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Figure 5.5 suggests that consumers pass through all five stages with every purchase in a considered way. But buyers may pass quickly or slowly through the buying decision process. And in more routine purchases, consumers often skip or reverse some of the stages. Much depends on the nature of the buyer, the product, and the buying situation. A person buying a regular brand of toothpaste would recognize the need and go right to the purchase decision, skipping information search and evaluation. However, we use the model in Figure 5.5 because it shows all the considerations that arise when a consumer faces a new and complex purchase situation.

 

Need Recognition

The buying process starts with need recognition—the buyer recognizes a problem or need. The need can be triggered by internal stimuli when one of the person’s normal needs—for example, hunger or thirst—rises to a level high enough to become a drive. A need can also be triggered by external stimuli. For example, an advertisement or a discussion with a friend might get you thinking about buying a new car. At this stage, the marketer should research consumers to find out what kinds of needs or problems arise, what brought them about, and how they led the consumer to this particular product.

 

Need recognition

The first stage of the buyer decision process, in which the consumer recognizes a problem or need.

 

Information Search

An interested consumer may or may not search for more information. If the consumer’s drive is strong and a satisfying product is near at hand, he or she is likely to buy it then. If not, the consumer may store the need in memory or undertake an information search related to the need. For example, once you’ve decided you need a new car, at the least, you will probably pay more attention to car ads, cars owned by friends, and car conversations. Or you may actively search online, talk with friends, and gather information in other ways.

 

Information search

The stage of the buyer decision process in which the consumer is motivated to search for more information.

 

Consumers can obtain information from any of several sources. These include personal sources (family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances), commercial sources (advertising, salespeople, dealer and manufacturer web and mobile sites, packaging, displays), public sources (mass media, consumer rating organizations, social media, online searches and peer reviews), and experiential sources (examining and using the product). The relative influence of these information sources varies with the product and the buyer.

 

 

Yelp’s goal is “to connect people with great local businesses” by collecting “Real People. Real Reviews.” from people who’ve actually used those businesses.

 

Yelp Inc.

 

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Traditionally, consumers have received the most information about a product from commercial sources—those controlled by the marketer. The most effective sources, however, tend to be personal. Commercial sources normally inform the buyer, but personal sources legitimize or evaluate products for the buyer. Few advertising campaigns can be as effective as a next-door neighbor leaning over the fence and raving about a wonderful experience with a product you are considering.

 

Increasingly, that “neighbor’s fence” is a digital one. Today, consumers share product opinions, images, and experiences freely across social media. And buyers can find an abundance of user-generated reviews alongside the products they are considering at sites ranging from Amazon.com or BestBuy.com to Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Epicurious.  For example, Yelp’s goal is “to connect people with great local businesses” by maintaining a huge, searchable collection of candid reviews from people who’ve used those businesses. Over the past decade, Yelpers have written more than 90 million reviews of local restaurants, service business, arts and entertainment activities, and other service in cities across the nation. The site receives some 89 million unique visitors per month seeking reviews and ratings.29 Although individual user reviews at Yelp and other sites vary widely in quality, an entire body of reviews often provides a reliable product assessment—straight from the fingertips of people like you who’ve actually purchased and experienced the product.

 

As more information is obtained, the consumer’s awareness and knowledge of the available brands and features increase. In your car information search, you may learn about several brands that are available. The information might also help you to drop certain brands from consideration. A company must design its marketing mix to make prospects aware of and knowledgeable about its brand. It should carefully identify consumers’ sources of information and the importance of each source.

 

Evaluation of Alternatives

We have seen how consumers use information to arrive at a set of final brand choices. Next, marketers need to know about alternative evaluation, that is, how consumers process information to choose among alternative brands. Unfortunately, consumers do not use a simple and single evaluation process in all buying situations. Instead, several evaluation processes are at work.

 

Alternative evaluation

The stage of the buyer decision process in which the consumer uses information to evaluate alternative brands in the choice set.

 

How consumers go about evaluating purchase alternatives depends on the individual consumer and the specific buying situation. In some cases, consumers use careful calculations and logical thinking. At other times, the same consumers do little or no evaluating. Instead, they buy on impulse and rely on intuition. Sometimes consumers make buying decisions on their own; sometimes they turn to friends, online reviews, or salespeople for buying advice.

