13.2 Pre-purchase behavior

The pre-purchase stage

All purchases begin with an awareness of a basic need or want. Consumers then establish their

decision criteria and refine the need or want. In the pre purchase stage, consumers often look for

opinions and recommendations from other people and sources.

In this stage, the recognition of need and the searching and gathering of information is important; in this

stage the evaluation of the alternatives is also essential.

Recognition of need:

Recognition of need occurs when the consumer is faced with a problem or a need. Recognition of need

occurs when the person sees a significant difference between his actual and best and ideal state.

The person gets this best and ideal state from the followings: personal expectations and

aspirations, the culture, the reference group and the marketing.

The consumer recognizes that he has a certain need that he wants to satisfy. The need is important

because it is a mean which activates the buying decision of the individual. If the person buys a sandwich

or a bottle of mineral water, this identifies the need of hunger or thirst of the individual.

In these strong needs, the information search and evaluation of alternatives is not required; but if the...

13.2 Pre-purchase behavior

...need is regarding more complex purchase such as buying cars or laptops or furniture, then information

search and evaluating alternatives is a must.

Searching and gathering information stage:

When the individual recognizes his need for a particular product or service he will start gathering

information through different sources. These sources can be external or external sources. The internal

sources involve scanning information from memory to recall past experiences or knowledge regarding

purchase alternatives.

When the individual buys a certain product and is satisfied with it, he will definitely buy it again. If the

individual does not have any prior experience, he will engage into extensive search for useful information

for his decision making.

As for the external search, it involves going to outside sources to acquire information. These sources

are:

Personal Sources: friends, family members, coworkers, acquaintances.

Commercial sources such as advertisements, sales people.

Public sources such as newspapers, Radio, and magazine.

Experiential sources.

13.2 Pre-purchase behavior

The consumer usually searches his or her memory before seeking external sources of information

regarding a given consumption related need. Past experience is considered an internal source of

information.

The greater the relevant past experience, the less external information the consumer is likely to need to

reach a decision. Many consumers' decisions are based on a combination of past experience (internal

source) and external sources.

The act of shopping is an important form of external information. The majority of women for example find

shopping a relaxing and enjoyable experience while majority of men do not find it the same.

It is also obvious that when the amount of total search increases, consumer attitudes toward shopping

becomes more positive, and is giving it plenty of time.

It is important to point out that the Internet has a great impact on the pre purchase search. Websites now

provide consumers with the information they need about the product or services they are considering to

buy.

How much information a consumer will gather depends on various situational factors. Consumer

behavior is influenced by the circumstances surrounding the purchase of the product. These factors are:

13.2 Pre-purchase behavior

Experience

Social acceptability

Value-related considerations

Physical surroundings

Temporal effects

Purchase tasks

Evaluation of Alternatives:

In this stage, the consumer evaluates the different alternatives which he comes across when he is

searching for information. The consumer moves to alternative evaluation by comparing the various

brands and services he has identified as being capable of solving the consumption problem and

satisfying the needs that starts the decision process.

When evaluating the potential alternatives, consumers use two types of information:

A list of brands from which they plan to make their selections (The evoked set).

The criteria they will use to evaluate each brand. Making a selection from a sample of all possible

brands is a human characteristic that helps simplify the decision making process.

13.2 Pre-purchase behavior

The evoked set or the consideration set: In the decision making process.

The evoked set refers to the specific brands a consumer considers in a making a purchase within a

particular product category. The evoked set is the brands that spontaneously come to the mind of the

consumer during the recognition of his needs. It is distinguished from the inept and the inert set of the

consumer.

The inept set consists of brands the consumer excludes from his purchase consideration because they

are felt to be unacceptable or inferior.

The inert set consists of brands that the consumer is indifferent towards it and he perceives them as

having no particular advantages. Regardless of the total number of brands in a product category, the

consumer evoked set is from three to five brands only.

This evoked set increases in size as experience when the product category grows. It consists of the

small number of brands that the consumer is familiar with, remembers and accepts them. It is essential

that if a product is to be considered, it should be part of the consumer's evoked set.

For highly family decisions, consumers may not consider any brands beyond those in the evoked set. If

consumers are certain that they already know the important of choice options, they will not search for

additional ones.

13.2 Pre-purchase behavior

There are five terminal positions in the model that explains why the purchase did not happen. These

five terminal positions are:

Brands may be unknown because of the consumer's selective exposure to advertising media and

selective perception of advertising stimuli.

Brands may be unacceptable because of their poor qualities or their inappropriate positioning in

either advertising or product characteristic.

Brands may be regarded indifferent and having no benefits by the consumer.

Brands may be overlooked because they have been clearly positioned at the consumer market

segment under study.

Brands may not be selected because they are perceived as being unable to satisfy perceived

needs.

There are two factors that determine the size of the evoked set:

Characteristics of consumers

The characteristics of the product or the service.

13.2 Pre-purchase behavior

Criteria used to evaluate alternatives:

In order to evaluate brands, there are some criteria to be used. Information search suggests criteria and

identifies brands. Evaluative criteria include those criteria that are important to the consumers when

rating product alternatives. Firms try to identify evaluative criteria through market research.

Some of these criteria can be going on line for assistance; the lifestyles affect the consumer decision

strategy. For example when the consumer wants to purchase a car, he will be involved in a number of

decisions regarding the make, the model, the country of origin, the dealer, the financing and other

different options.