Organization Behavior – Consumer Decision-Making Is a Process Essay

Introduction

Marketers all over the world rely upon their understanding of the consumer decision-making process to be successful in their day-to-day practices. Consumer behaviour captures all the activities of consumers that range from searching of the suitable products or services, their utility, all the way to the disposal of such products or services. Different scholars have developed models, strategies and theories that seek to clarify the consumer decision-making process.

Marketers rely upon the knowledge of this process in their identification of the most effective points of entry to influence the choices and decisions made by the various consumers to their advantage (Bettman et al. 1998, p.195). Since it is common knowledge that the consumer decision-making is a series of steps that constitute the whole process, the knowledge of what comprises each of the steps, as presented by the different models, is vital for any marketer seeking to be successful in marketing either products or services.

The marketer takes the responsibility of a guide to the consumer. Therefore, he/ she should be able to provide a good share of information about the effect of the decision that the consumer makes (Bilkey 2010, p. 20).

Successful dissemination of correct information about the important attributes of a given product, as well as its advantages in comparison to those offered by the competitors, is important in making sales and maintaining a clientele base. This paper aims at analysing the consumer decision-making process determining why it is necessary for marketers to understand the process in details to secure sales and maintain a satisfied client base.

The consumer decision-making process

There are a number of models put in place by marketers to explain the consumers’ decision-making process. The most common model is an adaption of the scientific method, which comprises of five basic steps.

For the purposes of marketing, research, as well as understanding the buying patterns of different consumer segments, it is important for marketers to understand what each of the steps contain, which leads into each other (Doney, & Cannon 2008, p.35).

The claim holds because each of the steps corresponds to an internal psychological process that should be understood by every marketer whose aim is to lead the pack when it comes to securing product and services sales. The consumer decision-making process and the corresponding internal psychological processes are as follows:

Need recognition – Motivation

The need recognition is the initial step in the consumer decision-making process. This usually takes place when a given consumer realises the existence of a given need. As a result, he/she is motivated to venture into the decision-making process to see that the need is resolved (Bettman 1999, p.45).

It is important for any marketer to have a deep understanding of what the consumer undergoes in this particular level in the decision-making process, as well as the specific needs that they seek to satisfy to translate them into the purchase criteria. The information that marketers get at this point of the process is critical in that it allows them to portray the most-felt need of the consumer in the promotional messages (Arzen 2005, p.209).

Need recognition might be a simple process in the consumer decision-making process. However, the manner in which the consumer perceives any purchase situation and is subsequently motivated to resolve it becomes very influential to the remaining steps in the decision-making process.

To understand deeply the reasons behind a given consumer’s purchases, marketers should devote a lot of their time in understanding the motives – the factor that compel the consumer to opt for a particular option. Need recognition might take place because of a change in the current or desired consumer’s state.

Both internal and external factors might be responsible for these causes. For a marketer to align himself/herself with the most-felt need of the consumer, he or she must invest a great deal of effort to understand the factors that result to the consumer’s need recognition. These factors include, but not limited to the following:

a. Out of stock

When consumers exhaust their existing supplies, need recognition often occurs, as there is the need to replenish their stock (Ajzen, & Fishbein 1980, p.5). The understanding of this factor ensures that a given marketer keeps the consumer constantly supplied with the brands that they are familiar with or those to which they feel loyal.

b. Dissatisfaction

When a product, service, or a current situation does not satisfy a consumer, need recognition is created. For instance, the consumer might feel that a given product that they are used to is not comfortable anymore. Therefore, he/she sets out to get a more comfortable option that will ensure that they feel comfortable and satisfied. Through advertising, marketers can ensure that consumers are able to recognise when they are dissatisfied and when they need to make a purchase.

c. New needs/ wants

The lifestyles of people keep on changing drastically. With them, new needs or wants are created. A change in the day-to-day operations of a given person might result in the creation of new needs or wants. These become even more important than the previously existing ones. Through a constant market research, marketers are capable of recognising whenever new needs or wants are created by consumers to know exactly when to get involved in the process (Ajzen, & Fishbein 1980, p.16).

Information search- perception

Once consumers are sure that their need can be satisfied through making a purchase, they embark on a journey to search for useful information that will enable them make the right decisions. The search usually begins with a scan of the consumer’s memory to recall whether there is any useful information from their experiences.

According to Doney and Cannon (2008, p.41), this is termed as an internal search. If there is not any relevant or useful information, the consumer goes to the extent of conducting an external search (Bilkey 2010, p. 23). The knowledge of how the consumer gets and utilises information especially from the external sources is very important to the marketers. This is what is regarded as perception. External sources include but are not limited to

a. Personal sources

These include friends, relatives, and coworkers and so on. A consumer usually opts to get help in making the right purchase decision first from the people that are around him/ her. At this point, it is hard for the marketer to recognise and seize the opportunity unless they fortunately fall under that category.

b. Marketer controlled sources

These include information from advertisements, salespeople, displays or even the internet. It is through conducting effective market research that marketers are able to provide the information before their competitors and secure a chance to make a sale.

c. Public sources

Public sources that include information from media channels such as televisions, radios, print media such as magazine articles and newspapers provide information to consumers when preparing to make a purchase. Marketers often target the media to provide the information that influences the consumers’ purchase decision-making process.

