Marketing Management

Professor Ashis Mishra

Pre-purchase Information Search

The next step is Pre-purchase Information Search. After need recognition, the consumers have an
innate need to avoid all kinds of risks and make the optimal purchase decision that is purchase the
best product or the best service. So, they go for acquiring all possible information regarding the
product or service under consideration. It’s like that they can use all of that, but acquiring it feels good.

There are multiple sources of information that the consumers use. The categorization of the
information search is two-fold here. The sources of information can be internal or external. It could
be active or passive. Let me elaborate:-

 The Internal Information Search: The consumer searches for any relevant product
information from his memory or past experience. For instance, if a person loses his
watch and wants to buy a new one, he or she may first remember where she had
bought the previous watch from. So, this is an internal source of information.

 External Information Search: If the information is not available or he doesn't know or

he doesn't remember, then he would collect information from external sources. The
external information sources could be word-of-mouth, consumer reports, advertising,
publications, and anything else outside his memory.

The next categorization;

 Active Information Search: The consumer goes out of his way to gather the
information regarding the product or service under consideration.
It normally depends on the complexity of the product or the service, the significance
of the product or service to the consumer, and the immediacy of the purchase desired
that is whether you want it immediately or it can take some time.

Buying a car, searching for a good doctor or a lawyer or purchasing a gift for the boss
are cases in the point. Buying a car can take time, searching for a good doctor or
lawyer may be immediate.

 The Passive Information Search: The consumers keep his or her eyes and ears open
to any such information that might help in the purchase decision making process, but
he doesn't really go out of his way to collect the information. This kind of behavior is
associated with purchase situation where the need recognition was expected, but the
solution is not needed immediately. Buying a house or a better TV or a better washing
machine could be examples of passive information search.

For a marketer, it becomes very significant to identify the process by which the target consumer group
is gathering the information, say internal, passive or external, active and the amount of information
that is desired by them. Qualitative information, quantitative information, expert certification,
consumer testimonials, what are the kind of the information that they are looking forward to satisfy
themselves. The marketer can facilitate the information required by the consumer and help them in
the purchase decision making process. The consumers are expected to have a positive predisposition
towards the marketer who provides them with easy information in their desired format, in an
understandable way.

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