MK3159 Consumer Behavior: Decision-Making Process Analysis Report

This report delves into the consumer decision-making process, contrasting the purchase of an automobile with that of toothpaste. It examines the five stages of the consumer buying process: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post-purchase evaluation, highlighting how these stages differ significantly between high-involvement (automobile) and low-involvement (toothpaste) purchases. The analysis explores factors influencing consumer behavior, such as budget, brand image, advertising, and social and psychological influences. The report also provides marketing implications, emphasizing the importance of understanding consumer behavior to tailor strategies and reduce post-purchase anxiety. The study uses academic sources and examples to illustrate key concepts, providing a detailed overview of consumer behavior in different purchasing contexts.

Running head: CONSUMER DECISION MAKING PROCESS
Consumer Decision Making Process
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1CONSUMER DECISION MAKING PROCESS
Introduction
Whether one is marketing goods or services, gaining an in-depth understanding about
the buying decision making process of customer matters significantly. Customers are the
most important characters in the field of marketing management and their behaviours, both
directly and indirectly influence the business production, the shareholder return and the
financial outcome of the company (Groeger, Moroko and Hollebeek). This paper shall
elaborate on discussing the decision making process of consumers for purchasing an
automobile and how this process is different from that of the process of purchasing a
toothpaste. Also, the implications for the marketers will also be highlighted in this report.
Discussion
The term “customer behaviour” comprise of the customers of some specific goods and
the people who use the goods. It is basically used for referring to a particular human market
behaviour and use of the services and products (Tung, Chen and Schuckert). In modern days,
the consumer behaviour is referred to as a multidisciplinary science that investigate the
decision making process of the customers along with the product acquisition but at the same
time, also the activities of the customers after the product purchase like using, rejecting and
evaluating the service or product. The experts of the buying behaviour agree that there are a
total of five stages in the process of consumer buying decision making. These five stages are-
recognition of the unsatisfied need, the information search, evaluation of alternatives, actual
purchase decision and the post-purchase evaluation respectively (Ashman, Solomon and
Wolny).
Buying an automobile
In case of buying an automobile, say, a car, customers take huge amount of time to
make a decision as of the fact that it is a long term investment and costs huge. This is why

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they assess number of available options and choose the best one that suits their criteria and
budget.
In terms of the decision making process, it is to mention that in the very stage of
buying process called need recognition might be the need of buying a car as it is necessary to
go to work for the customer or to pick up his or her kids from school. These can be the stated
needs of the customer for which he needs to purchase a car. He first looks for the other
factors in it like the fuel efficiency, cost and time of maintenance, is safe or not, is cosy and
comfortable and will it provide good after sales service and will be having more space
internally. Also, price range is a significant factor in this process. The customers at this stage
decide on their budget for buying a car that will fulfil their need within the set range. The
second stage of information search involves searching of information and details about
different types and brands of car under the set budget (Mai). For this purpose, the customers
are likely to go through newspaper, magazines, internet, their preferred company sites, media,
the preference and advice of their family and friends (word of mouth), visiting stores, test
drives and sometimes, depending on their own experiences, if any. The third stage of
alternatives evaluation involves the evaluation of the preferred bundle of different options
that were identified in the earlier stages. It is to note that on the basis of different parameters
there are many cars that were evaluated and some of them are Fiat Punto, Hyundai i10,
Chevrolet Beat etc. In this stage the customer start to evaluate these cars for their potential of
satisfying their needs and budget. This also depends on the evaluation of the cars that are
done with the help of the representatives in the places of the customers itself, their high brand
image and the other offers guarantee for their vehicles. For example, within the price range of
four to five lakh, all the cars are evaluated and the customer has considered the set of Ford
Figo, Chevrolet Beat, Swift, Wagon-R, Hundai i10, Fiat Punto and Swidft and then, has the
decision of purchasing Wagon-R and purchased the same as this car has central locking, rear

