Have you ever wondered what the decision-making process of the consumer of your goods or the recipient of your services looks like? If not, it's time to start paying attention to it. Learn the basics, then learn how you can influence your customers' decision-making and develop your business.
From this text you will learn:
- What is the consumer's decision-making process?
- Do you want to make it easier for your customers to make a purchase decision?
- Types of consumer's decision-making processes
- How do companies influence the customer's decision-making process?
- Influence of emotions on purchasing decisions
- Brand image and the consumer's decision-making process
- The influence of advertising on the consumer's decision-making process
- Obstacles on the consumer's path to purchase
According to Belch's definition from 1978, customer behavior is "the processes and activities people engage in when searching for, choosing, buying, using, evaluating and disposing of products or services in such a way as to satisfy their needs and desires." Behaviors occur both on an individual level and in a group or organization. From the marketing point of view, the most interesting area is the consumer's decision-making process.
What is the consumer's decision-making process?
The customer is exposed to thousands of goods every day. To acquire one of them, even on a subconscious level, it must undergo a decision-making process. Client path begins at the point of neutrality to a product or service - it does not know it exists. The decision-making process begins when it becomes aware of the existence of a given solution. Then it goes through the following phases:
- knowledge of the product,
- considering a purchase,
- buy.
This is, of course, just a simplified description of the process. In order to describe it more precisely, it is necessary to reach for individual models and types of processes.
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Types of consumer's decision-making processes
For the first time consumer's decision-making process was described in the 1960s on an example model by Simon, Nicosia and later Engel's syndrome, known as the EKB. Simon's model describes the information gathering stage, the purchase design stage, and finally the purchase stage. Nicosia's model focuses on the relationship between the company and its potential consumers. It suggests that the company's messages are what in the first place influences the consumer's attitude to the product or service.
The EKB model, compared to the aforementioned ones, is distinguished by a holistic approach. It takes into account the entire process of consumer behavior in the course of their purchasing activities. At the same time, it places particular emphasis on the analysis of the course of information processing and making a purchase decision. Another, famous and still used today Anderson's model (1965), consists of several dozen elements. It shows how the consumer shapes or changes the attitude towards a specific product.
New models are still being produced today - most recently in 2007 and 2009 (Marketing spiral and McKinsey's dynamic model). As you can see, it is not enough to get to know one of them. It's better to be aware of the many models and factors that influence your customers' purchasing decisions. This allows it to be more effective sales support and planning activities that translate into the decision-making process of consumers.
How do companies influence the customer's decision-making process?
In addition to universal models of purchasing decisions, we can also distinguish different types of purchasing decisions. The consumer's decision-making process is different in the case of basic necessities and different when the customer buys an item periodically or purchases a rare product. First you need to see which group your product belongs to. You can also change its group - suitable branding and marketing can make things look rare, necessities, etc.
The consumer's decision-making process is particularly strongly influenced by emotions. Under their influence, the customer can make a decision faster and less rationally than if he could think about the purchase coldly. This is why marketers so often introduce constraints and emotional impulses as techniques to influence the customer's decision-making process:
- quantitative limitation (e.g. last items),
- time limit (e.g. only until Friday),
- social proof (others have already bought it, so I should have it too),
- appeal to emotions.
The use of these techniques varies from low to high. Too small may not produce the desired result. When it is too intense, it can sometimes be counterproductive. In addition to using these techniques, it is also important to be able to choose the intensity, as well as the appropriate one communication strategy these signals.
Influence of emotions on purchasing decisions
Theoretically, everyone is aware that emotions influence the consumer's decision-making process. In practice, however, the amount of emotions used in marketing, as well as the finesse with which you can handle them, often surprise even marketers. Emotions can be related to the purchasing process (fear, hopes) or not related to it.
Different researchers classify different basic emotions - from two (positive and negative) to around 30. Paul Ekman mentions anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness and surprise among the basic emotions, and Zamuner adds love, peace, compassion, anxiety and boredom.
