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The consumer decision-making process can seem mysterious, but all consumers go through basic steps when making a purchase to determine what products and services will best fit their needs.
Think about your own thought process when buying something—especially when it’s something big, like a car. You consider what you need, research, and compare your options before making the decision to buy. Afterward, you often wonder if you made the right call.
If you work in sales or marketing, make more of an impact by putting yourself in the customer’s shoes and reviewing the steps in the consumer decision-making process.
Steps in the consumer decision process
Generally speaking, the consumer decision-making process involves five basic steps.
The first step of the consumer decision-making process is recognizing the need for a service or product. Need recognition, whether prompted internally or externally, results in the same response: a want. Once consumers recognize a want, they need to gather information to understand how they can fulfill that want, which leads to step two.
But how can you influence consumers at this stage? Since internal stimulus comes from within and includes basic impulses like hunger or a change in lifestyle, focus your sales and marketing efforts on external stimulus.
Develop a comprehensive brand campaign to build brand awareness and recognition––you want consumers to know you and trust you. Most importantly, you want them to feel like they have a problem only you can solve.
Example: Winter is coming. This particular customer has several light jackets, but she’ll need a heavy-duty winter coat if she’s going to survive the snow and lower temperatures.
2. Information search
When researching their options, consumers again rely on internal and external factors, as well as past interactions with a product or brand, both positive and negative. In the information stage, they may browse through options at a physical location or consult online resources, such as Google or customer reviews.
Your job as a brand is to give the potential customer access to the information they want, with the hopes that they decide to purchase your product or service. Create a funnel and plan out the types of content that people will need. Present yourself as a trustworthy source of knowledge and information.
Another important strategy is word of mouth—since consumers trust each other more than they do businesses, make sure to include consumer-generated content, like customer reviews or video testimonials, on your website.
Example: The customer searches “women’s winter coats” on Google to see what options are out there. When she sees someone with a cute coat, she asks them where they bought it and what they think of that brand.
3. Alternatives evaluation
At this point in the consumer decision-making process, prospective buyers have developed criteria for what they want in a product. Now they weigh their prospective choices against comparable alternatives.
Alternatives may present themselves in the form of lower prices, additional product benefits, product availability, or something as personal as color or style options. Your marketing material should be geared towards convincing consumers that your product is superior to other alternatives. Be ready to overcome objections—e.g., in sales calls, know your competitors so you can answer questions and compare benefits.
Example: The customer compares a few brands that she likes. She knows that she wants a brightly colored coat that will complement the rest of her wardrobe, and though she would rather spend less money, she also wants to find a coat made from sustainable materials.
4. Purchase decision
This is the moment the consumer has been waiting for: the purchase. Once they have gathered all the facts, including feedback from previous customers, consumers should arrive at a logical conclusion on the product or service to purchase.
If you’ve done your job correctly, the consumer will recognize that your product is the best option and decide to purchase it.
Example: The customer finds a pink winter coat that’s on sale for 20% off. After confirming that the brand uses sustainable materials and asking friends for their feedback, she orders the coat online.
5. Post-purchase evaluation
This part of the consumer decision-making process involves reflection from both the consumer and the seller. As a seller, you should try to gauge the following:
- Did the purchase meet the need the consumer identified?
- Is the customer happy with the purchase?
- How can you continue to engage with this customer?
Remember, it’s your job to ensure your customer continues to have a positive experience with your product. Post-purchase engagement could include follow-up emails, discount coupons, and newsletters to entice the customer to make an additional purchase. You want to gain life-long customers, and in an age where anyone can leave an online review, it’s more important than ever to keep customers happy.
Tools to better understand your customer
Putting yourself in the customer’s shoes can help you steer consumers towards your product. Here are some tools to help you analyze their decision-making process and refine your brand marketing and sales tactics.
Customer journey map
A customer journey map visualizes a hypothetical customer’s actions. Use it to empathize with your customers as they go through a specific process or try to complete a purchase. Map out the actions the customer is likely to take.
