Lecture Unit 9: Pre-purchase, purchase and post-ppurchase proces (1/3)

Question 1

What is the pre-purchase process?

Answer 1

• Problem or need recognition
  (C recognizes what the problem or need is, and subsequently what product would be able to meet this need
• Information search: here the C searches for internal or external information
• Evaluation of alternatives: here the C evaluates all products available on a scale of particular attributes

Question 2

What does the “need recognition process center about”?

Answer 2

centers on the degree of discrepancy between the actual state and desired state

Question 3

Why should marketers focus on the need recognition proces in consumers?

Answer 3

• Understanding need recognition may identify a segment with unsatisfied desires
• Unsatisfied needs help identify new business and product opportunities for the future
• Analyzing need recognition can reveal existing barriers

Question 4

How can companies activate need recognitiion?

Answer 4

• Change consumers’ desired state with new products or innovations
• Influence how consumers perceive their current state
• Remind consumers of a need

Question 5

How companies activiate need recognition: What is generic and selective need recognition?

Answer 5

Generic need recognition occurs when companies seek to grow the size of the total market for a product category

Selective need recognition is the result of stimulating the need for a specific brand within a category

Question 6

Why is need or problem recognition one of the first crucial steps in the process?

Answer 6

• If a consumer does not perceive a problem or need,
• he generally will not move forward with considering a product purchase

Question 7

How can a need be triggered?

Answer 7

• Need can be triggered by internal or external stimuli
• Internal stimuli refers to a personal perception experienced by the consumer, such as hunger or thirst

Question 8

What is meant with information seach?

Answer 8

the motivated acquisition of knowledge stored in memory or acquisition of information from the environment

• either internal or external search

Question 9

What is internal or external search? (Information seearch)

Answer 9

Internal search
- involves scanning and retrieving decision-relevant knowledge stored in memory

External search
- involves collecting information from the environment: Ads, magazines, Internet, friends and family members.

Question 10

What are the determinants of internal search?

Answer 10

• Existing knowledge
• Confidence in existing knowledge
• Satisfaction with prior purchases
• Ability to retrieve stored knowledge

Question 11

When do we call external search pre-purchase search ?

Answer 11

when motivated by an upcoming purchase decision

Question 12

What is ongoing search?

Answer 12

• When information acquisition takes place on a relatively regular basis
• regardless of sporadic purchase needs, it is known as ongoing search

Question 13

When can external search occur?

Answer 13

External search can occur:

• To make better consumption choices
• To create a knowledge base for future decisions
• Simply for enjoymen

Question 14

What is the external search set?

Answer 14

= are Choice alternatives that consumers gather information about during pre-purchase search

Question 15

On what does the extend of the external search set of a consumer depend upon?

Answer 15

• Depending on the consumer’s experience and
• the importance of the decision, a considerable amount of effort may be invested into identifying search set members
• Consumers must also decide what they wish to learn about each of the set members

Question 16

What are the different informational sources available?

Answer 16

Personal:
- In-store: Sales personnel, other shoppers
- Out of store: Family, friends, coworkers, experts,

Impersonal:
- In Store: product labels, store signage, point of purchase materials (display, advertising circulars)
- Out of store: magazines, webstives, television and radio shows

Question 17

What is the more preffered informational source for consumers?

Answer 17

are more likely to rely upon the opinions of other individuals than information sources with vested interests in their decisions

Question 18

What are opinion leaders or influentials?

Answer 18

Other consumers respected for their expertise in a particular product category are referred to as opinion leaders or influentials

Question 19

How much do consumers search:
What is the cost vs. benefit perspective?

Answer 19

• People search for decision-relevant information
• when perceived benefits of the new information are greater than perceived costs of acquiring the information(time/effort spent searching)

Question 20

How much do consumers search.
What is meant with the perceived rissk onf consumers search?

Answer 20

= represents consumers’ uncertainty about the potential positive and negative consequences of the purchase decision

• making better decision is the primary benefit, this depends on the perceived risk

Question 21

How can companies benefit from understanding the information search?

Answer 21

• Adjusting the breadth of a product line based on consumers’ willingness to search
• Monitoring consumers’ price comparison activities to gauge their price sensitivity
• Focus promotions on sources that consumers search most, including individuals that provide information
• Monitor search activities to identify new ways to reach and gain customers

Question 22

What happens during the information search?

Answer 22

• option available to the consumer are identified or further clarified

Question 23

What is the pre-purchase evaluation?

Answer 23

• The evaluation of choice alternatives
• Intertwined with the search proces

Question 24

What is the considerations set?

Answer 24

alternatives considered during decision making (also known as the evoked set)

Question 25

How can companies get into a consumers consideration set?

Answer 25

• Ask to be in the set
• Offer incentives
• Modify product offering

Question 26

Forming the consideration set:
How does the construction of the consideration set from memory work? / What is the retrieval set?

Answer 26

Retrieval set: consideration set that depends on recall of alternatives from memory

• Not all alternatives retrieved from memory will be considered
• Consumers limit their consideration to those alternatives toward which they are favorably predisposed

Question 27

Forming the consideration set:

How does the construction of the consideration set work without prior knowledge?

Answer 27

• Consumers may talk to others or consider all brands in the store
• External factors have greater oportunity to affect consideration sets with less knowledgeable consumers than when search is from memory
• Recognition of brands or products at the point of sale is important to get into consumers´ consideration sets

Question 28

How do consumers decide on how to evaluate choice alternatives? what are the two experiences?

Answer 28

= rely on preexisting product evaluations stored in memory

• Direct experience: prior purchase or consumption experience with a product
• Indirect experience: experience or impressions gained second-hand

–>Construct new evaluations based on information acquired through internal or external search

Question 29

Constructing new evaluations
What is the categorization process?

Answer 29

= the evaluation of a choice alternative based on the evaluation of the category to which it is assigned

Question 30

Characteristics of the categorization process?

Answer 30

• Categories may be general (drinks) or specific (colas)
• Evaluation of a category can be transferred to a new product assigned to that category
• Brand extensions allow firms to use categorization to their advantage

Question 31

What is the piecemeal process?

Answer 31

= constructing an evaluation of a choice alternative by considering its advantages and disadvantages along important product dimensions

Question 32

What are the steps in the piecemeal process?

Answer 32

• Determine the particular criteria or product dimensions to be used in the evaluation
• Evaluate each considered alternative based on the identified criteria
• Cutoff: restriction or requirement for acceptable performance
• Signals: product attributes used to infer other product attributes (e.g., using high price to infer higher quality)