 

Suppose you’ve narrowed your car choices to three brands. And suppose that you are primarily interested in four attributes—price, style, operating economy, and performance. By this time, you’ve probably formed beliefs about how each brand rates on each attribute. Clearly, if one car rated best on all the attributes, the marketer could predict that you would choose it. However, the brands will no doubt vary in appeal. You might base your buying decision mostly on one attribute, and your choice would be easy to predict. If you wanted style above everything else, you would buy the car that you think has the most style. But most buyers consider several attributes, each with different importance. By knowing the importance that you assigned to each attribute, the marketer could predict and affect your car choice more reliably.

 

Marketers should study buyers to find out how they actually evaluate brand alternatives. If marketers know what evaluative processes go on, they can take steps to influence the buyer’s decision.

 

Purchase Decision

In the evaluation stage, the consumer ranks brands and forms purchase intentions. Generally, the consumer’s purchase decision will be to buy the most preferred brand, but two factors can come between the purchase intention and the purchase decision. The first factor is the attitudes of others. If someone important to you thinks that you should buy the lowest-priced car, then the chances of you buying a more expensive car are reduced.

 

Purchase decision

The buyer’s decision about which brand to purchase.

 

The second factor is unexpected situational factors. The consumer may form a purchase intention based on factors such as expected income, expected price, and expected product benefits. However, unexpected events may change the purchase intention. For example, the economy might take a turn for the worse, a close competitor might drop its price, or a friend might report being disappointed in your preferred car. Thus, preferences and even purchase intentions do not always result in an actual purchase choice.

 

Postpurchase Behavior

The marketer’s job does not end when the product is bought. After purchasing the product, the consumer will either be satisfied or dissatisfied and will engage in postpurchase behavior of interest to the marketer. What determines whether the buyer is satisfied or dissatisfied with a purchase? The answer lies in the relationship between the consumer’s expectations and the product’s perceived performance. If the product falls short of expectations, the consumer is disappointed; if it meets expectations, the consumer is satisfied; if it exceeds expectations, the consumer is delighted. The larger the negative gap between expectations and performance, the greater the consumer’s dissatisfaction. This suggests that sellers should promise only what their brands can deliver so that buyers are satisfied.

 

Postpurchase behavior

The stage of the buyer decision process in which consumers take further action after purchase, based on their satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

 

Almost all major purchases, however, result in cognitive dissonance, or discomfort caused by postpurchase conflict. After the purchase, consumers are satisfied with the benefits of the chosen brand and are glad to avoid the drawbacks of the brands not bought. However, every purchase involves compromise. So consumers feel uneasy about acquiring the drawbacks of the chosen brand and about losing the benefits of the brands not purchased. Thus, consumers feel at least some postpurchase dissonance for every purchase.

 

Cognitive dissonance

Buyer discomfort caused by postpurchase conflict.

 

 

Postpurchase cognitive dissonance: Postpurchase customer satisfaction is a key to building profitable customer relationships. Most marketers go beyond merely meeting the customer expectations—they aim to delight customers.

 

The source for all of this reading is

Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2020). Principles of Marketing (18th ed.). Pearson Education (US). https://ccis.vitalsource.com/books/9780136646013

 

BASED ON THIS INFORMATION YOU READ AND THE FIGURE ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW

1. Discuss all stages of the Buyer Decision Process for this organization using the example of a target consumer. (For this example use company Revlon).
2. Select an organization (or make one up) that markets to other businesses. Discuss how online shopping has changed in the business-to-business market using an example (For this example use company Uline, they sell their products to other businesses)

Need 1 other source APA – 2 sources total use the one I gave and find another

 

BASED ON THIS INFORMATION YOU READ AND THE FIGURE ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW

1. Discuss all stages of the Buyer Decision Process for this organization using the example of a target consumer. (For this example use company Loreal).
2. Select an organization (or make one up) that markets to other businesses. Discuss how online shopping has changed in the business-to-business market using an example (For this example use company Grainger, they sell their products to other businesses)

Need  1 other source APA – 2 sources total use the one I gave and find another