Marketing process: making a purchasing decision. Stages of the process

Managing consumer behavior is an important marketing challenge. Its importance especially increases in highly competitive markets, where the choice of goods is great. In order to influence the behavior of the consumer, it is necessary to understand how the process of accepting the customer's purchasing decision proceeds and what methods can be used to push him to the desired solution at different stages.

Background

As an independent field of study , consumer behavior is formed in the middle of the 20th century. Against the background of growing interest in motivational research, at the intersection of psychology and marketing, a new sphere of knowledge appears. Its object of study is the behavioral features of the consumer, including the process we are considering in the article - the decision to buy. At the origins of science were American scientists J. Angel and R. Blackwell, they wrote the first textbook "Consumer behavior", which today is a classic, and created one of the first models of the decision-making process for buying. The purpose of the science of consumer behavior was to find effective methods of influencing decision-making.

Principles of consumer behavior management

Marketing in its desire to influence the buyer's decision should proceed from the following basic postulates:

• The consumer is independent in his decisions, his sovereignty should not be violated;
• Consumer motivation and the described process (purchasing decision) are learned through research;
• The behavior of the consumer can be influenced;
• Influence on the consumer's decision is socially legitimate.

These principles were formulated at the stage of the formation of the science of consumer behavior and are unshakable.

The concept of buying in marketing

Purchase is the main and desired goal of marketing programs. The essence of the purchase is to exchange money for goods and services. At the same time, for a consumer, buying is most often associated with stress: the more significant the price, the more difficult it is for a person to decide on making a purchase. The price of the goods is expressed in money, and they, in turn, are perceived by the consumer as a part of himself, because to receive money he spends his resources: time, skills, knowledge. Therefore parting with money is often given to the consumer not easily. The task of the marketer is to facilitate this process, to help a person to enjoy the purchase and to remain satisfied with his acquisition. To solve this problem, the marketer needs to be well aware of how the buyer makes the purchasing decision. Today there are such types of purchases as:

• Completely planned purchase, when the consumer knows exactly the brand, price and place of purchase. Usually this type is associated with the acquisition of expensive durable goods.
• Partially planned purchase, when the consumer knows what goods he would like to purchase, but with the brand and the place of purchase was not determined. This type most often applies to goods of daily demand, for example milk or bread.
• Impulse buying, when a consumer buys something under the influence of a momentary desire. Usually, inexpensive things are bought this way, it is to such purchases that the "hot" cash zone, for example, where up to 90% of impulse purchases are stimulated, is stimulated.

Models of the purchasing decision process

Despite the individual differences of people, their behavior as consumers can be schematized. Therefore, it is customary in marketing to apply models of consumer behavior. They greatly simplify the understanding of the sequence of actions of the buyer and allow to determine the optimal place of influence on the consumer. Historically, the first model was the scheme of F. Kotler called "The Black Box of the Consciousness of the Buyer". In this model, the incoming driving factors fall into the black box, in which they are converted into the buyer's response. Kotler failed to clarify the essence of the decision-making process and called it a "black box", but his merit was that he pointed to the existence of such a behavioral field. The first full-fledged model of the decision-making process was created by Angel and his team. In it, the sequence of actions of the person making the decision was presented: from the origin of the motive to purchase to the feeling of pleasure or displeasure after its fulfillment.

Today, there are at least 50 different purchasing decision models, they differ in the degree of detail, but they can all be summarized in five main stages of this process.

Awareness of need

Each process of making a purchasing decision by the buyer begins with the appearance of the motive and awareness of the need. Any person is constantly attacked by various desires, and the most relevant consumer can choose from them not only based on their actual needs, but also under the influence of various external and internal factors. The purpose of marketing programs is to help the consumer realize his desire. Advertising, for example, is able not only to tell a person what he can buy to meet one or another need, but also to form a desire. For example, housewives did not need multivarkers until advertising told them about the capabilities of this device.

