Buyer Behaviour

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• Buying Decision Process brings to mind the
image of an individual who is facing a clearly
recognized problem and is carefully involved
in evaluating the attributes of a set of
products, brands, or services and very
deliberately and rationally choosing the one
that would deliver the maximum satisfaction
at the lowest cost.

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Levels of Buying Decision Process

• It is useful to view purchase decision

involvement as a continuum and as the
consumer moves from a low level of
involvement with the purchase situation to a
high level of involvement, purchase decision-
making becomes progressively complex.

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 • Nominal Decision Making

• Extended Decision Making

• Limited Decision Making

It should be kept in mind that the types of decision

processes are not distinct but rather blend into each other
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Involvement Level & Types of Buying Behavour
Low-purchase involvement High-purchase involvement

Nominal decision making Limited decision making Extended decision making

Problem recognition Problem recognition Problem recognition

Selective Generic Generic

Information search Information search

Information search
Internal Internal
Limited internal
Limited external External

Alternative evaluation Alternative evaluation

Few attributes Many attributes
Simple decision rules Complex decision rules
Few alternatives Many alternatives

Purchase Purchase Purchase

Postpurchase Postpurchase Postpurchase

No dissonance No dissonance Dissonance
Very limited evaluation Limited evaluation Complex evaluation5
•Product Involvement refers to a consumer’s level of interest in
a certain product. Marketers communicate many sales
promotions to increase consumer involvement in a product.
Tata Indica V2 sponsored a contest in which participants were
to submit five words that describe the car starting with the
letter “V”.
•Advertising Involvement refers to the consumer’s interest in
processing the ad messages. Television is said to be a medium
of low involvement and consumers process information in a
passive manner. In contrast, print is a high – involvement
medium as the readers actively process information.
•Purchase Situation Involvement may occur while buying the
same item in different contexts. For example, when a consumer
wants to impress someone, s/he may buy a different brand that
reflects good taste than the usual one that s/he buys. 6
 Nominal Decision Making
• There is generally low – involvement with most low – priced
and frequently purchased products, which are consumed on
an ongoing basis and involve nominal decision – making.
• A problem is recognized, consumer’s internal search from
long-term memory comes up with a single preferred solution,
the preferred brand is purchased and no brand evaluation
occurs unless the brand fails to perform as expected.
• Some of these decisions are so nominal that the consumer
does not even think of purchasing an alternative brands.
• Toothpastes, Tata Salt

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 Limited Decision Making
• It involves internal (long-term memory) and limited
external search, consideration of just a few
alternatives, simple decision rules on a few attributes
and little post-purchase evaluation.
• It covers the middle ground between nominal and
extended decision-making.
• Buyers are not as motivated to search for
information, or evaluate each attribute
enthusiastically, but actually use cognitive shortcuts.
• A point-of-purchase display of Nescafe;
• To buy the cheapest brand of instant coffee available,
the consumer will look at different brands of coffee
for prices and buys the least priced brand. 8
 Extended Decision Making
• Such decisions involve extensive internal (long
term memory) and external (outside sources)
information search followed by a rigorous
evaluation of several alternatives because
consumers do not possess any meaningful
information about the product or service and
need much of it.
• Post purchase evaluation is more likely to be
complex and dissonance causing.
• Washing machine, computer system 9
Continuum of Consumer Decision Making

Nominal Limited Extended

Low-cost products More expensive
products
Frequent purchases Infrequent purchases
Low – involvement High – involvement
Familiar Unfamiliar
product/brand product/brand
Little thought, search Extended thought,
or time given to search and time given
purchase to purchase

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Type of Volume of Need for Source of Speed of Post
problem info. Stored further info further info Purchase
solving in memory info processing

EDM low High external slow dissonance,

complex
evaluation

LDM moderate moderate External moderate no dissonance,

+internal limited
evaluation

NDM high low internal fast no dissonance,

very limited
evaluation

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Stages in Consumer Decision Process
Problem Recognition

Information Search

Evaluation of alternatives and selection

Outlet selection and purchase

Post purchase Evaluation

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 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 – rises to a
threshold level and becomes a drive;
• Or a need can be aroused by an external
stimulus. A person may admire a neighbor’s new
car or see a television ad for a Europe vacation,
which triggers thoughts about the possibility of
making a purchase 13
 Cont…
• 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
trigger consumer interest.
• Particularly for purchases such as, vacation
packages, and entertainment options, marketers
may need to increase consumer motivation so a
potential purchase gets serious consideration.

