CONSUMER PURCHASE DECISION PROCESS Page 1 of 10

 Consumer behavior
 The actions a person takes in purchasing and using products
and services,
including the mental and social processes that precede and
follow these actions.
The behavioral sciences help answer questions such as :
Why people choose one product or brand over another,
How they make these choices, and
How companies use this knowledge to provide value to
consumers

I. CONSUMER PURCHASE DECISION

PROCESS
 Behind the visible act of making a purchase lies a decision process
that must be investigated.
 The purchase decision process is the stages a buyer passes through
in making choices about which products and services to buy. :
1. problem recognition,
Five Stages 2. information search,
of 3. alternative evaluation,
Consumer Behavior 4. purchase decision, and
5. post-purchase behavior.

A. Problem Recognition: Perceiving a Need

 Perceiving a difference between a person's ideal and actual situations
big enough to trigger a decision.
 Can be as simple as noticing an empty milk carton or it can be
activated by marketing efforts.
B. Information Search: Seeking Value
The information search stage clarifies the options open to the consumer and
may involve 
 Scanning one’s memory to recall
previous experiences with products or
Internal
brands.
search
 Often sufficient for frequently
purchased products.

 When past experience or knowledge is

insufficient
 The risk of making a wrong purchase

decision is high

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 The cost of gathering information is

low.
The primary sources of external information
are:
two steps of 1. Personal sources, such as friends and
External family.
information
search 2. Public sources, including various
search
product-rating organizations such as
Consumer Reports.
3. Marketer-dominated sources, such as
advertising, company websites, and
salespeople
External
Search

C. Alternative Evaluation: Assessing Value

The information search clarifies the problem for the consumer by
(1) Suggesting criteria to use for the purchase.
(2) Yielding brand names that might meet the criteria.
(3) Developing consumer value perception.
 A consumer's evaluative criteria represent both
 the objective attributes of a brand (such as locate speed on a
portable CD player)
 the subjective factors (such as prestige).
 These criteria establish a consumer's evoked set
 the group of brands that a consumer would consider acceptable
from among all the brands in the product class of which he or
she is aware
D. Purchase Decision: Buying Value


 which depends on such

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considerations
 Terms of sale
From whom to buy  Past experience buying
from the seller
 Return policy.
Three  which can be influenced by
possibilities  store atmosphere
time pressure
When to buy


 a sale
 pleasantness of the
shopping experience.
Do not buy
E. Postpurchase Behavior: Value in Consumption or Use
 After buying a product, the consumer compares it with expectations
and is either satisfied or dissatisfied.
 Satisfaction or dissatisfaction affects
 consumer value perceptions
 consumer communications
 repeat-purchase behavior.
 Many firms work to produce positive postpurchase communications
among consumers and contribute to relationship building between
sellers and buyers.
 Cognitive Dissonance. The feelings of postpurchase psychological
tension or anxiety a consumer often experiences
 Firms often use ads or follow-up calls from salespeople in this
postpurchase stage to try to convince buyers that they made the right
decision.
F. Involvement and Problem-Solving Variations

 Consumers may skip or minimize one or more steps in the purchase

decision process depending on
 the level of involvement
 the personal, social, and economic significance of the purchase

 Three characteristics of high-involvement purchase

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1. is expensive,
2. can have serious personal consequences, or
3. could reflect on one’s social image.
Three general problem-solving variations exist in the consumer purchase
decision process:
 Virtually a habit
involves little effort seeking external
Routine Problem


information and evaluating alternatives.

Solving
 Typically used for low-priced, frequently
purchased products.
 Involves the use of moderate information-
Limited Problem seeking efforts.
Solving  Often used when the buyer has little time or
effort to spend.
 Each stage of the consumer purchase decision
process is used
Considerable time and effort on
Extended Problem


external information search and in

Solving


identifying 
 evaluating alternatives.
 Used in high-involvement purchase situations.
 Low and high consumer involvement has
Involvement and important implications for marketing strategy,
Marketing Strategy which differs for products that are market
leaders from their challengers.
G. Situational Influences
The purchase task The reason for engaging in the decision.
Social Including others present when a purchase
surroundings decision is made.
Five Physical Such as decor, music, and crowding in retail
situational surroundings stores.
influences Such as time of day or the amount of time
Temporal effects
available.
Which include the consumer’s mood or
Antecedent states
amount of cash on hand


II. PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCES ON

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Concepts such as motivation and personality; perception; learning; values,
beliefs and attitudes; and lifestyle are useful for interpreting buying
processes and directing marketing efforts.
A. Motivation and Personality
1. Motivation

 is the energizing force that causes behavior that satisfies a need.

