Cognitive habitual affective decision making

DECISION MAKING

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

When students have finished reading this chapter, they should understand why:

1. The three categories of consumer decision-making are cognitive, habitual, and affective.

2. A cognitive purchase decision is the outcome of a series of stages that results in the selection of one product over competing options.

3. The way information about a product is framed can prime a decision even when a consumer is unaware of this influence.

4. We often rely upon “rules-of-thumb” to make routine decisions.

5. Marketers often need to understand consumers’ behavior rather than a consumer’s behavior.

6. The decision-making process differs when people chose what to buy on behalf of an organization rather than for personal use.

7. Members of a family unit play different roles and have different amounts of influence when the family makes purchase decisions.

Chapter SUMMARY

The three categories of consumer decision-making are cognitive, habitual, and affective.

Consumer decision-making is a central part of consumer behavior, but the way we evaluate and choose products (and the amount of thought we put into these choices) varies widely, depending on such dimensions as the degree of novelty or risk related to the decision. Perspectives on decision-making range from a focus on habits that people develop over time to novel situations involving a great deal of risk in which consumers must carefully collect and analyze information before making a choice. Many of our decisions are highly automated; we make them largely by habit. The way we evaluate and choose a product depends on our degree of involvement with the product, the marketing message, and/or the purchase situation. Product involvement can range from very low, where purchase decisions are made via inertia, to very high, where consumers form very strong bonds with what they buy.

A cognitive purchase decision is the outcome of a series of stages that results in the selection of one product over competing options.

A typical decision involves several steps. The first is problem recognition, when we realize we must take some action. Once the consumer recognizes a problem and sees it as sufficiently important to warrant some action, he or she begins the process of information search. In the evaluation of alternatives stage, the options a person considers constitute his or her evoked set. Members of the evoked set usually share some characteristics; we categorize them similarly. The way the person mentally groups products influences which alternatives she will consider, and usually we associate some brands more strongly with these categories (i.e., they are more prototypical). When the consumer eventually must make a product choice from among alternatives, he uses one of several decision rules. Noncompensatory rules eliminate alternatives that are deficient on any of the criteria we’ve chosen. Compensatory rules, which we are more likely to apply in high-involvement situations, allow us to consider each alternative’s good and bad points more carefully to arrive at the overall best choice. Once the consumer makes a choice, he or she engages in post purchase evaluation to determine whether it was a good one; this assessment in turn influences the process the next time the problem occurs.

The way information about a product is framed can prime a decision even when the consumer is unaware of this influence. When consumers process product information, they don’t do it in a vacuum. They evaluate its attributes in terms of what they already know about the item or similar product.

We often rely upon “rules-of-thumb” to make routine decisions.

In many cases, people engage in surprisingly little search. Instead, they rely on various mental shortcuts, such as brand names or price, or they may simply imitate others’ choices. We may use heuristics, or mental rules-of-thumb, to simplify decision-making. In particular, we develop many market beliefs over time. One of the most common beliefs is that we can determine quality by looking at the price. Other heuristics rely on well-known brand names or a product’s country of origin as signals of product quality. When we consistently purchase a brand over time, this pattern may be the result of true brand loyalty or simply inertia because it’s the easiest thing to do. Principles of mental accounting demonstrate that the way a problem is framed and whether it is put in terms of gains or losses influences what we decide.

Marketers often need to understand consumers’ behavior rather than a consumer’s behavior. More than one person actually makes many purchasing decisions. Collective decision-making occurs whenever two or more people evaluate, select, or use a product or service. In organizations and in families, members play several different roles during the decision-making process. These roles include the gatekeeper, influencer, buyer, and user.