Alternative evaluation – Attitude

After acquiring the relevant and helpful information that will enable them to make the right purchase decision, the consumers move on to the alternative evaluation stage. It is in this particular stage that the consumers make a comparison of the various product brands that they have previously identified to ensure that they settled only for what ensures their needs or wants are catered for.

The ultimate goal of most advertisement projects is to ensure that their product is involved in what is termed as the “evoked set”, which is a subset of brands that the consumer chooses as purchase options (Kohli 2009, p.61). Through effective advertisement, marketers create a “top –of –mind awareness” (Bettman 1999, p.23) to consumers to ensure that their products are not left out.

While marketers tend to think of their products as “bundles of attributes”, the consumers view them as “bundles of benefits” according to their consequences. In the discipline of consumer behavior, attitude is one of the concepts that is heavily studied (Bettman 1999, p.23). Recent perspectives by scholars view attitudes as “a summary construct that represents an individual’s overall feelings towards or the evaluation of a product” (Kohli 2009, p. 63).

Consumers express attitudes, which are of key importance to the marketers since, though them, they summarize their evaluation of a given item (brand or company) and make a representation of the positive or negative behavior tendencies (Ajzen, & Fishbein 1980, p. 12). The various attitudes are related to the purchasing choices. That is why they are of great benefit to any marketer.

Purchase decision- Integration

In the process, when the consumers feel satisfied with the options that they have taken, they end up making a purchase decision. Under the inspiration of the alternative evaluation stage, the consumer may end up developing a purchase intention (Moorman et al. 2003, p.90). This is the predisposition to purchase a given brand.

All the other personal sub-processes such as motivation and attitude formation influence the formation of the purchase intention and so on. However, one should note that the purchase decision is completely different from the actual purchase. This provides the chance for those marketers whose brands have not been chosen by the consumer for one reason or the other to attempt influencing the actual purchase, which is the most important part (Williamson 2000, p.466).

Key to this stage is the manner in which consumers combine the information that they have about the characteristics of the brands that they had sampled in the evaluation stage (Lerner, & Tiedens 2006, p.126).

Through the analysis of this process, marketers become aware of the different decision rules or strategies that a number of consumers apply while making their ultimate decision. At this point, marketers should seek to know exactly which attributes appeal more to consumers to provide them with the relevant information, which works to their advantage.

Post purchase evaluation- satisfaction

The final stage of the consumer decision-making process is not the purchase but the post-purchase evaluation. After a consumer consumes a given product, he or she goes ahead to assess the utility or the performance of the product according to how it satisfactorily suits their needs.

This stage is useful to marketers considering that the feedback gathered at this stage will definitely influence the consumers’ purchase decisions in the future (Williamson 2000, p. 472). When consumers are not satisfied with a given brand that they have purchased, they end up forming negative attitudes towards it. This can even make them influence other people in their purchase decisions.

When the consumer’s goal is achieved, this means, “the expectations have been met or have been exceeded by the consumption of the given brand” (Kohli 2009, p. 64). This means that the consumer will not hesitate in the future to purchase the same brand for a similar need or a related one. When a given brand satisfies a consumer, it does not mean that the marketer should feel aware, as the competitors are constantly devising ways to secure future sales.

Conclusion

Knowledge of the consumer decision-making process is very important to marketers in that, in every stage of the process, as described in the basic model, the marketers should be constantly involved to ensure that they influence the decisions made by the consumer.

All the way from the need recognition stage of the process, the marketer should understand the dilemmas faced by the consumer in the effort of making the right decision. This knowledge provides them with the relevant knowledge on the entry points that will have the biggest impact when it comes to securing the sales (Williamson 2000, p.484). Effective understanding of the entire process not only ensures that sales are secured, but also that the consumers remain loyal to their brands.

References

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Bettman, J 1999, An information processing theory of consumer choice. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.

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Bilkey, W.J., 2010. A psychological approach to consumer behavior analysis. Journal of Marketing, 18, pp.18-25.

Doney, P & Cannon, J 2008, ‘An examination of the nature of trust in buyer-seller Relationships’, Journal of Marketing, vol. 61 no. 2, pp. 35-51.

Kohli, A 2009, ‘Determinants of influence in organisational buying: a contingency approach’, Journal of Marketing, vol. 53 no. 1, pp. 50-65.

Lerner, J & Tiedens, L 2006, ‘Portrait of the angry decision maker: How appraisal tendencies shape anger’s influence on cognition’, Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, vol. 19 no. 1, pp. 115–137.

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