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defogger, power window and child safety lock with the other cars were lacking in one or the
other. Also, Wagon R has excellent security and safety features with highest fuel efficiency
and also have good after the sales service because it is been in the market for a quite long
period of time (Amernic and Craig). With the same, it has largest number of dealers and
service stations and low turning radius, which is best suited for the metropolitan cities.
Buying a toothpaste
It is to note that customers often get engage in very limited problem solving while
buying a toothpaste as a customer might buy it occasionally and have very little details and
information of the product. Purchasing of toothpaste does not need much time for gathering
information, even if a person is not familiar about the market. Though toothpaste is normally
considered as a commodity, the developing nations still have limited financial stability for
making purchase of toothpaste and use it. It is to note that while looking for a toothpaste, two
main concepts are to be focused on and they are- social influences and psychological
influences. The psychological influences impact the motives, learning, attitudes and
perceptions and also, it is generally an internal factor in the process of decision making
(Fayolle and Gailly) On the other hand, the psychological influences impact the buying
behaviour of the customer in terms of his or her culture, social classes, reference groups and
media and also, they are regarded as an external factor in the process of decision making.
In terms of five stage of customer buying behaviour process, the need to using a
toothpaste as an oral care medicine or product is the thing that customers realise at the very
first stage of need recognition. Maintaining proper oral hygiene can only be done through
brushing teeth daily. It is where the customers recognise the main problem and here arises the
need for solving it. So, if we consider Colgate as an example, in the second stage of
information search, it is to mention that Colgate, being a premium brand of toothpaste, there
are immense information about it right from about its contents, features, benefits etc. in

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different sources, be it newspaper, magazines, television advertisement etc. Also, most of the
customers are influenced by the professional athletes, peer leader and a family doctors. These
groups have a significant ability of exerting influence over the first time buyers and making
some substantial affect while buying a product. Also, unlike buying an automobile,
advertising influence the decision making process of the customers the best. According to
Knoll and Matthes, “advertising may directly influence a consumer’s brand evaluation
through such cues as celebrity endorsements and music, even without providing any explicit
information”. At the time of the third stage, the customers has already made their perception
regarding different brands and they has an intention of buying the most preferred brand. With
the help of customer friendly options and pricing, the customers are assisted for making their
final choice. Customer finds Colgate toothpaste as the perfect solution to their problem
recognition.
Implications for the marketers
Hence, the marketers need to know that gaining a thorough understanding of the
process of buying decision making is very important for the marketers for devising different
strategies that could easily reduce the possibility of the buyers to remorse or to suffer from
post-purchase anxiety from taking place. Poor understanding of the customer behaviour
might cause the sales of the firm drop and also, there will be rise in the stock returns and
complaints from the customers.
Conclusion
Hence from the above analysis it is clear that there is a significant difference in the
consumer purchase decision making process of an automobile and a toothpaste. Making
decision for buying an automobile takes a long time and lots of evaluation and trial. But,
buying a toothpaste takes moderate to less time for making a decision. It does not need lots of

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evaluation. However, in order to attract the customers for purchasing these products require
full attention and focus on the decision making process for the two products differently.
References:
Amernic, Joel, and Russell Craig. "CEO speeches and safety culture: British Petroleum
before the Deepwater Horizon disaster." Critical perspectives on accounting 47
(2017): 61-80.
Ashman, Rachel, Michael R. Solomon, and Julia Wolny. "An old model for a new age:
Consumer decision making in participatory digital culture." Journal of Customer
Behaviour14.2 (2015): 127-146.
Fayolle, A. and Gailly, B., 2015. The impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial
attitudes and intention: Hysteresis and persistence. Journal of small business
management, 53(1), pp.75-93.
Groeger, Lars, Lara Moroko, and Linda D. Hollebeek. "Capturing value from non-paying
consumers’ engagement behaviours: field evidence and development of a theoretical
model." Journal of Strategic Marketing 24.3-4 (2016): 190-209.
Knoll, Johannes, and Jörg Matthes. "The effectiveness of celebrity endorsements: a meta-
analysis." Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 45.1 (2017): 55-75.
Mai, Jens-Erik. Looking for information: A survey of research on information seeking, needs,
and behavior. Emerald Group Publishing, 2016.
Tung, Vincent Wing Sun, Po-Ju Chen, and Markus Schuckert. "Managing customer
citizenship behaviour: The moderating roles of employee responsiveness and
organizational reassurance." Tourism management 59 (2017): 23-35.