There are not so many natural needs for a person, and marketing seeks to push a person to maximum, not necessary consumption. A modern resident of a megacity does not have enough clothes to save him from the cold, he needs a fashionable thing from well-known brands to satisfy the needs for prestige in accordance with fashion trends. It was the efforts of marketers that led to these needs. As part of marketing communications, the consumer is influenced, during which he leans in favor of one or another option to meet the perceived need.

search for information

All stages of the decision making process can lead to a purchase. In some cases, the consumer can make a purchase already at the stage of the need, for example, he wanted to drink, immediately saw a water dispenser and bought a product to quench his thirst. This is more often possible in the case of a small cost of goods and with minor differences between the goods. If the purchase requires relatively high costs, then the consumer inevitably begins to collect information on possible options for meeting the demand. The search for information has certain regularities. When a problem arises, a person first turns to his internal information resources (knowledge stored in memory), and only if he does not receive a response there, refers to external sources - the media, friends, points of sale. In practice, it looks like this: a man wanted to buy a sandwich - he remembers where there are nearby points of sale of this product. If you remember, he will not turn to other sources of information. If not, he can ask his friends, look on the Internet, etc. Therefore, marketers tend to fill the person's memory with information about the product, and also organize an accessible information environment, so that if necessary, the consumer could learn about the product from different sources.

Evaluation of alternatives

When the search for information provided several relatively equivalent options for satisfying the need, the decision-making process for buying the product enters the next stage - comparing the options. Evaluation criteria can be different, and the stage can take the form of a simple comparison (milk is fresh and yesterday), and can turn into a real expert evaluation involving outsiders and building a system of criteria (for example, buying an expensive phone). The more expensive and prestigious the purchase, the more difficult the comparison process takes. In this case, the influence of advertising, brand, recommendations of the seller or an authoritative person can have a decisive effect on the decision making.

Purchase decision

The described process - the decision to purchase - can be completed at any stage if the person has received strong arguments in favor of committing or refusing the action. The final purchase decision comes at the point of sale, and here the atmosphere of the store and the person of the seller, as well as the competent arrangement of the point of sale: the layout of the goods, navigation, cleanliness, convenience of payment, etc. are important factors of influence. Organoleptic properties.

Post-Purchase Behavior

The main goal of marketing - customer satisfaction - is all the stages of the decision-making process by the consumer. Purchase is preceded by doubt, evaluation of alternatives, choice, but it does not come to an end. Bringing the goods home, the buyer continues to doubt the correctness of their choice. If the goods in operation will not bring satisfaction and pleasure, then the consumer will begin to disseminate negative information about the product, which will adversely affect the decision of other buyers. Therefore, marketers take care to convince the buyer of the correctness of the choice and after the purchase, for this an additional service is offered, guarantees that support advertising.

Management of consumer behavior

The complex process of consumer acceptance of the purchase decision is the object of the marketer's actions. At each stage, you can influence the outcome of this process. At the stages of understanding the needs and searching for information, factors such as social and cultural values, reference groups, characteristics of the social class and the lifestyle of the consumer are involved. At the stage of comparing alternatives and at the post-purchase stage, the brand plays an important role, its image and advertising. Marketers, in fact, do not leave their attention to the consumer ever, they smoothly lead him on the steps of the ladder of purchasing readiness for buying, and then immediately involve in a new process. The decision to purchase at each stage should have its results - it is awareness, knowledge, attitude, involvement, loyalty. These results are the result of a large, complex work that begins and ends with research on consumer behavior.

Importance of consumer behavior research

Investigating the decision-making process about the purchase of goods is the starting point for the formation of any marketing program. Not knowing how and where the consumer will look for information, what factors influence his choice, it is impossible to carry out competent media planning and wording of the advertising message. And the stages of the purchasing decision-making process are the subject of thorough marketing analysis. And it should be remembered that decision-making models vary depending on the product life cycle. So, the novelty and widely known mature goods people buy differently. The models of behavior in the wholesale and retail markets differ, and these differences are revealed only in the course of research.

Examples of decision making processes for purchasing

Without realizing it, we face the problem of choice on a daily basis: what to buy for lunch, where to go to rest, what gift to buy to a loved one, etc. The process of making a purchase decision, examples of which each person can find in practice, is Usual and often automatic. It is common for any consumer to save their resources, including temporary, energy and intellectual resources. Therefore, we strive to translate any process into the region of the familiar and stereotyped. If we once spent time and energy on the choice of juice and he satisfied us with a cavity, then we are unlikely to start thinking about the same problem again unless we are compelled to do this by circumstances, but we will buy the same juice. An example of a complex search behavior is the purchase of a car, most often in such a situation a person goes through all the stages of the decision making process, long compares the options and is sensitive to postpurchase services.