hey there thanks for watching this video
on the consumer buying process this is
Matt we're going to walk through the
consumer buying process kind of a series
of five stages that we go through as
consumers when we're making purchases
and kind of the relevance that this has
of course to business which is the
perspective in which we we try to view
things of course and so the consumer
buying process I mentioned before we'll
walk through the stages explain the
purpose of it and then we'll add in some
information on why it's relevant for
business now the consumer buying process
starts with a a problem and it's really
stage one is what we call a problem also
need recognition and so what happens
here is that there is some type of
tension and this tension is creating a
actual issue for us and so we're going
to take steps as a way of alleviating or
relieving that tension if you will and
so if you look at it from a basic
physiological standpoint if we have a
need for a water right the tension is
that that kind of feeling that you get
when you're thirsty you have that
dryness that happens kind of in your
mouth and you you have a desire to kind
of solve that problem of course and so
that's how problems essentially begin
that now problems can stem from
physiological needs which is very very
basic of course but they can also stem
from things that we see on television or
the radio or we observe just through
simply observation and we find that
there's a disconnect between the state
of being that were in and the state of
being that we desire and so it can be
something as simple of seeing someone
drive by in a really nice car and yours
isn't quite nice and so that creates an
actual problem for you and you have a
desire or you need for that or you see a
new television commercial for a brand
new smartphone and all of a sudden the
smartphone that you have just really
doesn't meet all the different
requirements that you have
this one does all these new things and
has these great features and offers
these new benefits and so you have a
fundamental problem so however you get
there right whether it's if it's through
advertising or physiological need or
whatever the case may be what we do is
we try to gather information and so that
ventures into the second stage in which
we call the information searching stage
or information seeking and so in this
stage here what we're doing is we're
trying to essentially identify possible
solutions to our problem and so we're
not necessarily evaluating or performing
any type of you know kind of putting any
type of rigor to weed out bad options
versus good we're really just trying to
throw as many things as we can out there
to generate as many possibilities that
we can and so we may talk to you know
family and friends right if we're
looking for something specific that can
that can maybe help us solve our
problems so maybe we talked to family
and friends if they've been in a similar
situation me for example I recently and
by recent I mean three or four years ago
ran into an issue or my coffee pot broke
down which you might think that's not a
very big issue but I drink coffee every
day unfortunately and I love it and so
if I don't have coffee that creates a
very huge problem for me so naturally I
start to seek information as a way of
solving my particular problem and so I
looked at all different types of coffee
pots I went online or reviews did
searches online I spoke with family that
have different types of coffee makers
and asked them about their experiences
I spoke with different friends who had
coffee makers you know is I gathered as
much information as I possibly could I
wasn't necessarily making a decision at
that point I was just trying to get as
much opinion and perspective
as I possibly can as a way of leveraging
some of the context that I had and their
experiences so that I don't make a bad
decision and so that would be the
information-seeking stage gathering as
much information as possible using
public sources using personal sources
your own experiences I had a coffee
maker that was a certain brand it broke
probably not going with that one that
was my own experience of course so those
are the things that you will do to
evaluate the actual decision now one of
the things I should mention is that the
complexity of the purchase the expense
of the purchase and how long-lasting it
is will determine how much process or
how much thought you put into this
process and so if you're buying a pack
of gum right you're not going to like
evaluate information and gather as much
as possible and think okay well this one
has this flavor and this one the
packaging looks kind of cool you're not
going to care right it's very very low
dollar amount you're going to make it
immediately and if it's horrible you
just won't buy it again and you'll just
go with something else you're not going
to put a lot of thought into it and so
those types of you know convenience
purchases right low dollar items you're
probably not going to go through the
steps as extensively as you would for
buying a house where it's a long lasting
decision it's very expensive so you're
going to put some time and effort into
it or maybe buying a car or something
like that so once you've gathered enough
information what we do is we go on to
the third stage and this is what we call
the evaluation of alternatives
and so in the evaluation of alternative
stage what we're doing is we're taking
the information that we have right in
this case for my example right I had
some different coffee makers right
you know like three or four kind of
picked out and then you evaluate them so
you put forth some type of you know way
of measuring good and bad your different
variables right price usually something
we consider may be warranty after
purchase service right we consider those
things reviews you know me you know as
waning okay does it have a grinder
because I kind of like the smell of
coffee when it grinds and kind of
permeate through the house once again
I'm crazy and like coffee a lot but that
was something that I was was somewhat
important to me you know price was
relatively important I didn't care too
much I was willing to spend you know
once again I really like coffee so I was
willing to spend quite a bit of money to
get really good coffee maker and so I
had different variables that I that I
measured everything actually against we
do a lot of entertaining so one of
things that was important was having
something that actually you know I
didn't like brewing like one pot of
decaf coffee for that one person that
actually likes it in the evening so that
was also important and so I had a number
of different variables that some of them
not mentioning but things that I was
looking at in terms of the actual coffee
maker and so you evaluate all of those
things by whatever is important to you
and then ultimately in the next stage
right Stage four you make a purchase
decision
and so this is when you actually make a
purchase now we make purchases for a
number of different reasons right so we
use completely Iraq or completely kind
of logical evaluation right based upon
specific attributes right things that
are objective we can also base them
based on non non objective attribute to
non objective factors right things like
likability right like I buy clothes
because if I look a certain way people
to like me or to buy a certain car
because people think well how important
right and so we don't base them always
on you know logical factors we base them
off of you know prestige and likability
and all those different things or
whatever so I ended up purchasing a
specific type of you know coffee maker I
bought a Keurig this is not an
advertisement for Keurig you don't have
to go out and purchase one I'm not
telling you to do that I really like it
