MSMK7001 Chap.6 The Buyer Decision Process and Buying Behavior
The Buyer Decision Process and Buying Behavior
Not every purchase runs the full process
The course crosses involvement with the perceived difference between brands to give four buying behaviors: complex, dissonance-reducing, habitual and variety-seeking.
Each calls for a different move, from detailed information for complex purchases to reassurance after the sale when options look alike, and from price promotion for habitual buys to shelf dominance or trial offers in variety-seeking categories.
Five stages for a considered purchase
Need recognition is triggered internally or externally, and sometimes the marketer has to trigger it.
Information search draws on personal, commercial, public and experiential sources and narrows the market to an awareness set, a consideration set and a choice set.
The lecture explains why being remembered matters so much at this stage, including the sleeper effect and priming through linked concepts in memory.
Evaluating by calculation or by feeling
For important decisions the expectancy-value model combines weighted attribute importance with beliefs about each brand, and the highest total is the predicted choice.
For low-involvement choices, feelings stand in for calculation: the affect-as-information heuristic, illustrated by a bridge experiment on misattributed arousal and by moods on sunny days, explains why store music and endorsers matter.
From intention to loyalty
A purchase decision involves brand, dealer, quantity, timing and payment, and intention can be derailed by others' attitudes or unexpected situations.
Afterwards, performance against expectation produces disappointment, satisfaction or delight, while cognitive dissonance pushes buyers to justify their choice. For new products the chapter adds the adoption stages and five adopter categories with their published shares.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Four types of buying behavior
- 02
Need recognition and its triggers
- 03
Information sources and the narrowing of sets
- 04
The expectancy-value model
- 05
Affect as information in low-involvement choice
- 06
Purchase decisions and what derails them
- 07
Satisfaction, delight and cognitive dissonance
- 08
Adoption stages and adopter categories
Worked example · free
Predict a choice with expectancy-value, then find the best lever
- 3Compute Brand P's total.
- 3Compute Brand Q's total.
- 2Identify the most efficient belief to change.
Key terms
- Complex Buying Behavior
- Buying in situations of high involvement and significant perceived differences among brands, where buyers want detailed product information.
- Dissonance-Reducing Behavior
- Buying that involves the buyer heavily even though the brands look much alike, so unease after purchase is likely and reassurance helps.
- Habitual Buying Behavior
- Routine buying with little involvement in a category where brands seem much the same, so price and sales promotions work.
- Consideration Set
- The alternatives a consumer knows of that meet the initial buying criteria, narrower than the awareness set.
- Expectancy-Value Model
- A model in which consumers evaluate a brand by combining their beliefs about its attributes with the importance they attach to each attribute.
- Cognitive Dissonance
- Discomfort caused by postpurchase conflict, which leads people to adjust attitudes so they fit what they have done.
- Adoption Process
- The mental path from first hearing of an innovation to using it regularly, in five stages from awareness and interest through evaluation and trial to adoption.
The Buyer Decision Process and Buying Behavior FAQ
What are the five stages of the buyer decision process?
They run from recognizing a need, through searching for information and evaluating alternatives, to the purchase decision and what the buyer does afterwards. The course stresses that low-involvement purchases may skip or compress stages, so the full sequence mainly describes considered, high-involvement buying such as appliances or electronics.
How does the expectancy-value model work?
Give each attribute an importance weight, score each brand's standing on each attribute, multiply score by weight and add the results. The brand with the highest total is predicted to be chosen. The lecture limits the model to difficult, important decisions; for low-involvement purchases feelings often decide instead.
Why does postpurchase satisfaction matter after the sale is made?
Because satisfied customers spread positive word of mouth while unhappy ones are said to tell nine to fifteen other people, and negative word of mouth spreads faster. Satisfaction depends on performance against expectation, so marketers manage expectations, survey satisfaction and improve after-sale service.
Assessment move
Build a small expectancy-value table for the product in your group plan, using three or four attributes your target customers care about and your best estimate of their beliefs about you and the main competitor. Then identify the single belief your communications should change. That table is a compact, defensible way to justify a promotion strategy in the presentation.
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