The purchase decision process represents the different stages that the individual goes through from when he feels the need for a product or service until his purchase. This behavior goes beyond the purchase decision itself, it reaches the post-purchase behavior phase.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE NEED
The purchase decision process begins when an unmet need creates tension in the individual.
CHOOSING A LEVEL OF PARTICIPATION
From this moment on, consciously or unconsciously, the individual selects a certain level of participation; decide how much time and effort to devote to meeting that need. In this sense we can speak of high and low participation purchases; The first are those in which the individual invests a great amount of time and effort, they would be those that go through the entire purchase decision process. Low participation purchases are those in which the individual generally passes from the stage of recognition of the need to that of decision, therefore investing little time and effort.
Participation in the purchase decision process tends to be greater under the following conditions:
- When the consumer lacks information about the alternatives When the satisfaction of the need is considered important When the risk of making a bad decision is perceived to be high. When the product has considerable social importance When the product is considered to have the potential to provide significant benefits.
Most of the purchasing decisions for products of relatively low price and that have close substitutes, are of low participation. In any case, participation must be seen from the perspective of the buyer, not the product.
Impulse buying is an example of decision making with low participation. Due to the increase in this type of purchase, greater emphasis has to be placed on product promotion programs.
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In the following video-lesson, Professor Miguel Ángel Beltrán talks about the types of purchase, the types of purchasing behavior, the levels of involvement, the purchase decision styles and the impulsive purchase, among other topics. (UCAM)
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ALTERNATIVE IDENTIFICATION
Once the two previous phases have passed, the alternatives, both for the product and the brand, have to be identified, this may involve a review of the memory or a broader search.
The broader search for alternatives depends on:
- Information the consumer has from past experiences and other sources Consumer confidence in that information Cost of time and money for collecting more information
Depending on this, the search for information will be more or less broad.
EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES
Once all the reasonable alternatives have been determined, the consumer has to evaluate each one of them before making a decision, analyzing the advantages and disadvantages that each alternative offers. In general, the criteria that consumers use in the evaluation are the result of past experiences and feelings towards the various brands.
DECISION
After the search and evaluation the consumer has to decide and the first decision is whether to buy or not to buy.
If you choose to buy, you have to make several decisions: where and when to make the purchase, how to receive the delivery, the payment method and others. The purchase decision is the beginning of a series of decisions. One of the most important decisions is to select the point of sale where to buy, factors such as: location, speed of service, accessibility to merchandise, prices, assortment, services offered, the image of the establishment, etc..
Retailers often take great care of the customers they have targeted and design their store accordingly. What marketing seeks is customer satisfaction, how the consumer can reach a state of satisfaction. Consumers form expectations about a product or service based on past experience, information from other sources, and advertising.
By using this product compare these expectations with your experience consuming the product. The ideal result is that the experience is equal to or greater than expectations. If, on the contrary, the experience does not meet expectations, there is dissatisfaction. In this sense, the company can influence expectations through advertising statements and sales presentations and can influence the consumer experience through product quality. Despite everything, it is difficult to balance expectations and experience.
POST-PURCHASE BEHAVIOR
Buyer sentiment after purchasing the product can influence repeat sales and what the buyer tells others about the product. A phenomenon that usually occurs after the purchase of the product or service is that of:
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
It is due to the fact that each of the alternatives that the consumer has considered generally has advantages and limitations, that is, when the decision to purchase is finally made, the selected product has certain drawbacks while each of the rejected alternatives has some attractive features. The negative aspects of the article that is selected together with the positive qualities of the products that are rejected create COGNITIVE DISSONANCE in the consumer.
Cognitive dissonance increases as the following variables increase:
- The cash value of the purchase The degree of similarity between the items that are selected and those that are rejected The relative importance of the decision.
To minimize dissonance, people try to reduce their post-purchase anxieties by avoiding information or advertising for the products they reject and seeking advertising for the product they selected to reinforce their decision.
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To end a couple of videos that summarize the purchase decision process, in them Professor Miguel Ángel Beltrán explains each of the stages of said process from the recognition of the need, to the post-purchase (UCAM - 2 videos - 15 minutes)