and that really worked well so I end up
buying a Keurig that was my actual
decision so at this stage of the process
you would think that well we're kind of
done this is it we go home or finish our
product yeah it's great but there's also
a fifth stage in that fifth stage is
what we call the post purchase behavior
and the post purchase behavior is what
sets in after the the purchase happens
if you've realized and this happens for
high dollar items sometimes lower dollar
items but usually for things are more
expensive and so what happens is we
begin to once we purchase it we start to
evaluate it based upon what we thought
it was going to do right so we've kind
of built it up in our mind and we use it
and two things happen either we use it
and it's fantastic and it's great and we
have no problems or we use the product
and we start to think well it doesn't
quite work the way that I thought maybe
it's it doesn't brew coffee as fast as I
thought it would or the temperature
isn't quite just right or you know
whatever the different factors are and
so what happens is is a concept that is
known as cognitive dissonance begins to
set in
cognitive dissonance is a fancy
psychology term really all it refers to
is buyer's remorse and we've all gone
through this and you're probably
thinking of examples in which you have
and so generally what takes place is
there's a disconnect between a position
that we feel like we're going to be in
versus where we are there's a difference
in our present state and so that causes
some type of dissonance if you will and
so usually with buyer's remorse we
purchase something and then we gret
regret the decision and so naturally
what we do it's really interesting is
that we try to look for things that
support our purchase and so I don't know
about you but what I've done before is I
will like look online for like favorable
reviews on things just to reinforce my
purchase decision to kind of pat myself
on the back and say you know what I made
a right decision I'm very smart and so
we naturally do that because we don't
want to feel like we made the wrong
decision right that's never fun for
anybody you know at the end of the day
we want to look ourselves in the mirror
and say I made a bad decision that's not
a very fun thing to do and so we're
looking for sources to reinforce our
purchase decision which is completely
completely normal and so businesses are
aware that people engage in cognitive
dissonance they are vastly aware of this
that's why many businesses offer really
good return policies this is why they
offer a lot of services after the fact
this is why businesses advertise all the
features and benefits because hopefully
you're sitting there watching television
and you see the advertisement and you
think oh yeah it does do those things oh
yeah yeah I'm really smart I made a good
decision that's what they want there's a
really good Best Buy commercial that
aired probably a couple years ago at
least by the date of this video that was
a it was a bunch of different kind of
montages of people purchasing different
products and so one of them was a
gentleman purchased a 3d TV and all of a
sudden there was like a truck going by
with an advertisement on the side of it
that was advertising 4d and so that's
the example of
of distances because now we purchase
something and we think oh man there's
already something better out there
and I made a bad decision and so one a
really good thing that some companies do
is they actually will send kind of
personalized thank-you letters and so
one of the things I got from Carrie was
very smart and I knew what they were
doing but it's still very smart was when
I registered it I got a like a nice
letter in the mail and it was like on
that thick paper it was in a nice folder
right not not like folded up into a just
regular envelope that you see nowadays
but it was in a you know full size eight
and a half by eleven envelope and it was
inside it was a nice thick kind of
cardstock paper and it says you know
dear mat and the first sentence is
congratulations on the purchase of your
Keurig blah-blah-blah-blah-blah Brewer
your Keurig does all the following
things outlines features outlines
benefits once again tells me how awesome
I am
tells me about all the different things
now they're doing that for a point I
feel really good about myself right I'm
like you know what I did make the right
decision you know what I am incredibly
awesome and you're right I am awesome
that's great but they're doing that for
one purpose and that's to reduce my
cognitive dissonance all right they
don't they want me thinking I'm great
because they don't want me returning the
product more importantly they want me
happy with it because of I'm happy with
it then I'll talk about it forever and
I'll you know kind of mark it for them
for free and all these different things
and it's very very smart because by just
sending that letter they reiterated all
the different features all the different
benefits to once again remind me of why
I purchased that to reduce that
depending upon the extent to which I
experience cognitive dissonance
so not all companies do that but you
certainly have to consider you know if
it's a high dollar item if it's
something that people have a lot of
different options out there right if
it's the only thing that does that
specific function you don't have to
worry about people engaging and calling
the distance because I have nothing to
compare it to but if there's a high
degree of competition around you
certainly have to consider the extent to
which people are going to experience
that buyer's remorse that's very very
problematic and so the value of course
he
is recognizing obviously that we all
experience cognitive dissonance but also
by determining which stage consumers are
in whether if it's information seeking
right if I'm a company I want to
determine how my consumers find
information because if I know this if I
know the trough the location where they
gather information I have the ability to
influence them at that particular area
if I know they go to a particular site
for information
maybe I try to advertise on that site or
at least get favorable reviews posted on
that site and so there's certain value
in doing that right evaluation of
alternatives what alternatives do people
consider if I know the different
alternatives this is a question mark if
I know the different alternatives that I
know how to position myself against
maybe my competitors I know what areas
to focus on right where are their let's
say weaknesses what are my strengths and
how do I elevate those and bring their
weaknesses to light as a way of
positioning myself a little more
favorably unless you understand the
consumer buying process understand what
are the alternatives that your consumers
evaluate then you certainly have no
opportunity to really leverage that and
improve the success of your business and
then once again kind of going backwards
a little bit but the problem in the need
recognition right
how do my consumers experience problems
if you truly have an ideal and specific
understanding of your target market and
you're going to understand what creates
problems what causes needs for your
market and then you once again have the
ability to design specific products that
are tailored to them is a way of solving
and addressing those particular needs so
I hope that helps clarify the stage of
the consumer buying process it is a very
very important piece in marketing it's
important for businesses to know they
understand it but actually execute on it
right knowledge in itself is not helpful
unless it is actionable so if you have
questions feel free post a question in
the comment box I'll do my best to get
back to those as quickly as I can
otherwise thanks for watching and have a
great rest of the day