Core Concepts of Marketing

76 CHAPTER 4 U NDERSTANDINGBUYER BEHAVIOR

Polowhenyoushopforclothes. On theotherhand,theAmerican CancerAssociationwould

likeyouto feela needfora check-upanddoesn' t carewhichdoctoryougoto.:ntheend,

however,marketingis mostlyinterestedincreatingandsa tisfyingwants.

TheDecisionProcess

Figure4.1outlines theprocessa co nsumergoesthroughinmakinga purchasedecision.

Eachstepis illustratedinthefol1owing sectionsof yourtext.Onceth e processisstarted,

a potentialbuyer canwithdrawatanystageofmakingtheactu"lpurchase.The tendency

fora persontogothroughal1sixstagesis l ikelyonlyincertainbuyingsituations-afirst-

timepurchaseofa product,forinstance,orwhen buyinghighpriced, long-lasting,infre-

quentlypurchasedarticles. Thisisre ferred to ascomplexdecisionmaking.

Formanyproducts, thepurchasingbehavioris a routineaffair inwhichthearoused

needissatisfied in ahabitu al mannerbyrepurchasingthesame brand.Thatis, pastrein-

forcementinlearningexperiences leadsdirectlytobuying, and thusthe secondandthird

stages arebypassed.Thisis calledsimpledecisionmaking.However, if somethingchanges

ap preciabl y(price, product,availability, services),thebuyermayreenter the ful1decision

processandconsideralternativebrands. Whethercomplex0,simple,the firststepisneed

identification.I

NeedIdentification

Whe the r weacttoresolvea particularproblemdependsupontwofactors:(1)themagni-

tudeofthediscrepancybetweenwhatwe have andwhatweneed,and (2)the importance

oftheproblem. Aconsumermaydesirea newCadil1acandownafive-yearold Chevrolet.

Thediscrepancymaybefairl ylarge,butrel ativelyunimportantcompared to theotherprob-

Information

searchand

processing

Complex

decision

making

Identificationand

evaluationof

alternatives Simple

decision

making

FIGURE4.1 Theconsumerdecisionprocess