Consumer Decision Making for Healthy Snack Bar

Running head: CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Consumer decision making for healthy snack bar
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CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
When a product is launched in the market by a company, the customers commence
their decision-making process. In this, the first stage is that of the product attributes and their
utility value. For this, the customers consider the ingredients used for making the products
like that of the healthy snack bar. As per the arguments of Nuttavuthisit and Thøgersen
(2015), trust of the customers is a vital aspect for attaching proper placement of the goods in
the market. This trust adversely influences the decision-making of the customers regarding
purchasing the products like that of the healthy snack bar. On the contrary, Hoek et al. (2017)
states that if there is no trust towards the products, it acts as an obstacle towards proper
marketing of the snack bar. The more the trust, the more is the consumption. The more the
consumption, the more is the demand for which the supply needs to be balanced properly.
Decisions undertaken by the customers are of two types- rational and emotional. In
this case, choices act assistance in terms of selecting the preferred products from the available
options. Mention can be made of forced choice, which contradicts the decision making
power. In this perspective, Solomon (1999) opines that the factors affecting the pre-purchase
search is neglected, as there is no choice available on which the decisions can be taken.
Usually, these factors pertain to the product, situation and personal. In the process of
excavating these factors, the consumers venture through the different levels of decision-
making, which are, extensive problem solving, limited problem solving and routinized
response behaviour. In this, the cognitive model can be related, as the customers learns about
the ways and means of dealing with the issues revolving around purchasing the healthy snack
bar. These aspects relate to the rational decision making, as it acted upon by synthesizing on
the collected information about the snack bar.
On the other hand, Johnstone and Tan (2015) is of the view that emotional decision
making is the situation when the customers decide to buy the product upon the positive word
of mouth advertising from the peers and others. In this, research on the product or the service

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CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
is missing, as there is reliance regarding not being deceived. In this case of decision-making,
need recognition attains an important position. As a matter of specification, there are two
concepts in this case- perceived risks and the evoked set of factors, contributing to the
decision-making.
Problem identification is the primary stage in decision-making process. This is
followed by information search with consideration of the alternatives, which can affect the
choice for purchasing the healthy snack bar. Recognition of the problems when the
demarcation is broadened in case of current state and the ideal state. When the customers
realize that their need is to possess the healthy snack bar from recognized brands. In this case,
Mooij (2019) argues that the actual state declines. Response to the offers, schemes and
discounts levied would rise the ideal state. The following stage includes information search
about the snack bar. In this, statistical data regarding the snack bar is considered by the
customers for making the decisions. External research from the websites is assistance in
terms of enriching the preconceived information about the snack bars and their marketing
strategies.
The sequential stage is seeking the alternatives, which can be applied for undertaking
the decisions regarding purchasing the products like that of the snack bar. In this case,
reflection is the carried out by the customers regarding the exposed choice and the considered
alternatives. The final decision is the synthesis of the choice and the selected alternative.
According to the arguments of Zhang and Benyoucef (2016), in the process of selecting the
final decisions, biases are an inevitable issue. These biases are mental accounting, sunk cost
fallacy, loss aversion and prospect theory.
As per the arguments of Solomon (1999), there are many factors influencing the pre-
purchase and post purchase activities of the customers. These factors are situation, shopping