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 Information Search
• When a consumer discovers a problem, s/he is
likely to search for more information.
• Kathleen may simply pay more attention to
product information of a personal computer.
She becomes more attentive to computer ads,
computers purchased by her friends, and peer
conversations about computers. Or, she may
more actively seek information by visiting
stores, talking to friends, or reading computer
magazines, among others.
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 Cont…
• Through gathering information, the consumer learns
more about some brands that compete in the market
and their features and characteristics.
• Information Sources: Major information sources
which consumers will turn fall into four groups –
– Personal: Family, Friends, Neighbors, Acquaintances
– Commercial: Advertising, Websites, Salesperson,
Dealers, Packaging, Displays
– Public: Mass media, Consumer-rating Organizations
– Experiential: Handling, Examining, Using the
Product
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Evaluation of Alternatives & Selection

• How does the consumer process competitive

brand information and make a final value
judgment?
• No single process is used by all consumers, or
by one consumer in all buying situations.

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 Cont…
• Some basic concepts will help us understand consumer
evaluation processes:
• First, the consumer is trying to satisfy a need.
• Second, the consumer is looking for certain benefits from the
product solution.
• Third, the consumer sees each product as a bundle of
attributes with varying abilities for delivering the benefits
sought to satisfy this need.
• The attributes of interest to buyers vary by product – for e.g.:
– Hotels: Location, cleanliness, atmosphere, price
– Mouthwash: color, effectiveness, germ-killing capacity,
taste/flavor, price
– Tires: safety, tread life, ride quality, price
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 Cont…
Attribute-Based Vs. Attitude-Based Choice Processes
• Attribute-Based Choice requires the knowledge of specific
attributes at the time the choice is made, and it involves
attribute-by-attribute comparisons across brands.
• The consumer remembers that the Casio his last
roommate had worked well and looked “good,” his parents
had a Toshiba that also worked well but was rather large
and bulky, and his old Samsung had not performed as well
as he had expected. He goes to a store and gathers
information on price, recording time, and ease of remote
access for each of these brands. He mentally ranks each
brand on these three attributes and his general
impressions of their quality. On the basis of these
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evaluations, he makes a choice.
 Cont…
• Attitude-Bases Choice involves the use of general
attitudes, summary impressions, intuitions, or
heuristics; no attribute-by-attribute comparisons are
made at the time of choice.
• The consumer remembers that the Casio his last
roommate has seemed to work well and looked
“good,” his parents had a Toshiba that also worked
well but was rather large and bulky, and his old
Samsung had not performed as well as he had
expected. At the store, he sees that the Casio and
Toshiba are about the same price and decides to but
the Casio. 20
 Outlet Selection & Purchase
• To actually implement the purchase decision,
however, a consumer needs to select both
specific items (brands) and specific outlets
(where to buy) to resolve the problems.
• There are, in fact, three ways these decisions
can be made:
1) simultaneously;
2) item first, outlet second; or
3) outlet first, item second.
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 Cont…
• In many situations, consumers engage in a
simultaneous selection process of stores and brands.
• For example, in your personal computer case, you
may select a set of brands based on both the
product’s technical features (attributes) and
availability of brands in the computer stores and
mail-order catalogs you know well.
• It is also possible; that you decide where to buy (e.g.,
Computer world in your neighborhood) and then
choose one or two brands the store carries. Once the
brand and outlet have been decided, the consumer
moves on to the transaction (“buying”). 22
 Post Purchase Evaluation
• After the purchase, the consumer might experience
dissonance that stems from noticing certain
disquieting features or hearing favourable things
about other brands and will be alert to information
that supports his or her decision.
• Marketing communications should supply beliefs and
evaluations that reinforce the consumer’s choice and
help him feel good about the brand.
• The marketer’s job therefore doesn’t end with the
purchase. Marketers must monitor postpurchase
satisfaction, postpurchase actions, and postpurchase
product uses. 23
 Howard-Sheth Model

