The document outlines the consumer buying decision process, which consists of five key stages: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post-purchase behavior. It explains how each stage influences a consumer's purchasing decision, including the impact of internal and external stimuli, as well as the role of customer feedback and expectations. Understanding this process can help businesses better address customer needs and improve future purchasing decisions.

1. CONSUMER BUYING
DECISION PROCESS

2. CONTENTS
1. MEANING OF BUYING DECISION PROCESS
2. STAGES OF CONUMER BUYING DECISION
PROCESS

3. MEANING
A Buying decision process is the process a customer goes
through when buying a product. It can be seen as a particular
from of a cost-benefit analysis.
A buying process is the series of steps that a consumer will take
to make a purchasing decision.

4. STAGES OF CONSUMER BUYING
DECISION PROCESS
The five stages framework
remains a good way to evaluate
the customer’s buying process.

5. 1. NEED RECOGNITION
A purchase cannot take place without the recognition of the need. The
need may have been triggered by internal stimuli such as hunger or
thirst or external stimuli such advertising.
According to Maslow’s hierarchy, only a when a person has fulfilled the
needs at a certain stage, can he or she move to the next stage.

6. 2. INFORMATION SEARCH
This is the buyer’s effort at searching the internal and external
business environments to identify and observe sources of information
related to the focal buying decision.
Internal search refers to recalling past experiences with the product.
External search is conducted when customer tries to seek information
from personal sources (family, friends), commercial sources (
advertisements, sales people) or public sources ( newspapers,
television).

7. 3. EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES
At this stage, consumers evaluate different products/brands on the
basis of varying product attributes, and whether these can deliver the
benefits that the customers are seeking.
A factor that heavily influences this stage is the customer’s attitude.
Involvement is another factor that influences the evaluation process.

8. 4. PURCHASE DECISION
In this stage, the Purchase takes place. The final purchase decision
can be disrupted by two factors:
 Negative feedback from other customers and the level of motivation
to comply or accept the feedback.
 The decision may be disrupted due to anticipated situations.

9. 5. POST-PURCHASE BEHAVIOUR
At this stage, customers will compare products with their previous
expectations and will be either satisfied or dissatisfied.
This can greatly effect the decision process for similar purchases from
the same company in the future, having a knock-on effect at the
information search stage and evaluation of alternatives stage.