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 Needs are hierarchical

 Once basic physiological needs are met, people seek to satisfy learned
needs. 
Physiological needs  basic to survival.
 self-preservation
Safety needs  physical well-
being.
 love
From lowest to highest, the  friendship.
hierarchy is: achievement
Social needs


 status
 prestige
 self-respect.
personal
Self-actualization needs


fulfillment.
2. Personality
 A person's consistent behavior or responses to recurring situations.
 Research suggests that key traits affect brand and product-type
preferences.
 Cross-cultural analysis also suggests that residents of different
countries have a national character, or a distinct set of personality
characteristics common among people of a country or society.
 Personality characteristics are often revealed in a person’s self-
concept, which is the way people see themselves and the way they
believe others see them.
B. Perception
 The process by which an individual uses information to create a
meaningful picture of the world by
 selecting,
 organizing
 interpreting
 Perception is important because people selectively perceive what they
want and it affects how people see risks in a purchase.
1. Selective Perception
 Filtering
 exposure,
Selective  comprehension, and
perception  retention
 in the human brain’s attempt to organize and
interpret information.
 Consumers can pay attention to messages that are
Selective consistent with their own attitudes and beliefs
exposure  Consumers can  ignore messages that are
inconsistent.
Selective  Involves interpreting (distorting?) information so
comprehension that it is consistent with a person's attitudes and


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beliefs.
Consumers do not remember all the information
Selective retention


they see, read, or hear.

 Consumers see or hear messages without being
aware of them.
Subliminal  This is a hotly debated issue with more popular
perception appeal than scientific support.
 Research suggests that such messages have
limited effects on behavior
2. Perceived Risk
 Anxieties felt
 Consumes  cannot anticipate the outcomes of a purchase
 Believe that there may be negative consequences.
 Marketers try to reduce a consumer's perceived risk and encourage
purchases by strategies such as providing
 Free trial of a product
 Securing endorsements from influential people
 Providing warranties and guarantees.
C. Learning
 Those behaviors that result from
 Repeated experience
 Thinking.
1. Behavioral Learning
 The process of developing automatic responses to a situation built up
 through repeated exposure to it.
Four variables central to how consumers
learn from repeated experience are:
drive A need that moves an individual to action
cue A stimulus or symbol perceived by consumers
response The action taken by a consumer to satisfy the drive.
reinforcement The reward.
Marketers use two concepts from behavioral learning theory:
 Occurs when a response elicited by one stimulus
Stimulus (cue) is generalized to another.
generalization  Using the same brand name for different products
is an application of this concept
 Refers to a person's ability to perceive differences
Stimulus in stimuli.
discrimination  The advertising for Bud Light beer is an example
of this concept.
2. Cognitive learning
 Involves making connections between two or more ideas
 or simply observing the outcomes of others’ behaviors
 and adjusting one's accordingly.
3. Brand loyalty


 Is a favorable attitude and consistent purchase of a single brand over

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time.
 Brand loyalty differs across countries

D. Values, Beliefs, and Attitudes

1. Attitude Formation
 A learned predisposition to respond to an object or class of
Attitude objects in a consistently favorable or unfavorable way.
 Shaped by our values and beliefs, which are learned.
personally or socially preferable modes of conduct or states
Values


of existence that are enduring.

consumer's subjective perception of how well a product or
Beliefs


brand performs on different attributes.

2. Attitude Change
Approaches
Changing beliefs about the extent to which a brand
to try to


has certain attributes.

change
Changing the perceived importance of attributes.
consumer


Adding new attributes to the product.

attitudes


E. Lifestyle
Lifestyle is a mode of living that is identified by
activities How a person spends time and resources
interests What a person considers important in the environment
opinions what a person thinks of self and the world
 Psychographics
 The analysis of consumer lifestyle
 helps to segment and target consumers for new and existing
products.
Values and Lifestyles (VALS) Program
 Developed by SRI International
 Identified eight interconnected categories of adult lifestyles
 based on a person’s self-orientation and resources.
Self-orientation Resources
 income
education
Three patterns of attitudes and activities that


self-


help people reinforce their social self-image.



confidence
The three patterns are oriented toward
health


principles,


eagerness to


status,


buy


action.
intelligence



 energy level.



