CONSUMER BUYING

DECISION PROCESS
CONTENTS

1. MEANING OF BUYING DECISION PROCESS

2. STAGES OF CONUMER BUYING DECISION

PROCESS
MEANING

A Buying decision process is the process a customer goes

through when buying a product. It can be seen as a particular
from of a cost-benefit analysis.
A buying process is the series of steps that a consumer will take
to make a purchasing decision.
STAGES OF CONSUMER BUYING
DECISION PROCESS

The five stages framework

remains a good way to evaluate
the customer’s buying process.
1. NEED RECOGNITION

A purchase cannot take place without the recognition of the need. The
need may have been triggered by internal stimuli such as hunger or
thirst or external stimuli such advertising.

According to Maslow’s hierarchy, only a when a person has fulfilled the

needs at a certain stage, can he or she move to the next stage.
2. INFORMATION SEARCH

This is the buyer’s effort at searching the internal and external

business environments to identify and observe sources of information
related to the focal buying decision.

Internal search refers to recalling past experiences with the product.

External search is conducted when customer tries to seek information

from personal sources (family, friends), commercial sources (
advertisements, sales people) or public sources ( newspapers,
television).
3. EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES

At this stage, consumers evaluate different products/brands on the

basis of varying product attributes, and whether these can deliver the
benefits that the customers are seeking.

A factor that heavily influences this stage is the customer’s attitude.

Involvement is another factor that influences the evaluation process.

4. PURCHASE DECISION

In this stage, the Purchase takes place. The final purchase decision
can be disrupted by two factors:

 Negative feedback from other customers and the level of motivation

to comply or accept the feedback.

 The decision may be disrupted due to anticipated situations.

5. POST-PURCHASE BEHAVIOUR

At this stage, customers will compare products with their previous

expectations and will be either satisfied or dissatisfied.

This can greatly effect the decision process for similar purchases from
the same company in the future, having a knock-on effect at the
information search stage and evaluation of alternatives stage.