The Buying Decision Process: The Five-Stage Model

The basic psychological processes we’ve reviewed play an important role in consumers’ actual buying
decisions.51 Table 6.3 provides a list of some key consumer behavior questions marketers
should ask in terms of who, what, when, where, how, and why.
Smart companies try to fully understand customers’ buying decision process—all the experiences
in learning, choosing, using, and even disposing of a product.52 Marketing scholars have developed
a “stage model” of the process (see Figure 6.4). The consumer typically passes through
five stages: problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision,
and postpurchase behavior. Clearly, the buying process starts long before the actual purchase and
has consequences long afterward.53
Consumers don’t always pass through all five stages—they may skip or reverse some.When you
buy your regular brand of toothpaste, you go directly from the need to the purchase decision, skipping
information search and evaluation. The model in Figure 6.4 provides a good frame of reference,
however, because it captures the full range of considerations that arise when a consumer faces
a highly involving new purchase.54 Later in the chapter, we will consider other ways consumers
make decisions that are less calculated.Problem Recognition
The buying process starts when the buyer recognizes a problem or need triggered by internal or
external stimuli.With an internal stimulus, one of the person’s normal needs—hunger, thirst, sex—
rises to a threshold level and becomes a drive. A need can also be aroused by an external stimulus.
A person may admire a friend’s new car or see a television ad for a Hawaiian vacation, which
inspires thoughts about the possibility of making a purchase.
Marketers need to identify the circumstances that trigger a particular need by gathering information
from a number of consumers. They can then develop marketing strategies that spark
consumer interest. Particularly for discretionary purchases such as luxury goods, vacation
packages, and entertainment options, marketers may need to increase consumer motivation so a
potential purchase gets serious consideration.
Information Search
Surprisingly, consumers often search for limited amounts of information. Surveys have shown
that for durables, half of all consumers look at only one store, and only 30 percent look at more
than one brand of appliances. We can distinguish between two levels of engagement in the
search. The milder search state is called heightened attention. At this level a person simply becomes
more receptive to information about a product. At the next level, the person may enter an
active information search: looking for reading material, phoning friends, going online, and visiting
stores to learn about the product.
INFORMATION SOURCES Major information sources to which consumers will turn fall
into four groups:
• Personal. Family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances
• Commercial. Advertising,Web sites, salespersons, dealers, packaging, displays
• Public. Mass media, consumer-rating organizations
• Experiential. Handling, examining, using the product
The relative amount and influence of these sources vary with the product category and the
buyer’s characteristics. Generally speaking, although consumers receive the greatest amount of
information about a product from commercial—that is, marketer-dominated—sources, the most
effective information often comes from personal or experiential sources, or public sources that are
independent authorities.
Each source performs a different function in influencing the buying decision. Commercial
sources normally perform an information function, whereas personal sources perform a legitimizing
or evaluation function. For example, physicians often learn of new drugs from commercial
sources but turn to other doctors for evaluations.