Consumer Decision Making

Consumer Decision Making

1. 3 categories

   • Routine response behavior: the type of decision making exhibited by consumers buying frequently purchased, low-cost goods & services; requires little search & decision time
   • Limited decision making: requires a moderate amount of time for gathering information & delibering about an unfamiliar brand in a known market
   • Extensive decision making: used when buying an unfamiliar, expensive product or an infrecuently bought item; requires a lot of criteria for evaluating options & much time for seeking information

2. Cultural Influences on consumer buying decisions

   • Culture. the set of values, norms, attitudes & other meaningful symbols that shape behavior and the products from that behavior as they are transmitted from generations
   • Subculture: a homogeneous group of people who share elements of the overall culture as well as unique elements of their own group
     • Value: the enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct is personally or socially preferable to another mode of conduct
     • Social class: a group in a society who are considered equal in status or community esteem, who regularly socialize among themselves both formally & informally, & who share behavioral norms

3. Consumer Decision-making process

   • Consumer behavior: process a consumer uses to make purchase decisions

4. Cultural, social, individual, & psychological factors

   • Evaluation of alternatives: The customer evaluates the alternatives using additional information & establishes purchase guidelines
   • Purchase
     • How to pay
     • Where to buy (retailer, online, in store)
     • 3. What to buy (type & brand)
     • 2. When to but
     • 1. Whether to buy
   • Postpurchase Behavior
     • Involvement: the amount of time & effort a buyer invests in the processes of consumer behavior
     • Cognitive dissonance: inner tension that a consumer experiences after recognizing an incosistency beteen behavior & values or opinions
   • Information Search
     • Marketing-controlled information source: an information source that originates with marketers promoting their product
     • Nonmarketing-controlled information source: an information source that is not associated with advertising
     • External information search: the process of seeking information in the ouside environment
     • Internal information search: the process of recalling past information stored in the memory
   • Need recognition: result of an imbalance betweeen actual & desired states

5. Social influences on consumer buying decisions

   • Reference group: all of the formal & informal groups in society that influence an individual's purchasing behavior
     • Primary membership group: a reference group with which people interact regularly in an informal, face-to-face manner, such as family, friends, & coworkers
   • Nonaspirational reference group: a group with which an individual does not want to associate
   • Secondary Membership group: a group with which people associate less consistently & more formally, such as a club, professional group, or religious group
     • Aspitational reference group: a group that someone acceptable by a group
   • Opinion Leader: an individual who influences the opinions of others
   • Socialization process: how cultural values & norms are passed down to children
     • Norm: a value or attitude deemed acceptable by a group

6. Individual influences on consumer buying decisions

   • Personality: a way of organizing & grouping the individual's reactions to situations
   • Self-concept: how consumers perceive themselves in terms of attitudes, perceptions, beliefs, & self evaluations
   • Ideal self-image: the way an individual would like to be perceived
   • Real self-image: the way an individual would like to be perceived

7. Psycological influences on consumer buying decisions

   • Perception: the process by wich people select, organize & interpret stimuli into a meaningful & coherent picture
     • Motive: a driving force that causes a person to take action to satisfy specific needs
   • Selective exposure: the proces whereby a consumer notices certain stimuli & ignores others
   • Selective distortion: a consumer changes or distorts information that conflicts with his or her feelings/ beliefs
     • Selective retention: a consumer remembers only that information supports his personal beliefs
       • Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: a method of classifyng human needs & motivations
       • Learning: a process that creates changes in behavior through experience & practice
         • Sitmulus Generalization: occurs when a response is extended to a second stimulus similar to the first
           • Attitude: a learned tendency to respond consistently toward a given object
         • Stimulus Discrimination: A learned ability to differentiate among similar products
   • Belief: an organized pattern of knowledge that an individual holds as true about his world