The Consumer Decison-Making Process

Every customer follows a subconscious, five-step process when making a decision to purchase and consume a product. The marketer cannot control these steps, but it is our ever-ending challenge to influence them. We're constantly looking for more effective or more efficient ways to motivate customer behavior, to shrink this process, and to optimize every interaction with the customer. To this end, we're constantly analyzing customer behavior to identify preferences, we're constantly testing new communications to uncover the best combination of message and challenge for steering behavior, we're studying every interaction with the customer at every step to identify and resolve obstacles and failure points, and we perpetually seek new ways to support the customer and foster positive word-of-mouth. We spend time and money researching, communicating, delivering, and managing because it is our job to guiding customers through the decision-making process so that they buy our products and are so delighted with their purchasing experiences that they tell their friends. The marketer is obsessed with this decision-maing process. Remember, when you're reading about these five steps that (a) they can happen very quickly or take a long time to complete and (b) they are sub-conscious.

1. Need Awareness. In order to motivate a customer to get up from the sofa, get in his car and drive to a store, we have to help the customer realize that he has an unmet need. This is the role of advertising in marketing - to jump start the decision-making process by alerting the customer that there is a difference between his status quo and the ideal state. The most common media for doing this are television, radio, and magazine, direct mail, email, billboards, and telemarketing, to name a few. Pay attention and you'll notice that every ad, postcard or billboard is trying to make you aware of food, safety, intimacy, esteem, or justice. These are the five basic needs according to Maslow. Advertising gets a lot of attention, because it plays this first role and so marketers use a lot of creativity to get their messages noticed. After all, consumers are exposed to more than 5,000 advertising messages every day. But getting noticed is only part of the challenge. As marketers, we're not just interested in awareness, recognition, views, listeners, readers. We want customers to do something. We want them to take the next step. Good advertising will provide a clear call-to-action like "visit us online to learn more" or "call our toll free number to speak with a product specialist" or "visit a store near you."

2. Information Gathering. When advertising is effective, the customer realizes he has a need and then searches for ways to satisfy his need. The customer conducts research. "Yes, I need a new truck. How much do they cost? What features are available? Where can I get a new truck?" This is the primary role websites play today in marketing. They are a 24/7 method for sharing information about your company and products with customers. More than 60% of all purchases in a store begin online. Other sources of information customers use include brochures, sales associates, customer service representatives, product demonstrations, packaging, and point-of-sale signage. As marketers, we're not just interested in luring customers to our website or the store to pick up brochures. We want customers to do something. We want them to take the next step.

3. Evaluate. Only after the customer has satisfied his need for information, will the customer take initiative to test and compare products. "So, I know how much trucks cost, what features I want and where I can get a truck., but which one should I pick and where should I buy it?" To facilitate this step, marketers offer free samples, set-up interactive displays, promote trial memberships, and allow test drives. If the product we market is intangible, i.e. it cannot be sensed prior to purchase, we provide the customer testimonials, awards, reviews, a list of prominent customers or donors, and reports from customers or third-party providers like JD Powers, Consumer Reports, Car&Driver, Charity Navigator, and the Better Business Bureau. The goal of all these investments is to help the customer understand how we're better than the alternative. As marketers, our goal is not to influence bus loads of people to test drive our cars or eat our free samples. We want customers to do something. We want them to take the next step.

4. Commit. If we did a good job of explaining or demonstrating our superiority over the competition, then the customer is ready to make a commitment. Depending on what you're marketing, the commit can be expressed in many different ways. Movie theaters sell tickets, website take orders, a nonprofit organization wants constituents to donate or volunteer, fitness clubs sell memberships, magazines sell subscriptions, landlords lease apartments, travel agents book vacations, hotels reserve rooms, etc... When the customer is ready to make a commitment, we marketers want to be ready to accept the commitment. So we make sure we have enough cash registers, we set-up self-service registers, we implement easy payment systems and accept all major credit cards, checks and cash, we offer trade-ins, establish lay-away programs and offer flexible financing. But we're not happy yet. Yes, we succeeded in motivating a customer to get from his LazyBoy at home, to the website, into the store, and all the way to the register, but that's we're still not done. We want the customer to do something. We want him to take the next step.

5. Use/Refer. We want to reduce or eliminate buyers remorse. We don't want the customer to regret his purchase and return to the store with an open box and a broken item. We want the customer to use the product correctly and experience the promised benefit. So we make sure the instruction manual is clear using the appropriate media for the target segment. We offer delivery, installation, and training services, have a technical support center, account management teams, and a toll-free customer service hotline. We schedule call-backs and conduct surveys to make sure the customer is satisfied. We create affinity programs, award clubs, and referral programs. We issue membership cards, send thank you and birthday cards, host appreciation events, and provide special discounts and services. Then we build online communities and use social media to engage customers. We make all of these investments to ensure the customer is satisfied with their commit and encourage the customer to spread positive word-of-mouth about our organization. We try to convert customers into enthusiastic sales people that some people call "advocates" or "evangelists."

Now we're happy. Almost. We look back at what we did. We measure and analyze everything we did. We fix the things that were broken. We stop doing the things that didn't work. We fine tune the experience and start all over again. Each time getting better, more efficient, more effective, faster, and shorter.