Evaluation of Alternatives
At this point, there is enough information to select one alternative from the list of choices. Sometimes this is easy, when one alternative is clearly superior to the others across all characteristics. A product with excellent quality and a low price will be an automatic choice over an average quality, expensive one. Often the choice is not that simple, and the consumer must carefully evaluate alternatives before making a decision. If two or more alternatives are attractive, the consumer needs to determine what criteria (attributes) to evaluate and their relative importance. Then the alternatives are ranked and a choice made.