The Consumer Decision Making Process

Consumers are the centre of many marketers work. While the consumer is part of the marketing environment, it is also very important to recognise and understand the more personal and specific influences effecting consumers and the nature of the decision making process they use.

Understanding consumer behaviour is essential to succeed in business. As Solomon et al. (2013) stresses, businesses exist to satisfy consumer’s needs. By identifying and understanding the factors that influences their customers, firms have the opportunity to develop a more efficient strategy, marketing message and advertising campaigns that is more in line with the needs and ways of thinking of their target consumers (Perreau, 2015).

Offer- An offer is a proposal involving one of the parties offering something of value to the other party in the agreement. Both parties are allowed to reject the offer. For example, buying a second-hand car, a person interested in buying the car makes an oral offer of $16,000.

In this section, I will break down the common consumer in attempt to understand what sways him/her into purchasing certain goods—especially those that “they do not need” In addition, I will discuss how consumers determine a certain product to be “worth it”

The buying process begins when consumers recognize that they have an unmet need. This occurs when consumers realize that there is a discrepancy between their existing situation and their desired situation. Consumers can recognize needs in a variety of settings and situations. Some needs have their basis in internal stimuli such as hunger, thirst, and fatigue. Other needs have their basis in external stimuli such as advertising, window shopping, interacting with salespeople, or talking with friends and family.

Solomon, M. (2011). Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being. 9th edition. Prentice Hall. 1-51. Retrieved from

As a consumer, I find that the consumer decision making process is a great help in choosing for the right product which gives a consumer the greatest satisfaction. One of the latest scenarios where I applied this process into my product purchases was buying a

Well, they say that the customer is the king! All the efforts in the modern day marketing are directed towards one area – and that is customer satisfaction. Marketers today use a lot of strategies to make the consumer purchase their brand over various other competitors. But what is it exactly that happens inside the head of the ‘king’ that the marketers are always so interested in? What process does a consumer follow towards making a purchase that reduces the level of his cognitive dissonance? Let’s have a look.

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

Purchasing behaviour varies depending on factors such as time available for deliberation and decision-making, the involvement in the purchase and the number of options and alternatives. Despite the exact process adopted being unknown, there is a standard known as the consumer decision-making process, or CDP that many purchases follow.

Demand in the wireless industry is determined by the aggregation of individual mobile carriers through the number of wireless subscriptions. Economists all agree that price for a service is an important factor in the decision making for consumers, however it is definitely not the only factor and may not always result in the deciding outcome. Based on pricing, microeconomics can estimate and forecast with plausible accuracy what a consumer may pay for and how much of that service will be purchased.

The first stage of the consumer decision process is need/problem recognition. Most people who are looking for a diet see a need to please themselves and need change physically. When looking at a diet consumers are looking for something that is functional and can change them. The marketers can influence my decision by initially being perceived as something that I need. Information is the next step in deciding what to get based on the consumer’s needs. Internal and external information will be put in to play when deciding where to head next. Internal information is present information and comes from previous experiences. External information is what someone finds when looking for a solution for their needs. Both types of information can be used to market positively and negatively. Marketers can do everything they can to have their product be put in a good light. When consumers look externally markets can give reasons why it’s worth a consumer’s time to use their product with little to no risk. With all information available it’s time to make a decision. Decision can be hard to make depending on the needs of a consumer. There are criteria involved in making a decision and depending on if the product fits the criteria will determine if it will be purchased. The determining attributes are the features most important to the consumer. If the consumer is in need of premade meals compared to making their own that will play a large effect in the decision. Marketers need to show their

The willingness of consumers to purchase a product or service is the fundamental source of profit for any business. Understanding consumer behavior is the first step in making profitable pricing, advertising, product design and production decisions. In order to make marketing decisions, managers need to know how consumers choose the bundle of goods and services they actually purchase from all possible bundles that they could purchase. Managers should be aware of the consumer-choice process when estimating the demand for the firms’ products, forecasting future demand, and making advertising decisions.

Consumer behaviour is always a crucial part for business firm development. International firms invest myriad of money to understand their customers, in order to satisfy the need and wants of customers. For example, IKEA, the world’s leading home furnishing company, spent a total of £30 million in 2012. It aims to improve the shopping experience for customers, including the bedroom showroom redesign. It is crystal clear that consumer behaviour plays a vital part in the success or failure of a product. Meanwhile, consumer behaviour is a process which consumers go through when they make purchases and it involves numerous factors that influence their decisions. As a consumer, we make decisions every day. Some are far-reaching while others may be trivial and inconsequential. However, we all know that human beings are irrational, our preferences often deviate from rationality in the standard economics. We often make the wrong decision and it may bring unfavourable consequences along with negative side effects. There are countless reasons for making irrational decisions. One of the most astonishing arguments I recently discovered is that people feel the pain of loss more acutely than they feel the pleasure of gain. Why this happened ? For instance, when we buy a sofa from IKEA, they often provide a 30 days money-back guarantee. However, even if we noticed that the sofa has imperfections, we seldom go back and return. Why ? It is because we consider returning the sofa as a loss. A

when they buy and why they buy. It blends the elements from psychology, sociology, socio-