Business Studies

Review the “Consumer Purchasing Decisions” topic Resources. Describe the consumer decision-making process and the factors that would most influence consumers when making their first purchase of each of the items below. Justify your selections using the topic Resources.

Chewing gum
A smartphone
A new car

ANSWER

Customer Decision-Making Process

The consumer decision-making process is the steps taken by the buyer in realizing the most critical needs, gathering the needed information on how best to solve the requirements, and examining the best available options. The process involves market awareness, the first step, followed by searching for data, evaluating alternatives, purchasing decisions, and lastly, the post-purchase evaluation (Zhang, Zhao & Gupta, 2018). These are some of the factors consumers consider before making their first purchase. On the other hand, some factors affect the decision-making process, ranging from cultural aspects to social considerations.

Chewing gum is a product with a lower budget but will a lot of customers. This, therefore, creates a situation called routine buying as the client will not gather much data but rather depend on advertisements and personal preferences. Because of the lower price of the commodity and ease of use, the massive effects on purchasing a defective item and the client can get the chewing gum without much information search. This is different from getting a smart-phone which has a relatively higher price ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars. The involvement of customers in this purchase is somewhat higher than that of chewing gum. A buyer will consider the different brands, costs, and features. They will later compare these items and decide whether to purchase or not (Stankevich, 2017). Getting a new car engages a lot of decision-making processes from the customer. The product is expensive and has many financial consequences if the right product is not acquired appropriately. Getting a new car engages intense customer buying where a lot of information must be collected and humble time is taken to decide on picking the best item.

References

Stankevich, A. (2017). Explaining the consumer decision-making process: Critical literature review. Journal of International Business Research and Marketing, 2(6).

Zhang, H., Zhao, L., & Gupta, S. (2018). The role of online product recommendations on customer decision making and loyalty in social shopping communities. International Journal of Information Management, 38(1), 150-166.