Buying Behavior

Buying Behavior

Question 1 Answer

Consumer Decision Process is a complete six step process which an individual completes in making purchasing decisions. Some purchases with high levels of social or economic consequences are highly involved, known as high-involvement purchases, such as buying a new car or a new home. Low level purchases, low-involvement purchases, involve routine purchases such as buying a pair of shoes or a type of mustard. No matter the level of involvement of the purchase, high or low, an individual still goes through the steps of the consumer decision process. Below outlines these steps: (Stafford & Enis, 1969).

A consumer goes through several stages before purchasing a product or service (Shoes, television or car).

Need?Information Gathering/Search?Evaluation of Alternatives?Purchase Of Product/Service?Post Purchase Evaluation

Step 1 - Need is the most important factor which leads to buying of products and services. Need in fact is the catalyst which triggers the buying decision of individuals.

An individual who buys cold drink or a bottle of mineral water identifies his/her need as thirst. However in such cases steps such as information search and evaluation of alternatives are generally missing. These two steps are important when an individual purchases expensive products/services such as laptop, cars, and mobile phones and so on (Wells & LoSciuto, 1966).

Step 2 - When an individual recognizes his need for a particular product/service he tries to gather as much information as he can.

An individual can acquire information through any of the following sources:

Personal Sources - He might discuss his need with his friends, family members, co workers and other acquaintances.

Commercial sources - Advertisements, sales people (in Tim's case it was the store manager), Packaging of a particular product in many cases prompt individuals to buy the same, Displays (Props, Mannequins etc)

Public sources - Newspaper, Radio, Magazine

Experiential sources - Individual's own experience, prior handling of a particular product (Tim would definitely purchase a Dell laptop again if he had already used one)

Step 3 - The next step is to evaluate the various alternatives available in the market. An individual after gathering relevant information tries to choose the best option available as per his need, taste and pocket.

Step 4 - After going through all the above stages, customer finally purchases the product.

Step 5 - The purchase of the product is followed by post purchase evaluation. Post purchase evaluation refers to a customer's analysis whether the product was useful to him or ...