• John A. Howard and Jagdish N. Sheth

developed a comprehensive model which
presents numerous factors in attempting to
explain consumer behaviour. This model
describes what happens in between receiving
a stimuli (input) and the action what we call
behaviour (output).

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 Cont…

• The model has four major sets of variables:

1. Inputs
2. Perceptual and Learning Constructs
3. Outputs
4. External Variables

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• Inputs
Includes three distinct types of information
sources (stimuli) present in the consumer’s
environment.
– Significative stimuli represents the brand’s
physical attributes,
– The marketer provides the symbolic stimuli in
the form of brand information and could be
visual or verbal, and
– The third kind of information is furnished by
consumer’s social environment such as
family, reference groups, and social class.27
 Cont…
• Significative stimuli include quality, price,
service, distinctiveness and availability,
• while symbolic stimuli are portrayed by the
mass media and sales people, and influence
the consumer indirectly.

• The three types of stimuli provide input to the

consumer regarding the product class or
specific brands.
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• The second variable, perceptual and learning
constructs, forms the central component of the
Howard-Sheth Model.
• The perceptual constructs are concerned with how
the consumer receives and processes information
obtained from input stimuli and other parts of the
model, i.e. the function of the information
processing.
• For e.g., if the consumer is unclear regarding
information and its meaning received from the
environment, stimulus ambiguity occurs, while
distortion of information received by the consumer,
to match established needs or experiences, results
in perceptual bias. 29
• Learning constructs perform the function of
consumer’s concept formation and include
his/her goals, information about the brands in
the evoked set, criteria for evaluating
alternatives, and intentions to buy.

• The proposed interaction between various

perceptual and learning variables and the
variables in other segments of the model give
the Howard-Sheth Model a distinct character.
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• Outputs
– The outputs are the results of the
perceptual and learning variables and how
the consumers will response to these
variables
– The model shows a series of outputs that
are similar in name to some of the
perceptual and learning construct variables
that include attention, brand
comprehension, attitudes, intentions, and
finally the act of purchase.
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• External Variables
– These variables are not directly involved in
the decision-making process.
– The relevant external variables include
importance of purchase, consumer’s
personality traits, time pressure, and
availability of funds.

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Engel, Blackwell, Miniard (EKB) Model

• The EKB model of consumer behaviour was

originally developed in 1968 to serve as a
framework for organising the fast-growing
body of knowledge concerning consumer
behaviour.

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• The figure shows the model consisting of four
sections:
1. Information inputs
2. Information processing
3. Decision process stages
4. Variables influencing the decision process

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 Decision Process Stage
• The starting point of any purchase decision in
consumer need or problem.
• This occurs when a consumer perceives a difference
between his/her ideal desired state and actual state.
• Steps in the decision making include:
– Need recognition
– Search
– Alternative evaluation
– Purchase
– Consumption
– Post consumption evaluation 36
 Information Input
• Internal search into memory to determine
whether or not enough is known about
alternatives to make a decision without
additional information searches.

• If there is not sufficient information contained

in memory, consumers will engage in external
search.

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• External sources used when searching for
information are categorized as either being
market dominated or other.
• Marketer dominated sources imply any
activities by suppliers of the product for the
purpose of offering information or persuasion.
• The other external source of information
includes for instance word-of-mouth from
others, product rating, and consumer reports.

