the situation in which people find themselves. In
general, a situation is the circumstances a person faces when making a purchase decision, such as
the nature of their physical environment, their emotional state, or time constraints. Not all
situations are controllable, in which case a consumer may not follow their normal process for
making a purchase decision. For instance, if a person needs a product quickly and a store does
not carry the brand they normally purchase, the customer may choose a competitors product.
Marketing Implications:
Marketers can take advantage of decisions made in uncontrollable situations in at least two ways.
First, marketers can use promotional methods to reinforce a specific selection of products when
the consumer is confronted with a particular situation. For example, automotive services can be
purchased that promise to service vehicles if the user runs into problems anywhere and at
anytime. Second, marketers can use marketing methods that attempt to convince consumers that
a situation is less likely to occur if the marketers product is used. This can also be seen with auto
products, where marketers explain that using their product will prevent unexpected damage to
their vehicles.
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Types of Consumer Purchase Decisions
Consumers are faced with purchase decisions nearly every day. But not all decisions are treated
the same. Some decisions are more complex than others and thus require more effort by the
consumer. Other decisions are fairly routine and require little effort. In general, consumers face
four types of purchase decisions:
Minor New Purchase these purchases represent something new to a consumer but in the
customers mind is not a very important purchase in terms of need, money or other reason (e.g.,
status within a group).
Minor Re-Purchase these are the most routine of all purchases and often the consumer
returns to purchase the same product without giving much thought to other product
options (i.e., consumer is brand loyalty).
Major New Purchase these purchases are the most difficult of all purchases because the
product being purchased is important to the consumer but the consumer has little or no
previous experience making these decisions. The consumers lack of confidence in
making this type of decision often (but not always) requires the consumer to engage in an
extensive decision-making process..
Major Re-Purchase - these purchase decisions are also important to the consumer but the
consumer feels confident in making these decisions since they have previous experience
purchasing the product.
For marketers it is important to understand how consumers treat the purchase decisions they
face. If a company is targeting customers who feel a purchase decision is difficult (i.e., Major
New Purchase), their marketing strategy may vary greatly from a company targeting customers
who view the purchase decision as routine. In fact, the same company may face both situations at
the same time; for some the product is new, while other customers see the purchase as routine.
The implication of buying behavior for marketers is that different buying situations require
different marketing efforts.
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How Consumers Buy
So now that we have discussed the factors influencing a consumers decision to purchase, lets
examine the process itself. This process is presented in a sequence of 5 steps as shown below.

However, whether a consumer will actually carryout each step depends on the type of purchase
decision that is faced. For instance, for minor re-purchases the consumer may be quite loyal to
the same brand, thus the decision is a routine one (i.e., buy the same product) and little effort is
involved in making a purchase decision. In cases of routine, brand loyal purchases consumers
may skip several steps in the purchasing process since they know exactly what they want
allowing the consumer to move quickly through the steps. But for more complex decisions, such
as Major New Purchases, the purchasing process can extend for days, weeks, months or longer.
So in presenting these steps marketers should realize that, depending on the circumstances
surrounding the purchase, the importance of each step may vary.
Purchase Decision Steps 1 and 2
1. Need/Want/Desire is recognized
In the first step the consumer has determined that for some reason he/she is not satisfied (i.e.,
consumers perceived actual condition) and wants to improve his/her situation (i.e., consumers
perceived desired condition). For instance, internal triggers, such as hunger or thirst, may tell the
consumer that food or drink is needed. External factors can also trigger consumers needs.
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Marketers are particularly good at this through advertising, in-store displays and even the
intentional use of scent (e.g., perfume counters). At this stage the decision-making process may
stall if the consumer is not motivated to continue (see Motivation above). However, if the
consumer does have the internal drive to satisfy the need they will continue to the next step.
2. Search for Information
Assuming consumers are motivated to satisfy his or her need, they will next undertake a search
for information on possible solutions. The sources used to acquire this information may be as
simple as remembering information from past experience (i.e., memory) or the consumer may
expend considerable effort to locate information from outside sources (e.g., Internet search, talk
with others, etc.). How much effort the consumer directs toward searching depends on such
factors as: the importance of satisfying the need, familiarity with available solutions, and the
amount of time available to search. To appeal to consumers who are at the search stage,
marketers should make efforts to ensure consumers can locate information related to their
product. For example, for marketers whose customers rely on the Internet for information
gathering, attaining high rankings in search engines has become a critical marketing objective.
Purchase Decision Steps 3, 4 and 5
3. Evaluate Options
Consumers search efforts may result in a set of options from which a choice can be made. It
should be noted that there may be two levels to this stage. At level one the consumer may create
a set of possible solutions to their needs (i.e., product types) while at level two the consumer may
be evaluating particular products (i.e., brands) within each solution. For example, a consumer
who needs to replace a television has multiple solutions to choose from such as plasma, LCD and
CRT televisions. Within each solution type will be multiple brands from which to choose.
Marketers need to understand how consumers evaluate product options and why some products
are included while others are not. Most importantly, marketers must determine which criteria
consumers are using in their selection of possible options and how each criterion is evaluated.
Returning to the television example, marketing tactics will be most effective when the marketer
can tailor their efforts by knowing what benefits are most important to consumers when selecting
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options (e.g., picture quality, brand name, screen size, etc.) and then determine the order of
importance of each benefit.

4. Purchase
In many cases the solution chosen by the consumer is the same as the product whose evaluation
is the highest. However, this may change when it is actually time to make the purchase. The
"intended" purchase may be altered at the time of purchase for many reasons such as: the product
is out-of-stock, a competitor offers an incentive at the point-of-purchase (e.g., store salesperson
mentions a competitors offer), the customer lacks the necessary funds (e.g., credit card not
working), or members of the consumers reference group take a negative view of the purchase
(e.g., friend is critical of purchase). Marketers whose product is most desirable to the consumer
must make sure that the transaction goes smoothly. For example, Internet retailers have worked
hard to prevent consumers from abandoning online purchase (i.e., online shopping carts) by
streamlining the checkout process. For marketers whose product is not the consumers selected
product, last chance marketing efforts may be worth exploring, such as offering incentives to
store personnel to "talk up" their product at the checkout line.
5. After-Purchase Evaluation
Once the consumer has made the purchase they are faced with an evaluation of the decision. If
the product performs below the consumers expectation then he/she will re-evaluate satisfaction
with the decision, which at its extreme may result in the consumer returning the product while in
less extreme situations the consumer will retain the purchased item but may take a negative view
of the product. Such evaluations are more likely to occur in cases of expensive or highly
important purchases. To help ease the concerns consumers have with their purchase evaluation,
marketers need to be receptive and even encourage consumer contact. Customer service centers
and follow-up market research are useful tools in helping to address purchasers concerns.

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