What is a decision? A decision can be generally defined as a selection made by the consumer from a range of at least two product choices available. Or it could be choosing to buy from store A or store B, or deciding to buy on a weekday or Sunday, or choosing to buy alone or with her family, or even whether to buy or not? At this stage, the consumer’s decision to purchase or not to purchase a product or service is an important moment for a marketer. It can signify whether a marketing strategy has been smart and effective, or whether it lacked consumer insight and thus failed. That’s the power of insights and marketers are ready to shed money on the know-how of the consumer’s decision making process!
In order to understand the key influence factors working behind making a decision one must dig deep into the psyche or viewpoints, also referred to as “models of consumers” that will share some perspective as to how and why individuals behave, as they do. I will examine four types of consumer model viewpoints here (1) the economic view, (2) the cognitive view, (3) the emotional view & (4) the passive view.
The economic view - A consumer who is a religious economist will love to conduct an extensive and exhaustive search of product/ brand alternatives and apply skills to rank those options and be able to identify and choose the one best possible outcome. Rationally speaking, although how much we would like to think ourselves as the most rational consumer, chances are that the above process seems unrealistic, since we are limited by the extent of knowledge we can gather at the point-of-purchase and may not be proficient enough to process every product information to make the best possible choice. You will hardly come across someone doing a price-quantity relationship or plotting indifference curves while buying a headphone. It is impossible to have a clear idea of all types/color/brand of headphones available in his vicinity so as to be able to compare each device and make a rational choice. At best he will settle for a satisfactory brand that delivers good sound quality at affordable price. In his mind, his economic view has made a rational purchase at that moment and it is an idealistic decision. So remember, the concept of the most rational economic consumer is like the Himalayan Yeti! Most of us settle for something that suits the budget – you should know how much that is?
The cognitive view – Your cognitive buyer is the person who likes to make an informed-choice, based on the features and benefits that the product/ service offers. He applies heuristics to arrive at a decision and relies on his information-processing viewpoints. A cognitive buyer has already imagined a set of features that he is actively seeking for and quickly runs through the comparative value of alternate product choices before settling for a satisfactory purchase decision. Since this kind of buyer has already educated himself, he is less likely to pursue extensive information hunting. For example somebody who prefers to buy a double-door 5 star refrigerator with large freezer space, has already made a segmentation in his mind much before he lands up at the store or looks up the e-commerce app. He may have stacked his preferences based on his food habit, or monthly power consumption, or may have been impressed by a refrigerator model at his friend’s place. His decision-making path is thus short and he is unlikely to even attempt to look at any other models even if persuaded with random interesting features like bright LED lighting, smart child-lock or anti-bacterial gasket, as those features do not fit his intended purchase and is treated as information overload – hence, know when you are overloading your cognitive customer with unnecessary product information. He might simple walk away.
The emotional view – a consumer making an emotional purchase is basically displaying opposite decision-making process of a cognitive consumer; rather than emphasizing pre-purchase survey and benefit-experience, the person shows a go-getter attitude and is highly influenced by her current mood. The emotional buyer often makes decision on impulse or impetus of joy, ecstasy, fantasy, hope or even fear, believing that certain brands complement their lifestyle, and they begin to personify them. It is said that during World War II, American soldiers believed that possession of Zippo lighters indeed saved their lives. Bouts of whim drive such consumers to splurge while shopping, although there is no clear cut need for such products, but the consumer feels she has earned a status by choosing to buy such a brand – examples of attribution-bias are aplenty in the world of designer-clothes, diamonds, fragrance and cars. As a marketer you only need to make your prospective buyer feel better, while they want to your brand.
The passive view – the passive customer is a delight for hardwired salesman who knows how to manipulate his pitch in order to make his customer submissive and eventually buy the product. Majority of the passive customers yield to salesmanship and often make irrational choices by stepping into the trap, carefully laid to promote a brand with perceived benefits. Lack of information, monopoly, or sometimes low stakes in making purchase decisions often lead to such opportunistic sales. Network marketing is based on the premise of passive consumerism, where the apex consumer sows the seed of business ownership through word-of-mouth promotion and lucrative cut-backs on every network added and subsequent purchases made. Credit card POS agents are trained to detail perceived benefits of a lifetime free membership through free airport lounge access and select merchant discounts and other offers that the buyer might hardly find an opportunity to explore.
To summarize, marketing team must design a decision matrix of their targeted customer group based on segmentation exercise, and identify areas of influence within that decision journey. For some set of customers timing of the communication is of great relevance rather than feature-heavy benefits. On the other hand the perfect product-fit happens if your advertisem*nt hits the consumer even in the most unlikely of places that rings true to his intended purchase decision. This short essay of consumer types aims to give you a viewpoint on those group customers who exhibit various thought-processes while purchasing a brand.
