It's your decision consumers so choose wisely.

       You're in control.  You are a consumer. You face many choices and decisions everyday.  

       Whether we realize it or not there is a process to the purchases we make throughout our days. Whether it is the routine purchase of running to the drugstore because the toothpaste ran out or it is time to look into getting a new car there is a decision making process. A five step process where at times only a few steps are used or all five are used in a more drawn out process, depending on the purchase. 

This is called the Consumer Purchase Decision Process. The five steps of this process are as follows... (Kerin, 111-112)

 

I'll just run through the steps really quick using a little scenario.

1) Problem recognition: To put it as simple as possible we as consumers realize we have a need or desire and that we want to fill it.  Maybe you are hungry and want to go get lunch at a restaurant, maybe you ran out of deodorant and need to restock, or maybe your house's roof is leaking. All of these are situations that will prompt a decision to be made.

2) Information search: Once we have recognized we want to make some sort of decision it is time to seek out some additional information.

3) Evaluation of alternatives: after searching for information you may find yourself with multiple options on whatever your decision may be. This is the time to evaluate and compare your alternatives using the information you have previously gathered. You're in the mood for Italian. You've narrowed it down to Olive Garden and the upscale Italian bistro in town. Are you willing to spend a little more for a specialty meal? Maybe you like the unlimited bread sticks from Olive Garden that you can't really get anywhere else.

 4) Purchase decision: Now is the time to make your decision. You decide to go to the higher scale, but smaller non-franchised Italian restaurant. Let's say you decided this because it's a business dinner and you really want to impress your guest. During your information search you heard from your neighbors that their food is amazing. You also evaluated your alternatives and decided that maybe the extra money will be worth it.

5) Post purchase behavior: This is the final step which is where you basically ask yourself if you were satisfied or not. Did you have any regrets with choosing this restaurant over Olive Garden? It turns out you did. Although your neighbors rave reviews about the Italian bistro's food was spot on, the service was absolutely horrible. Rude waiters, messed up orders, and an extremely long wait. You decided that based off of the amount you were paying that the service was detrimental to your expectations. You would have rather gone somewhere else with better service, even if it was not Olive Garden. So next time you decide to be more thorough gathering information and making your decision.

Okay enough of the hypothetical situation, but this was the best way for me to quickly and hopefully clearly offer an explanation to this decision process.

There are also other factors that affect this five step process. Depending on what is being purchased some steps aren't even really used. There are three different types of purchases which are...

1) Extended (Car, house, college, etc.)

• All of the steps are usually used
• Usually bigger and more important purchases
• Information search and alternative evaluations are a big steps and can be more drawn out
• More time may be taken to make this decision

2) Limited ( Restaurant, jeans, sunglasses, blender etc.)

• Can use all the steps, but does not require as in depth of use 
• These purchases do not have as big of an impact

3) Routine ( Toothpaste, laundry detergent, milk, etc.)

• Require very minimal use of decision process
• Small purchases that are routine enough you know what you want
• If what you want is gone you will most likely settle for something else with little thought to the decision

(Kerin,114)

 Basically we are blessed enough to have all of these choices at our finger tips, which gives us the power to choose what we want. I think we should use this to our advantage and try to be smart about the choices we make in purchase decisions and otherwise!

I feel like a lot of this post was me talking at you or typing, but this is what we have been going over in class and I found it pretty interesting! Sorry if it was dry to read, but I think people will really enjoy my next post, at least I hope :)



Cited
Kerin, Roger A., Steven William. Hartley, and William Rudelius. Marketing: The Core. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2013.