An example of a rarely discussed emotion is guilt, which often leads to a purchase and is overlooked by most professionals. The "The Meaningful Shift" survey shows that shopping has a positive effect on the mood of the majority of respondents around the world. Yet nearly two-thirds of the world's sample only try to consume what they really need. "The feeling of guilt in the purchasing process is called" consumer guilt. " It can be a chance for a marketer to influence the client in the client's decision-making process. " - as noted in the work "Conceptualizing Guilt in the Consumer Decision-making Process" published in 1994. How can consumers feel less guilty? For example, by offering them sustainable practices and products.
Marketers have been paying attention for some time to the fact that customers' emotions need to be transferred to the online world, where today the consumer's decision-making process often takes place. This requires specific measures, because it is impossible to affect all senses as in the real world, and it is through the senses that the easiest way to evoke specific emotions. For example, an image or a text must therefore replace sounds and smells.
Brand image and the consumer decision-making process
The presence of advertisements in every sphere of life, both online and offline, means that in the course of making purchasing decisions, the consumer is subjected to constant influence from various types of marketing activities. The expressive image of the brand allows it to stand out from the competition, which is significant, especially in the case of companies offering a similar assortment.
How we evaluate a given brand affects how we perceive the advertisements it emits. Most purchasing decisions are made so quickly, or even routinely, that consumers do not even realize how many factors affect their final decisions. The brand, with all its attributes, plays a vital role in this process. A positive image increases the sense of trust, which in turn significantly shortens the time of making purchasing decisions. This is why brand strategy should take these dependencies into account.
The analysis of the influence of the brand on consumer behavior requires distinguishing two separate sales situations in which the image plays an important role. It is about persuading the customer to make the first purchase and building the loyalty of regular customers. The brand image provides consumers with all the necessary information about the offer, which at the same time reduces the sense of risk related to the purchase. The brand image is a synthesis of the experiences, feelings and beliefs of the recipient. It arouses emotions and enriches the experience related to the purchasing process, and also allows the consumer to identify with a specific social group. By purchasing products or services of a specific brand, the consumer emphasizes his position and place in the social hierarchy.
The influence of advertising on the consumer's decision-making process
Advertising permeates our lives, shapes patterns, sets trends, indicates a hierarchy of importance and determines purchasing decisions. It is treated not only as a source of information, but also as a motivating factor to take specific actions. The more we are attacked by advertising messages, the more likely we are to buy. However, looking on the other hand, the growing awareness of consumers about the impact of advertising on their behavior has led to the fact that confidence in this form of promotion declines year by year.
Advertisements surround us on every side. To be truly effective, they must be equipped with both rational and emotional arguments. Numerous studies confirm that traditional advertising messages are most effective, especially in the case of common and mass products, with a relatively low price and value, and thus with a limited purchasing risk. Internet advertising allows you to better target consumers.
An interesting theory on the impact of advertising on consumer decisions was put forward by Robert Lavidge and Gary Steiner, who noticed that the recipient, initially completely unaware of the advertised product, goes through six stages of making a purchase decision: awareness, knowledge, liking. sympatia), preference, conviction, purchase.
The advertising industry is one of the fastest-changing sectors of the economy. Due to the ingenuity of advertising agencies, despite the growing aversion to this form of communication, the market successfully uses new innovations. Both in the selection of carriers and forms of advertising presentation. In addition, thanks to the support of psychology, more and more interesting mechanisms are used to influence the conscious or subconscious decision-making process of consumers.
Obstacles on the consumer's path to purchase
In most models, the consumer's decision-making process begins with the stage at which the customer needs the information. Their lack or insufficient amount is the most common obstacle at this stage of the client's decision-making process. It is enough to compare the conversion in two stores selling the same products, of which they accompany in one item:
- product descriptions,
- category descriptions,
- blog entries,
- "about the company" department,
- advice videos.
All of this is part of the information the client needs to dispel his doubts. Another common problem may be that the client path is too short. If a customer has only a few occasions to see the brand (e.g. online store only, not on social media, sponsored articles, Google ads, etc.), then they may not have time to make a purchasing decision. He would take it if the consumer's decision process was extended by a few or a dozen touchpoints - points of contact between the customer and the brand. Technical difficulties at the stage when the customer wants to make a purchase may also be an obstacle. If there are too many obstacles, the customer may resign from the purchase.
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