III. SOCIOCULTURAL INFLUENCES ON
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CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
 Sociocultural influences evolve from a formal and informal
relationships with other people.
 Influences Include
 Personal influence
 Reference groups
 The family
 Social class
 Culture
 Subculture.
A. Personal Influence
 individuals who exert direct or
Opinion leaders indirect social influence over
others
Aspects of personal  People influencing each other
influence important to during face-to-face
marketing conversations.
Word of mouth
 Power of word of mouth has
been magnified by the Internet
and e-mail
B. Reference Groups
Reference groups are people to whom an individual looks as a basis for self-
appraisal or as a source of personal standards. Reference groups have an
important influence on the purchase of luxury products but not of
necessities. :
Membership one to which a person actually
 


group belongs
Three groups have
Aspiration one with which a person wishes
 


clear marketing group to be identified.

implications  one from which a person wants
Dissociative to maintain a distance because
 
group of differences in values or
behaviors
C. Family Influence
 Family influences on consumer behavior result from three sources:
 consumer socialization
 passage through the family life cycle
 decision making within the family.
Consumer socialization is the process by which people
Consumer
acquire the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to
Socialization
function as consumers
 young singles
 The distinct phases that a  Young marrieds
family progresses through from without children

Family Life formation to retirement  Young marrieds

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Cycle  Each phase bringing with it with children

identifiable purchasing  The older
behaviors. married
 older unmarried
 Two decision-making styles
exist: Five roles of individual
 spouse-dominant (either family members in the
wife or husband is purchase process exist
responsible)
joint decision making
Family


(most decisions are information

Decision
made by both husband


Making gatherer
and wife). influencer
Increasingly, preteens and


decision maker
teenagers are assuming these


purchaser
roles for the family, given the


user
prevalence of working parents


and single-parent households.

D. Social Class
 The relatively permanent, homogeneous divisions in a society into
which people sharing similar values, interests, and behavior are
grouped.
 Determinants of social class include
 occupation,
 source of income (not level of income)
 education.
 Social class is a basis for identifying and reaching particularly good
prospects for products and services.
 Upper classes are targeted by companies for items such as
financial investments, expensive cars, and evening wear.
 Middle classes represent a target market for home improvement
centers and automobile parts stores.
 Lower classes are targeted for products such as sports and
scandal magazines.
E. Culture and Subculture
Culture refers to the set of values, ideas and attitudes that are accepted by a
homogeneous group of people and transmitted to the next generation.
 Subcultures - groups within the larger, or national, culture with unique
values, ideas, and attitudes.
 three largest racial/ethnic subcultures in the U.S
 Hispanics,
 African-Americans
 Asians  .
 Each of these groups exhibits sophisticated social and cultural
behaviors that affect their buying patterns.
1. African-American Buying Patterns


 African-Americans have the largest spending power of the three

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subcultures
 While price conscious, they are motivated by product quality and
choice.
 Respond to products and advertising that appeal to their African-
American pride and heritage as well as address their ethnic features
and needs.
2. Hispanic Buying Patterns
 Hispanics represent the largest subculture
 About 50% are immigrants
 The majority are under the age of 25.
 Marketing to Hispanics has proven to be a challenge because
 The diversity of this subculture
 The language barrier.
 Sensitivity to the unique needs of Hispanics by firms has paid huge
dividends.
3. Asian Buying Patterns
 The Asian is the fastest growing subculture.
 About 70% of Asians are immigrants
 Most are under the age of 30.
 Asians represent a diverse subculture, including Chinese, Japanese,
Filipinos, Koreans, Asian-Indians, people from Southeast Asia, and
Pacific Islanders.
 Two groups of Asian-Americans have been identified:
 Assimilated Asians are
 conversant in English
 highly educated
 exhibit buying patterns very much like "typical"
American consumers.
 Nonassimilated Asians
 recent immigrants who cling to their native languages

and customs.

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