Consumer Buying Decision Processes

Unaware Of Product/Service Need

This is part of the AIDA [Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action] model, in which businesses view as exacting to imbue. Although consumers may need merely by consumption of procedures, not every consumer will desire such. Awareness is the first objective sought by consumers.  Black’s (2004) description of consumers’ biography (including life course as well as turning points) is what clarifies a desire from a need.

Social components, financial means, personalized relationships, so forth are part of the total sum for grabbing the attention of consumers that are innocent to what could be bestowed.  Applying this ratiocination:

• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads need to speak across many various persona biography dispositions.
• Micro Social Lifestyle Marketing need to makes use of banners and advertorials.
• Social networks promulgate topics, and messages that appeal to the biography emotional tug-of-war.

Aware of Product/Service Need

Shifting variables are what compel consumers to become aware of their needs. It could be their work physicality, perceptions, life turning points, so forth.  Positioning brand attributives while understanding complexities of fluid biography variables complement Goodwin’s (2006) Understanding The Funnel premise.

During this awareness stage, consumers search for social class segmentation as well.  The aware consumer begins a complex decision overview process; hence, consumers subconsciously commence evaluating a course of action. Keep website architecture and design straightforward by reason that consumers field websites to connect with idiosyncratic biography variables.

Product/Service Search

Carefully target consumers.  Aim specific content message variables at social class, age, gender, and economics. Intention is to motivate.  Identify web experience elements to bridge potential consumers biographies.

Advance directories, Search Engine Marketing (PPC ads), keyword SEO, and micro social lifestyle network marketing to targeted consumers. This genesis proffers consumers a way to weight and evaluate their options.  Each of the contexts aim is to establish unconscious comfort that speaks to the various consumer biography variables.  This methodology can leapfrog interest stage consumers directly to the action stage. It is reasonable to hypothesize that evaluation and selection have occurred simultaneously.

Evaluation and Selection

Constantinides (2004) explains that it’s a synergy sum encompassing advocacy, user reviews, and Web experiences that traverse usability, functionality, and psychological factors as well as content factors, which consumers undergo.  Consumers seek out a type of fit, which fits with their idea of fulfillment. It is the consumer who has to determine how online reviews or brand advocates align with their persona biography, which overlaps the initial scent trails.  This complex decision process highlights why alignment of brand benefits must correlate with the scent of trust.  Understand,  they (consumers) seekout a form of homogenity.  Moreover, the desire stage is then optimized to induce consumers to take action.

Action

This funnel stage is twofold.  Here the consumer can gain additional insight to determine whether the product/service finalizes their internal communication for rationalization, or continue their quest.  As focused as online cues may seem, consumers search for a type of psychological comfort that caters and inspirits to their particular tastes.  Known factors that pretext consumer “abandonment” include price, availability, supplementary constraints, and corporeal biography.

Offline media as well as social network announcements should direct consumers to the website for conversion as well as needle prior online trail scents to assist consumers with conversion who were or are still balancing internalized communication.  It is a no-win situation when it comes to how consumers rationalize.  Consumer construed dynamics are what determine if brand relationships will be forwarded, or be a one-time fling.

Post Evaluation

This process is to modify marketing messages, confirm consumer relationship interests, and to request advocacy amongst the growing coterie.  Dependent upon how much information a consumer elects to disclose, use personalized thank you e-mails or hand written notes to promote every newly formed relationship.  This helps deflect negative online chatter when outcomes do not meet the consumer's self-satisfied critiquing.  Encourage new customers to join, befriend, or follow the brand’s social networks as well as micro local social lifestyle networks.  This permits the brand to continue communicating with consumers, market private offerings that otherwise would be secret, and build advocacy by granting them permission to pass along private offerings to their friends.  This is what empowers consumers to freely campaign online for a brand as well as post content for others to share.


As detailed, this model of the buying decision process is by no means perfect.  Continuous awareness of target consumer behavior is critical.  New assimilations about consumer behavior, modify or reshape business behavior as well as marketing approaches. Businesses today operate in competitive markets that yield consumers many choices; while at the same time, the consumer limits choices due to biography constraints; this dichotomy needs to be understood by businesses so that online marketing channels can more narrowly focus around identified target audiences.  For this reason, content creation should be purposed in pursuit of building social relationships. Espousing this approach benefits businesses through the ability to facilitate conversations, cater to idiosyncrasies of the target audiences, promulgate invisible undercurrents, and promote brand attributes.