BUS602: Marketing Management

Generally speaking, buyers run through a series of steps in deciding whether to purchase a particular product. Some purchases are made without much thought. You probably don't think much, for example, about the brand of gasoline you put in your car; you just stop at the most convenient place. Other purchases, however, require considerable thought. For example, you probably spent a lot of time deciding which college to attend. Let's revisit that decision as a means of examining the five steps that are involved in the consumer buying process and that are summarized in Figure 9.16 "The Buying Process": need recognition, information search, evaluation, purchase, and post-purchase evaluation.

1. Need recognition. The process began when you recognized a need to go to college. Perhaps you wanted to prepare for a particular career, to become better educated, or to postpone going to work full time. Maybe your parents insisted.
2. Information search. Once you recognized the need to go to college, you probably started gathering information about colleges. You may have gone online and studied the Web sites posted by a few schools. Perhaps you attended college fairs or spoke with your high school guidance counselor. You probably talked with friends about your options. Once you let colleges know that you were interested, admissions departments likely sent you tons of information.
3. Evaluation. At this point, you studied the information you'd gathered. First, you probably decided what was important to you in looking at a college. Perhaps price was your number-one criterion, or maybe distance from home. Maybe size was important, or reputation, or available majors. Maybe it was the quality of the football team or the male-to-female ratio.
4. Purchase. Ultimately you made a "purchase" decision. In so doing, you focused on what was most important to you. Naturally, you could choose only among schools that had accepted you.
5. Post-purchase evaluation. The buying process didn't end when you selected a school. It continues today, while you're using the "product" you purchased. How many times have you rethought your decision? Are you happy with it? Would you make the same choice again?

Understanding the buying process of potential students is crucial to college administrators in developing marketing strategies to attract qualified "buyers". They'd certainly like to know what information you found useful, which factors most influenced your decision, and how you made your final choice. They'll also want to know whether you're happy with your choice. This is the kind of information that colleges are seeking when they solicit feedback, both from students who chose their schools and from those who didn't.