Consumer Decision Making Shipra Singh

Agenda
Case: Consumer Decision Making at a Retail Store Questions: Consumer Decision Making Process Four views of Consumer Decision Making Process

Consumer Decision-Making at a Retail Store

In a showroom of Raymonds selling ready to wear mens clothing, the salesman has been demonstrating all kinds of shirts and trousers to the young man for the last one hour. The young man would pick up the pair of clothes and get into the trial room to try them on. Each time he had put on a different dress, he would look at his companions for approval. His companions would make the young man exhibit the dress like a model and then they would simply nod in disapproval, thereby discarding the dress worn by the young man.
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Cont
The salesman somehow tried every dress in his stock but none was being approved by the group of people accompanying the young man. The salesman was at a loss to understand as to how he should satisfy the customer. Finally, he noticed a look of approval on the face of the leader of the group for a yellow colour shirt. Encouraged by the smile, the salesman now knew as to where he should look for the endorsement. He did not have to try hard for closing his sales to the young man when he came out of the trial room.
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Cont
He said with an enthusiasm, I think this colour suits you the best. What do you say, sir, the salesman looked for approval towards the man whom he had identified as the leader of the group. The nod of appreciation and support came through immediately, Yes. This I feel is finally the best. the leader of the group himself had completed the process of decision-making for others even though he did not have to buy the shirt for personal use.
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The Consumer Decision Making Process

How do consumers make purchase decisions?
How do firms use this information to develop new products and marketing programs?

Cont
The Consumer Decision Making Process represents a road map of consumers minds that marketers and managers can use to help guide product mix, communications, and sales strategies

Models of Consumers: Four Views of Consumer Decision Making

An Economic View A Passive View A Cognitive View An Emotional View

An Economic View
The consumer has often been characterized as making rational decisions.
To behave rationally in the economic sense, a consumer would have to:
Be aware of all available product alternatives. Be capable of correctly ranking each alternative in terms of its benefits and its disadvantages. Be able to identify the one best alternative.

This perspective is unrealistic because:

People are limited by their existing skills, habits, and reflexes. People are limited by their existing values and goals. People are limited by the extent of their knowledge. 9

A Passive View
The opposite of the economic view is the view of the consumer as basically submissive to the self-serving interests and promotional efforts of marketers (i.e., the passive view). Consumers are perceived as impulsive and irrational purchasers, ready to yield to the arms and aims of marketers. The principal limitation of this model is that it fails to recognize that the consumer plays an equal, if not dominant, role in many buying situations by seeking information about product alternatives and selecting the product that appears to offer the greatest satisfaction. This view is largely unrealistic.
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 This view portrays the consumer as a thinking problem solver. The cognitive model focuses on the processes by which consumers seek and evaluate information about selected brands and retail outlets. Consumers are viewed as information processors, and this leads to the formulation of preferences, and ultimately, purchase intentions. In contrast to the economic view, this view recognizes that the consumer is unlikely to seek all possible information, but will only seek information until he/she has what is perceived as sufficient information to make a satisfactory decision.
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A Cognitive View

An Emotional View
Although aware of the emotional or impulsive side of consumer decision making, marketers have preferred the economic or passive models. In reality, when is comes to certain purchases or possessions, deep feelings or emotions are likely to be highly involved. When a consumer makes what is basically an emotional purchase decision, less emphasis tends to be placed on searching for prepurchase information and more on the current mood or feelings.
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