(a) Having suffered a skin condition called eczema, I had a flare-up and my body started

becoming itchy. This condition worsened my physical well-being as parts of my body would
become cracked and inflamed, affecting my focus and ability to do daily activities. Due to
this physiological arousal, I wanted to find ways to improve my physical well-being by
treating and healing my skin. Relating back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, this would be a
physiological need. Furthermore, I came upon an advertisement of women with nice and
healthy skin, looking confident and happy. This advertisement made me realise how my skin
condition has actually affected my self-esteem as I had poor self-image and would often talk
negatively about myself. This need for self-esteem is an inwardly-directed ego need
according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

In order to satisfy my needs, I had set a goal to purchase an eczema cream. However, these
needs were unfilled as I did not have the suitable eczema cream, which then resulted in
tension. These unfilled needs thus determined my need recognition in my decision-making
process. The tension experienced consequently motivated me to purchase a proper eczema
cream.

My decision-making process was also affected by my personality. Firstly, I am a low

dogmatic individual and have a high need for cognition. Thus, when shopping, I have the
tendency to look out for product information first and would determine the product’s worth
on the basis of its merits, without considering other factors. With that said, I am rather open
to unfamiliar brands and products. In this recent purchase, having product information was
especially critical as the goal product was something that I would apply on my skin and
would affect my skin condition. Product information that I was looking for include
components such as product benefits and key ingredients. With the need for information,
internal information search was not sufficient in stage 2 of my decision-making process.
Therefore, I proceeded to conduct external information search on the Internet to understand
and evaluate how the different products would meet my needs and benefit me as a consumer
based on the information provided.

Another personality trait of mine is that I am an inner-directed consumer. Hence, I tend to

research on the product and brand information such as its benefits and the materials used. By
acquiring these information, I would evaluate the product and brand against my own
standards or values, including if they are able to meet my needs. In fact, as a consumer, I
personally value sustainability and non-cruelty products. These thus affected stage 2 and 3 of
my decision-making process. In order to acquire all these information for stage 2 of my
decision-making process, I conducted external research on the Internet of the brands and their
products. With these information, I was able to identify my evoked set for evaluation in stage
3 of my decision-making process. My evoked set consisted of brands with sufficient
information on their products and have created a positive impression on me. The latter
included whether the published information on the brand and its products were aligned with
my values and standards.

(b)

An unfilled need that drove my motivation is the need for self-esteem. Figure 1 shows a
screenshot from Aveeno’s website. In Aveeno’s ‘About’ page, it emphasises on “feeling
good” and this had an emotional appeal to me as it was something that I was struggling with,
and more importantly, is aligned with my need for self-etseem.

However, competitors, Suu Balm and QV mainly mention the brands’ stories in the form of
their history on the websites. While Aveeno has published their story on their website too
(figure 4), it is evident that its competitors are missing the emotional appeal that Aveeno
offers. Thus, I felt that Aveeno’s products would best satisfy my need for self-esteem as
compared to its competitors.

Figure 5 shows a screenshot of a product by Aveeno on their website. Aveeno provides all
necessary information that I need to evaluate their products, from the benefits to the full
ingredient list. Moreover, Aveeno has also published in their Frequently-Asked Questions
(FAQ) that they are a sustainable and cruelty-free brand (figure 6), which is aligned with my
values as an inner-directed consumer.

In contrast, another competitor, Cetaphil, does not provide a full ingredient list for their
products (Figure 7). Additionally, Cetaphil has no information on whether they are
sustainable or cruelty-free. Without sufficient information, brands such as Cetaphil were
excluded from my evoked set.

What stands out about Aveeno from its competitors is that they provide further information
about their active ingredient. Aveeno has a page on the information of their key and active
ingredient of their products. This helped me to better understand how Aveeno’s products
would specifically benefit me as a consumer. Competitors such as Cetaphil and _ are
however, missing this element.

Firstly, I am interested in new products and enjoy trying them out as I like to evaluate on my
own which brand would suit me best. Furthermore, I also tend to share with my friends on
social media the new products that I buy. These behaviours demonstrate that I have a high
willingness to adopt new products and hence, possess the trait of an innovator. Thus, during
my decision-making process for this recent purchase, I was mainly considering products from
brands that are new to me as I wanted to try them out.

These product information are important to me when evaluating new products before making
a decision as I am an inner-directed consumer and have a high need for cognition. In fact, I
tend to solely rely on my judgement by reading the product and brand information. Therefore,
as I was mainly considering products from unfamiliar brands, the information about the
products was even more critical. Hence, internal information search was not sufficient in
stage 2 of my decision-making process. I proceeded to conduct external information search
and took the time to search on the Internet to understand the product features as well as how
they would meet my needs and benefit me as a consumer.

These personality traits of mine have also affected stage 3 of my decision-making process.
Since I prioritise and rely on product information, brands without sufficient product
information were classified under inept set. Without sufficient product information, I was
unable to identify how the product could specifically satisfy my needs. Brands that I have
tried before were also not considered as they were unable to satisfy my needs from my past
experiences. From my external information search, new products from brands that have
sufficient information and have created a positive impression such that the information on the
product and its benefits appealed to my needs, were classified as evoked set.