Question

Chapter 12

List the five activities in the consumer decision-making process with examples for each.

Describe the three major decision-making perspectives. Describe a purchase decision you or your family made that illustrates a combination of these perspectives.

Explain antecedent conditions. Give some examples of antecedent conditions that shape consumers’ perception of value.

Compare and contrast the three decision-making approaches. Describe which one you used while making a recent purchase.

Define universal set of alternatives. Describe the three categories of alternatives found in the awareness set.

Explain the types of consumer search behavior with an example each.

Answer 1

Five activities in the consumer decision-making process are:

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

Example: Need: A consumer wants to commute from his home to office in his personal vehicle as public transport takes a lot of time to commute and hence there arise a need of buying a car.

1. Information Gathering and Search - 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)

  

Example: Once the consumer has identified that he needs a car, he speaks to his friends, check online and go to various showrooms of cars to understand which car meets his needs the best.

1. Evaluation of Alternatives - Here the consumer evaluates 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.

Example: He considers various parameters here, the price of the car, the model, mileage and then identifies which model suits him and his needs the best

1. Purchase of Product/ Service- After going through all the above stages, customer finally purchases the product.

Example: The consumer go ahead and buy the model of the car that he decided on after evaluating various alternatives

1. Post Purchase Evaluation - 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 not, whether the product fulfilled his need or not?

Example: He realises that he is now able to reduce his commute time from one hour to 15 minutes because now he uses his own car. The car meets his need and he will be happy to make the decision of buying a car.