The Buyer Decision Process

The Buyer Decision Process

1. Need Recognition

   • The buyer recognizes a problem or need. The need can be truggered by internal stimuli when one of the person's normal need, rises to a level high enough to become a drive. A need can be also be a external stimuli.

2. Information Search

   • The consumer can obtain information from any of several sources. These include personal sources,commercial sources,public sources and experiential sources. Commercial sources normally inform the buyer, but personal sources legitimize or evaluate products for the buyer. A company must design its marketing mix to make prospects aware of and knowledgeable about its brand.

3. Evaluation of Alternatives

   • The marketer needs to know about alternative evaluation that is, how the consumer processes information to arrive at brand choices. How consumers go about evaluating purchase alternatives depends on the individual consumer and the specific buying situation.

4. Purchase Decision

   • The consumer purchase decision will be to buy the most preferred brand, but two factors can come between the purchase intentionand the purchase decision. The first factor is the attitudes of others, the second factor is unexpected situational factors.

5. Postpurchase Behavior

   • After purchasing the product, the consumer will be satisfied or dissastified, in the relationship between the consumer's expectations and the product's perceived perfomance. All major purchases result in cognitive dissonance, or discomfort caused by postpurchase conflict.