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 Information Processing
• The information processing process
commences when the consumer is exposed to
an external search. In the information
processing process, five distinctive steps can
be identified:
– Exposure
– Attention
– Comprehension
– Acceptance
– Retention 39
• Exposure forms the first step of information
processing since communication first needs to
reach consumers, resulting in the activation of
one or more senses and therefore the start of
preliminary processing.

• Attention to information will most likely occur

if the incoming message and the contents
thereof are considered relevant. At this stage
consumers may ignore marketer dominated
messages, thereby exercising their capabilities
of selective attention.
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• During the third stage of information processing
process, comprehension, the message to which
attention was attracted, is further analysed
against categories of meaning stored in
memory. At this point, the marketer wishes for
accurate comprehension of the message.

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• The goal of the marketer’s message is to
modify or change beliefs and attitudes held by
consumers. At this stage of the information
processing process, acceptance of an
incoming message can be assumed if it has
not been screened out as being unacceptable.
• Of importance to note with acceptance is that
there will be, at least to some degree, changes
in the consumer beliefs and attitudes if the
message was accepted.

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• The final step in the process is that of retention, where
the marketer will aim to not only achieve acceptance
for its information but also the storing thereof in
memory for future use.

• It should be noted in the conclusion to the information

processing process that attention to stimuli will be
attracted and held only if the information is relevant to
the needs and motives of the consumer.
• Due to the massive volume of the competing messages
to which consumers are exposed, only a small subset
will be processed as a result of the selective
information processing capabilities of the consumers.
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 Variables Influencing the Decision Process

• Individual Differences:
i) Consumer Resources
• Each decision situation is characterized by the
involvement of three different consumer resources.
• First, the consumer uses time, which is valued since
time is often more important to consumers than
money due to the increasing lack of time in a
modern society
• The second resource is money or economic resource
and the third is information reception and
processing capabilities. 44
• The consumer’s perception regarding the
availability of these resources may affect the
willingness to spend time and money on
products, which causes the consumer to
carefully allocate these resources due to
limited availability thereof.

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ii) Knowledge
• Knowledge, defined as the information stored in
memory, encompasses a wide variety of
information, including the availability and
characteristics of products and services.

• Information contained in memory regarding

products include awareness of the product
category and brands within the product category,
attributes and beliefs of both the product
category and specific brands, and the availability
of products in terms of the distribution.
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• In addition, knowledge regarding products
also includes when to purchase, since the
consumers may be aware of special at certain
times during the year and may therefore delay
the purchase decision.
• A final component of knowledge is the
information contained in memory regarding
the uses and requirements to use a product.
Consumers may, therefore, be aware of the
uses of products, although they are not
actually able to operate it.
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iii) Attitude
• An attitude can be defined as an overall
evaluation of alternatives, ranging from
positive to negative.
• Attitudes are considered important in viewing
consumer behaviour, since behaviour is
strongly influenced by attitudes towards a
given product or brand.
• In addition to the above, attitudes influence
future choice and ate difficult to change.

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iv) Motives
• Needs and motives, where need is a central
variable in motivation, influence all phases of
the decision process.
• Activated needs, defined as a perceived
difference between an ideal and the present
state that is sufficient to activate behaviour,
lead to energised behaviour or drive that is
channeled towards certain goal achievement.

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v) Personality, Values and Lifestyle
• Personality, values and lifestyle encompass
what is known as psychological research,
where the emphasis is on individual traits,
values, beliefs and preferred behaviour
patterns that combine to characterise market
segment.

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• Environmental Influence
i) Culture
• According to the model, the importance of
the culture from a consumer behaviour
perspectives is that it provides people with a
sense of identity and understanding of
acceptable behaviour within the society.
• In addition, cultural influences attitudes and
behaviour, including the sense of self and
space, communication and language, etc.
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ii) Social Class
• It can be defined as divisions within society
where individuals share similar values,
interests and behaviours.
• Social classes are differentiated by socio-
economic status differences, often leading to
consumer behaviour differences, for example
the make of a vehicle or the favorite style of
dress.

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iii) Family

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iV) Situation
• Behaviour changes as the situation changes

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