Decision making and involvement

• Problem Recognition
• Problem recognition occurs whenever there is a significant difference between the current state and a desired state
• Involvement


  The perceived relevance of purchase to the consumer
• Antecedent States affecting purchase

  • Consumer's mood, time pressure, disposition towards shopping
• Marketers' role in problem creation

  • Primary demand: Encouraging product use regardless of brand
  • Secondary demand: Encouraging preference for one brand over another
• Consumers as problem-solvers

  • Consumer decision-making is central to consumer behaviour
  • Evaluation and choice of products vary based on dimensions like novelty or risk
  • Constant need to make decisions about products, some important and effortful, others automatic
  • Marketplace environment characterized by consumer hyper choice complicates decision-making
• Limited problem-solving


  • Occurs when the consumer is less motivated to search for information or evaluate alternatives rigorously
• Decision-making process


  We seek to solve a problem or achieve a desired goal
• Decision-Making Styles

  • Quality-Conscious
  • Brand-Conscious
  • Novelty-Fashion Conscious
  • Recreational
  • Value-Conscious
  • Impulsive
  • Confused
  • Brand-loyal
  • Apathetic
• Information Search

  1. Internal vs. external search

  2. Deliberate vs. accidental search
• Problems can arise in two ways

  • Need recognition: When a current possession malfunctions
  • Opportunity recognition: The desire for something new
• Sets in Information Search

  • Evoked Set
  • Consideration Set
  • Inept Set
  • Inert Set
• Product Choice


  1. Today's choices involve weeding out excess detail rather than searching for more alternatives

  2. Decision-making is not always strictly rational, influenced by mental accounting principles
• Steps in the consumer decision process

  1. Pre-purchase: Awareness of want/need, search/evaluation of information

  2. Purchase

  3. Consumption

  4. Post-purchase: Evaluation in use, assuage anxiety, information sharing
• Types of Information

  • Brands (evoked set)
  • Attributes
  • Evaluations
  • Experiences
• Problem Recognition


  The perceived difference between an ideal and an actual state motivating the consumer to act
• Low Involvement Hierarchy

  1. Brand beliefs are formed through passive learning

  2. A purchase decision is then made

  3. Brands are then evaluated
• Resistance may occur in active learning due to its engaging nature
• Consideration set formation is generally thought to reflect a benefit versus cost trade-off
• Active learning in consumer behaviour context

  Involves acquisition of knowledge BEFORE purchase and extensive information search
• Passive learning in consumer behaviour context

  Acquisition of knowledge without active learning
• Level of involvement and relevance of purchases for consumers

  Can bring about different decision-making processes
• Heuristics

  Mental rules-of-thumb used to simplify decision-making and lead to speedy decisions
• Decision-making

  1. Consumers use one of several decision rules

  2. Non-compensatory rules do not allow for positive and negative attributes to balance out

  3. Compensatory rules allow for the positive evaluation of one brand attribute to balance out the negative attributes
• Low Involvement Decision outcomes

  • Inertia or spurious loyalty
  • Random choice
• Principles of mental accounting demonstrate that the way a problem is posed and whether it is put in terms of gains and losses influences what we decide
• Common heuristics

  • Determining quality by looking at the price
  • Relying on well-known brand names or a product’s country of origin as a signal of product quality
• Market beliefs are developed over time
• Research in the field of behavioural economics illustrates that decision-making is not always strictly rational
• Brand Beliefs formation

  • Low Involvement Hierarchy
  • High Involvement Hierarchy
• Consistent brand purchases may be due to true brand loyalty or simply due to inertia because it is the easiest thing to do
• High Involvement Decision outcomes

  • Complex decision-making and dissonance reduction
  • Significant differences between brands
  • Variety-seeking
  • Random choice
  • Experimentation
  • Complex decision-making or brand loyalty
• High Involvement Hierarchy

  1. Brand beliefs are formed through active learning

  2. A purchase decision is made after a process of search and evaluation where evaluative criteria are applied
• Companies that invest in a particular communications message can build a relationship between the viewer and the message
• If the choice is a high-involvement decision which may include an element of risk


  The consumer is likely to engage in dissonance reduction strategies to ensure that they make the right choice
• Enduring involvement


  The pre-existing relationship between an individual and the object of concern
• Wine bought to drink at home might be purchased at the supermarket


  Perhaps influenced by price deals and expert recommendations
• Link the brand to hedonic needs to increase involvement
• In the high-involvement situation


  The consumer has more reason to engage in active decision-making to ensure that they examine all possibilities
• Different people will exhibit varying levels of involvement with regard to the same product


  Due to differences in their personality, socio-economic and demographic factors, previous experience, and the product’s relevance to them and their situation