Class 4 - February 3, 2011

This week we discussed Chapter 5, Consumer Decision Making.

One of the things I took away from this class was the 5 steps of the consumer decision-making process. 

1. Need Recognition - the imbalance between present state and preferred state - internal and external stimuli.
2. Information Search - Internal search is to recall from memory.  External search is using outside sources.   When you know more about the subject, it is less risky, where as the less information you know about the subject, the more risky it is.  You eventually end up with an evoked set, the group of brands from your search to choose from. 
3. Evaluation of Alternatives - This is where you narrow down from your evoked set.  You can either pick an attribute and exclude all the products in the set without that attribute or use cutoffs.  Cutoffs are either minimum or maximum levels of an attribute that an alternative must pass to be considered.
4. Purchase - Marketing tells the purchaser what attributes the product has to achieve your objective.
5. Post Purchase Behavior -  When people recognize inconsistency between their values or opinions and their behavior, they tend to feel an inner tension called cognitive dissonance, also referred to as buyers remorse. 

Another thing I found really interesting was Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.  It is a method of classifying human needs and motivations into five categories in ascending order of importance. 

1. The base level is psychological needs - food, water, and shelter.  Because these are the basic needs, they must be met first. 
2. The second is safety needs - security and protection.  Marketers sometimes appeal to consumers' anxieties and fears about safety to sell their products.
3. The third is social needs - a sense of belonging or love.  Marketers probably appeal more to this need than any other.  Teens especially want to belong to the in crowd and marketers appeal brands for them to this need.   
4. The fourth is esteem needs - self-esteem, recognition and status.  This also includes prestige, fame, and recognition of one's accomplishments.  Marketers know that Asians especially are strongly motivated by status, thus they spend freely on premium brands.
5. The top level is self-actualization needs - self-development and self-realization.  This is the point where people feel that they are what they should be.  Although Maslow felt that very few people ever attain this level, advertisers may focus on this type of need.

I will want to make sure that, as I sell my clients my services, that they feel that they are making the right choice.  I will need to inform them, in detail, of what I will be doing for them, especially those that know less information about it and will view my service as more risky than others might.