Learn how to make a customer journey map to understand the decision-making process for your product/service.
Empathy maps help teams understand the customer’s mindset when dealing with a product or service. They can be used for personas or specific customer types. Empathy mapping is often most helpful at the beginning of a new project. Collaborate as a team to quickly get inside the heads of your customers during every step of product development, testing, and release.
Learn how empathy maps work so you can understand your customers better and make customer-oriented decisions.
Based on user research or past user interactions, user persona cards construct fictional or composite personas that break down and organize your data into distinctive types of users. Build a more human picture of your users and understand your user base better by creating user personas for the various types of users for your product or service.
Understanding the consumer decision-making process is key if you want to attract more customers and get them to make that crucial purchase. Use this process and the tools above to tune in to consumers and genuinely understand how to reach them.
Consumer Behaviour helps us understand the buying tendencies and spending patterns of consumers. Not all individuals would prefer to buy similar products.
Consumer behaviour deals with as to why and why not an individual purchases particular products and services.
Personal Factors play an important role in affecting consumer buying behaviour.
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The occupation of an individual plays a significant role in influencing his/her buying decision. An individual’s nature of job has a direct influence on the products and brands he picks for himself/herself.
Tim was working with an organization as Chief Executive Officer while Jack, Tim’s friend now a retired professor went to a nearby school as a part time faculty. Tim always looked for premium brands which would go with his designation whereas Jack preferred brands which were not very expensive. Tim was really conscious about the clothes he wore, the perfume he used, the watch he wore whereas Jack never really bothered about all this.
That is the importance of one’s designation. As a CEO of an organization, it was really essential for Tim to wear something really elegant and unique for others to look up to him. A CEO or for that matter a senior professional can never afford to wear cheap labels and local brands to work.
An individual’s designation and his nature of work influence his buying decisions. You would never find a low level worker purchasing business suits, ties for himself. An individual working on the shop floor can’t afford to wear premium brands everyday to work.
College goers and students would prefer casuals as compared to professionals who would be more interested in buying formal shirts and trousers.
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Age and human lifecycle also influence the buying behaviour of consumers. Teenagers would be more interested in buying bright and loud colours as compared to a middle aged or elderly individual who would prefer decent and subtle designs.
A bachelor would prefer spending lavishly on items like beer, bikes, music, clothes, parties, clubs and so on. A young single would hardly be interested in buying a house, property, insurance policies, gold etc. An individual who has a family, on the other hand would be more interested in buying something which would benefit his family and make their future secure.
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The buying tendency of an individual is directly proportional to his income/earnings per month. How much an individual brings home decides how much he spends and on which products?
Individuals with high income would buy expensive and premium products as compared to individuals from middle and lower income group who would spend mostly on necessary items. You would hardly find an individual from a low income group spending money on designer clothes and watches. He would be more interested in buying grocery items or products necessary for his survival.
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Lifestyle, a term proposed by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler in 1929, refers to the way an individual stays in the society. It is really important for some people to wear branded clothes whereas some individuals are really not brand conscious. An individual staying in a posh locality needs to maintain his status and image. An individual’s lifestyle is something to do with his style, attitude, perception, his social relations and immediate surroundings.
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An individual’s personality also affects his buying behaviour. Every individual has his/her own characteristic personality traits which reflect in his/her buying behaviour. A fitness freak would always look for fitness equipments whereas a music lover would happily spend on musical instruments, CDs, concerts, musical shows etc.
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The article is Written By “Prachi Juneja” and Reviewed By Management Study Guide Content Team. MSG Content Team comprises experienced Faculty Member, Professionals and Subject Matter Experts. We are a ISO 2001:2015 Certified Education Provider. To Know more, click on About Us. The use of this material is free for learning and education purpose. Please reference authorship of content used, including link(s) to ManagementStudyGuide.com and the content page url.