Consumer's Decision-Making Process

Estimated time: 5 minutes

CISCE: Class 12

Key Points: Consumer's Decision-Making Process

A decision means selecting one option from two or more alternatives; without alternatives, decision-making does not arise.
Consumer decisions are strongly influenced by social factors like friends, family, coworkers, children, opinion leaders, and experts.
The Cognitive Model views the consumer as an informed and rational person who searches for information and uses simple rules to make decisions.
The Economic Model assumes consumers make fully rational and cost-based decisions, but this model is considered unrealistic.
The Passive Model sees consumers as easily influenced by advertisers and salespersons, though consumers are not always fully passive.
The Emotional Model states that many purchases are based on feelings, mood, impulse, and emotional satisfaction rather than logic.
An ideal decision-making model combines cognitive and emotional factors, along with social and cultural influences, including need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and feedback.