A vast number of existing formulations of consumer decision making assume that consumers go through a specified succession of mental and behavioral stages in their decision processes as they engage in a convoluted search of the set of available alternatives to make a purchase.
A widespread characteristic of many of the formulations is that they are grounded on hierarchy-of-effects models postulating that on their way from identifying the need for a particular product/service to making the actual purchase, consumers move in one direction through a given sequence which involves or incorporates a set of stages (Dellaert & Haubl, 2012).
The present report employs the five-stage consumer decision process to critically analyze the online buying process of an Olympus digital camera from the marketer’s point of view.
First introduced by John Dewey in the formative years of the last century, the five-stage consumer decision process continues to take center stage in the marketing domain as scholars and practitioners attempt to understand consumer decision making and buying processes (Tanner & Raymond, 2010).
The first stage – problem recognition – is undoubtedly the critical stage of consumer buying process by virtue of the fact that consumers must first recognize a need for the purchase to happen. Extant literature demonstrates that this stage of the buying process is hinged on the extent of departure from homeostasis, the balance between the consumer’s actual state of affairs and the desired end state (Tanner & Raymond, 2010).
In this regard, the need/problem to buy the digital camera from online sites was recognized when the departure from homeostasis was acute enough due to an oncoming holiday, and this unfulfilled need/problem required a resolution in the form of a purchase to satisfy the situation.
The second stage of the five-stage consumer buying process is the information search, where consumers begin collecting information from numerous sources about the products they need using internal or external search techniques (Dellaert & Haubl, 2012).
The search for the digital camera was done internally, where information about the desired digital camera models was recalled from memory and was intrinsically determined by existing knowledge about the models, along with the capacity to retrieve relevant product information from online product reviews and Websites.
Based on need recognition and internal information search, it was then decided that the desired alternative models included Nikon, Sony, Philips and Olympus.
It is important to illuminate the fact that it is at this stage of the process where advertisers and marketers have the opportunity to influence a customer’s purchasing decision, particularly if the customer applies the external search as it involves largely personal interaction by word-of-mouth or mass-market communication (Tanner & Raymond, 2010).
Evaluation of alternatives is the third stage of the five-stage consumer buying process and entails evaluating the alternatives and selecting the one that meets the consumer needs and expectations (Dellaert & Haubl, 2012). In this phase of the sequence, consumers evaluate product/service benefits and drawbacks and may allocate priorities to various features and specifications to assist them select the best choice (Tanner & Raymond, 2010).
In this view, the criteria employed to conduct an alternative evaluation for the digital camera included price considerations, brand name and reputation, gadget specifications, quality, country of origin as well as the location convenience of the online sellers’ eBay, Buy.com, CeX and SiteSell.
It is important to note that some dimensions, such as price, quality and brand name, had a greater impact than other presumably contingent dimensions during the evaluation of the mentioned alternatives. Overall, the Olympus digital camera topped the list of alternatives based on the mentioned criteria.
The fourth stage of the consumer decision/buying process is the purchase decision, which is initiated after the consumer has carefully reflected on all of the factors relating to the product, and has shopped around for the best option based on need/expectations and if the product will solve their problem (Dellaert & Haubl, 2012).
Extant literature identifies three purchase decision categories that consumers usually follow – fully planned purchase (both product/service and brand are selected prior to visiting the store), partially planned purchase (consumer makes an intention to purchase the product/service but brand selection is delayed pending shopping) and impulse purchase (consumer selects both the product/service and brand upon visiting the store) (Tanner & Raymond, 2010).
A fully planned purchase of Olympus digital camera was made at eBay since the product and brand had already been decided prior to visiting the eBay site to make the purchase. The choice of eBay was due to contingent and situational considerations, including convenient delivery, onsite product promotion and huge discounts.
The concluding stage of the buying process is the post-purchase evaluation of the purchasing decision, during which consumers not only deliberate their experience after the purchase but also attempt to establish if their purchasing decision was the right one (Tanner & Raymond, 2010).
The Olympus digital camera was deeply satisfying due to its elaborate features and quality, but also due to the fact that colleagues and friends fell in love with the gadget during the holidays.
Advertisers and marketers may use such elicitation of positive results with a particular product/service to influence consumers decision/buying process for future similar purchases, particularly at the phases of problem recognition and information search (Tanner & Raymond, 2010).
References
Dellaert, B.G.C., & Haubl, G. (2012). Searching in choice mode: Consumer decision processes in product search with recommendations. Journal of Marketing Research, 49(2), 277-288.
Tanner, J., & Raymond, M.A. (2010). Principles of Marketing. New York, NY: Flat World Knowledge, Inc.