How People Make Buying Decisions
Read this chapter, which discusses consumers' decision-making process and examines the situational, personal, psychological, and societal factors influencing their buying decisions.
Low-Involvement Versus High-Involvement Buying Decisions and the Consumer's Decision-Making Process
Key Takeaways
- Consumer behavior looks at the many reasons why
people buy things and later dispose of them. Consumers go through
distinct buying phases when they purchase products: (1) realizing the
need or wanting something, (2) searching for information about the item,
(3) evaluating different products, (4) choosing a product and
purchasing it, (5) using and evaluating the product after the purchase,
and (6) disposing of the product. A consumer's level of involvement is
how interested he or she is in buying and consuming a product.
Low-involvement products are usually inexpensive and pose a low risk to
the buyer if he or she makes a mistake by purchasing them.
High-involvement products carry a high risk to the buyer if they fail,
are complex, or have high price tags. Limited-involvement products fall
somewhere in between.