Consumer Decision Process” The Basics & Importance

Consumer decision process study involves the examination of the process consumers use to decide whether or not to purchase a product; this kind of investigation of the consumers’ minds is useful for market research. Marketing professionals can use this data to find ways to amend their products to better cater to the consumers’ wants. When a customer is considering a purchase, they often go through five stages: issue or need awareness, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase, and post-purchase behavior. Recognizing an issue or need is frequently seen as the first and most important phase in the process, since if a customer does not identify a problem or need, he is unlikely to consider purchasing a product. Internal or external factors might cause a need to arise. Internal stimuli refers to the consumer’s own internal perceptions, such as hunger or thirst.

Consumer Decision Process is the pre-purchase, during-purchase, and post-purchase decision-making processes that consumers go through while considering a possible market transaction. It is usually measured by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a theory of self-actualization, was created by Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist. The initial phase in the purchasing decision-making process, during which the problem or requirement is identified is the recognition of needs. John Dewey, another American psychologist introduced the five stages which consumers go through when they are thinking about purchasing a product or a service and they include: the need recognition, information research about the need and the product that matches it, evaluation of alternative or the comparison, the purchase itself and the post-purchase behavior.