Smart companies try to fully understand customers’ buying decision process—all the experiences in learning, choosing, using, and even disposing of a product. Marketing scholars have developed a “stage model” of the process. The consumer typically passes through five stages: problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and postpurchase behavior. Clearly, the buying process starts long before the actual purchase and has consequences long afterward.
Consumers don’t always pass through all five stages—they may skip or reverse some. When you buy your regular brand of toothpaste, you go directly from the need to the purchase decision, skipping information search and evaluation. The model in Figure 6.4 provides a good frame of reference, however, because it captures the full range of considerations that arise when a consumer faces a highly involving new purchase
An internal stimulus is triggered by a person’s normal needs – hunger, thirst – when the need rises to a threshold level.
A need can also be aroused by an external stimulus, such as seeing a commercial for a vacation. A person then begins to consider the possibility of taking a vacation.
Information Search Surprisingly, consumers often search for limited amounts of information. Surveys have shown that for durables, half of all consumers look at only one store, and only 30 percent look at more than one brand of appliances. We can distinguish between two levels of engagement in the search. The milder search state is called heightened attention. At this level a person simply becomes more receptive to information about a product. At the next level, the person may enter an active information search: looking for reading material, phoning friends, going online, and visiting stores to learn about the product.
By gathering information, the consumer learns about competing brands and their features. The first box in Figure 6.5 shows the total set of brands available. The individual consumer will come to know a subset of these, the awareness set. Only some, the consideration set, will meet initial buying criteria. As the consumer gathers more information, just a few, the choice set, will remain strong contenders. The consumer makes a final choice from these.
No single process is used by all consumers, or by one consumer in all buying situations. It is important that marketers understand that:
The consumer is trying to satisfy a need.
The consumer is looking for certain benefits from the product solution.
The consumer sees each product as a bundle of attributes with varying abilities to deliver the benefits.
-- The attributes of interest will vary based on the product.
A belief is a descriptive thought that a person holds about something. Attitudes are a person’s enduring favorable, or unfavorable evaluations, emotional feelings, and action tendencies toward some object or idea.
The consumer arrives at attitudes toward various brands through an attribute evaluation procedure, developing a set of beliefs
about where each brand stands on each attribute. The expectancy-value model of attitude formation posits that consumers evaluate products and services by combining their brand beliefs—the positives and negatives—according to importance.
Even if consumers form brand evaluations, two general factors can intervene between the purchase intention and the purchase decision (see Figure 6.6). The first factor is the attitudes of others. The influence of another person’s attitude depends on two things: (1) the intensity of the other person’s negative attitude toward our preferred alternative and (2) our motivation to comply with the other person’s wishes.66 The more intense the other person’s negativism and the closer he or she is to us, the more we will adjust our purchase intention. The converse is also true.
The second factor is unanticipated situational factors that may erupt to change the purchase intention. The consumer might lose her job, some other purchase might become more urgent, or a store salesperson may turn her off. Preferences and even purchase intentions are not completely reliable predictors of purchase behavior.
After a consumer has reached a purchase intention, up to five subdecisions may need to be made. The brand, the dealer (where), quantity, timing (when), and payment method.
With noncompensatory models of consumer choice, positive and negative attribute considerations don’t necessarily net out. Evaluating attributes in isolation makes decision making easier for a consumer, but it also increases the likelihood that she would have made a different choice if she had deliberated in greater detail. We highlight three choice heuristics here.
1. Using the conjunctive heuristic, the consumer sets a minimum acceptable cutoff level for each attribute and chooses the first alternative that meets the minimum standard for all attributes. For example, if Linda decided all attributes had to rate at least 5, she would choose laptop computer B.
2. With the lexicographic heuristic, the consumer chooses the best brand on the basis of its perceived most important attribute. With this decision rule, Linda would choose laptop computer C.
3. Using the elimination-by-aspects heuristic, the consumer compares brands on an attribute selected probabilistically—where the probability of choosing an attribute is positively related to its importance—and eliminates brands that do not meet minimum acceptable cutoffs.
After the purchase, the consumer might experience dissonance from noticing certain disquieting features or hearing favorable things about other brands and will be alert to information that supports his or her decision. Marketing communications should supply beliefs and evaluations that reinforce the consumer’s choice and help him or her feel good about the brand. The marketer’s job therefore doesn’t end with the purchase. Marketers must monitor postpurchase satisfaction, postpurchase actions, and postpurchase product uses and disposal.
POSTPURCHASE SATISFACTION
Satisfaction is a function of the closeness between expectations and the product’s perceived performance. If performance falls short of expectations, the consumer is disappointed; if it meets expectations, the consumer is satisfied; if it exceeds expectations, the consumer is delighted. These feelings make a difference in whether the customer buys the product again and talks favorably or unfavorably about it to others. The larger the gap between expectations and performance, the greater the dissatisfaction. Here the consumer’s coping style comes into play. Some consumers magnify the gap when the product isn’t perfect and are highly dissatisfied; others minimize it and are less dissatisfied.
POSTPURCHASE ACTIONS
A satisfied consumer is more likely to purchase the product again and will also tend to say good things about the brand to others. Dissatisfied consumers may abandon or return the product. They may seek information that confirms its high value. They may
take public action by complaining to the company, going to a lawyer, or complaining to other groups (such as business, private, or government agencies). Private actions include deciding to stop buying the product (exit option) or warning friends (voice option).