The Consumer Buying Decision Process

The first stage is problem recognition. This is where the consumer becomes aware that they need or want something. For example, say that the consumer is watching television and a commercial for new tennis shoes comes on, they now remember that they are in need of new shoes due to the fact their old ones are worn out. The second stage is information search. This stage is when the consumer thinks back to previous shoes that they have purchased, to get an idea of what they want their new shoes to provide for them such as comfort or style. The consumer also asks friends and family members what they prefer so the consumer can compare it to their preferences. Also, if the consumer wants to go into further research they can go to different stores and compare products and prices. The third stage is evaluation of alternatives. In this stage the consumer may decide they want sandals or dress shoes instead of tennis shoes. The fourth stage is purchase decision. This stage lets the consumer decide where they want to purchase their product and how they are going to pay for it, whether it is with cash, check, or credit card. The fifth stage is the official purchase and the sixth stage is the post purchase evaluation. The sixth stage is when the consumer tests the purchased product to decide if they are satisfied with the outcome. Although there are six stages of the consumer buying process that doesn’t necessarily mean

Research suggests that customers go through a five-stage decision-making process when making any purchase. This is summarised in the diagram below:

The fundamental factors that were identified to develop the psychological processes include perception, learning, memory, thinking, emotion and motivation (Sternberg 1996). Following the structure of the SOR model, Howard first (1969) proposed the consumer decision-making model (Richarme, M., 2005), which was further developed to be the ‘Theory of Buyer Behaviour’ (Howard et al., 1973). The model considered environment stimulus as variables impacting consumes, and was triggered from various sources. These inputs included core elements of products such as price, quality that the buyer truly confronts (Loudon et al., 1993) as well as symbolic stimuli resulted from advertising. Besides, social stimuli including family, peer and other reference groups also influence consumers before entering the decision process (Foxall 1990). In contrast, Engel et al (1995) did not focus on environmental factors, but paid more attention to the hypothetical construction of the decision process that was the main organism being influenced by inputs. The entire organism was structured around a seven-point decision process: need recognition followed by an internally and externally information search, the evaluation of alternatives, purchase, post purchase reflection and disposal. Aligning with Howard (1973), mainly two factors significantly affected these decisions. First, market stimuli affected consumer’s information process which was

The purchase stage is when the customer actually makes up his mind and purchases the product after information has been searched and several alternatives evaluated (Solomon et al 2010).

Understanding consumer buying behavior entails marketing, relationships, and consumer behavior. Consumer behavior comprises all the consumer decisions and activities connected with the choosing, buying, using and disposing of goods and services. Marketers must pay very close attention to consumer behavior that occurs before the purchase and after the particular product has been used. Studying consumer habits is one of the steps in marketing search and analysis. In addition to other basic principles of consumer buying habits, marketers also need to study the decision and actions of real people. Until recent history the study of consumer behavior was focused on generalized consumer decisions. With

It’s interesting the one thing that spurs my whole consumption process is when I have told myself that I really want something, I need something, or I have to have something. This self-awareness is what even allows the consumer to know what specifically they want to purchase. If we don’t have this identifying behavior then product selection ends up being a moot point. My purchases are filled with items that were to serve a specific need or want. I usually identified this need and began the evaluative process. This process can be easily influenced through a multitude of different situational characteristics that are both intended and unintended. There are characteristics that the store or organization will try to put out and the portion that comes from product and consumer habits. I think for me as I look at the products I buy and the places I go

Consumer purchasing process is the stages which a buyer passes through a decision making pathway to buy a products and services (Kotler & Armstrong, 2012). It is defined as the activities that occur when decisions are made in a schematic format and reveals how different internal and external forces interact to affect how consumers think, evaluate, and act. The consumer purchasing process consists of five major stages. The five stages of consumer purchasing process are problem recognition, acquisition of information, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post-purchase behaviour. Generally, consumers go through these stages when making purchasing decision. According to Blackwell, Miniard, and Engel (2012), the consumer

Consumer behavioural models describe the decision-making or choice process of consumers. Comprehensive models of consumer’s behaviour include Nicosia model13, Howard Seth model14, Sheth family decision making15, Bettman information processing model and the Seth-New-Gross model16.

Consumer individual factor is divided by five. Age, occupation, economic situation, lifestyle and personality. This five factors is affected to consumer behavior to buy same product or

In order to understand the minds of consumers, marketers need to have knowledge of the psychological aspects of how it works. Having this understanding, along with the five stages of the consumers buying process, will assist marketers on how they can influence a consumer’s purchase behavior. Employing the strategies of the four P’s of marketing can be bonuses that will help companies gain an advantage within the marketplace.

Consumers these days perform searches on the internet as one of the initial stages of the buying process. The buying process begins with a need or want of a product or service. This need or want is then researched on the World Wide Web where the process of evaluating their choices begins. Once the consumer has honed in on the product or service they want they then seek a provider. This is when the buying stage begins. The purchasers’ decision, on where to buy and from who, can be based on availability of a product, how soon it can be delivered or how

In order to advertise the JW99, one needs to sell an experience and demonstrate what problem it can solve i.e. improving health instead of simply selling the product. The Expected Utility Theory states that each person seeks to maximize their own gains. Putting that in context with a low self-control, one can identify that an offer should be fair since the key demographic might reject an unfair offer out of altruism. The decision making process of the consumer is a quick and intuitive one [See Appendix A]. In order to start advertising a change needs to happen in the eating habits. The strategy is to spread the word, create a buzz and sell an experience.

Problem recognition: This is the most step in the buying process. If there is no need, there is no purchase. In this step, there is a lag between the consumer’s actual situation and the ideal and desired one. All needs may not turn into buying. There is always some lag between need and buying. For example, one may spend 250$ on buying grocery but not on outsourcing car washing at same rate to specialized company. The latter event has low importance. So the purchase behavior differs as per situation. In some cases price is important. For instance, one has option of buying smartphone and 2 brands are available with similar features. One will mostly tend to buy the cheaper one. The gap between the actual situation and the ideal situation may be due to some reasons. The current situation has not changed, but the ideal situation has (a friend recommended a cheap car cleaning company). Or, the ideal situation is still the same but it’s the actual situation has changed (you’re tired of cleaning your car by yourself). Lastly, the two situations may have changed. The need of a consumer can be classified as: Internal stimuli which opposes the external stimuli: one may not purchase a burger immediately after watching a mouth-watering ad but one will definitely purchase it when hungry. Type of need like functional need (buying a latest smaprtphone as it supports quick video calling) , social need (peer pressure or luxurious lifestyle can make one buy trending or costly items) or need

Companies need to know what the consumer involvement levels are for their products so they understand what problem solving techniques the consumer may be using. There are three main types of problem solving techniques used: routinised response behavior, limited problem solving, and extended problem solving. The extended problem solving occurs for high consumer involvement products, where consumers spend more time contemplating their decision. For these products, a product with strong positioning and reputation is likely to stand out over others. Routinised response behavior and limited problem solving is

There are a lot of subjects for marketers to understand in order to get more customers purchasing their companies’ products or brands. Consumer buying behavior is one of the studies that marketers need to understand. Factors that influence consumer buying behavior can be classified into four classes which are social factor, cultural factor, personal factor and psychological factor.