To be successful in today's highly competitive business world, it is essential for businesses and advertising firms to have extensive knowledge of the purchasing process that customers go through during the purchase journey. Marketers and business owners may be able to influence the purchase decision and increase client retention via focused marketing if they have a better understanding of these phases, as well as the concepts that exist inside the customer at each step.
The consumer decision-making process involves five steps when buying a product or service.
1. Understanding needs and desires
2. Research/Search for information
3. Assessment of several options/Alternatives
4. Purchase decision
5. Post-purchase assessment/Evaluation
Understanding needs and desires
The customer's purchasing journey starts with the identification of a problem or the recognition of certain desires or needs. A customer's desire for a product or service originates from several factors, including the solution to a present problem, physical requirements and emotions, the upgrade of the current version of the product, or innovation. Customers are also sometimes affected by commercials and recommendations from famous people.
Marketers may influence customer behavior at this stage by addressing desires related to their products. Brands can successfully engage with this stage if they understand their target audience's needs. Surveys, client interviews, focus groups, and market research may all help merchants learn about the wants of their loyal consumers.
Research/Search for information
The second step of the consumer buying decision-making process is the gathering of information about the desired product or service. Customers get this knowledge via visiting physical shops, online marketplaces, reading current customer reviews, visiting sites and stores relating to the required products, conversing with friends, or through advertisements.
At this point, companies may influence consumers' purchasing decisions by giving relevant information via conventional advertising, social media marketing, and other means in order to promote themselves as a solution to the customer's issue or the best option satisfying the consumer's want or need.
Assessment of several options/Alternatives
At this stage, customers have access to an abundance of information relating to numerous brands that provide the products or services they want. He then evaluates each brand according to its quantity, quality, price advantage, durability, and customer ratings.
Here, Brand can effectively position itself as an industry pioneer or leader by highlighting the superior quality and reasonable pricing of their product through traditional or social media marketing
Purchase decision
Finally, in the fourth stage, customers choose the product to buy after assessing many brands. This choice is influenced by customer perceptions of the best product regarding price, quality, risk, benefits, and the satisfaction of desires or needs.
Brands have the ability to influence this buying decision by providing customers with relatively low prices, discounts, offers, free delivery service, or by including additional features in their products.
Post-purchase assessment/Evaluation
The last phase of the consumer purchasing process is the post-purchase assessment. Upon acquiring the goods, the consumer evaluates their purchase, comparing it with their entire expectations. This might result in either happiness or disappointment.
Brands have the ability to affect post-purchase behavior via various tactics, such as implementing loyalty programs for customers, conducting customer surveys, sending follow-up messages with discount vouchers for new goods, and executing retargeting advertisements that explicitly focus on former consumers.
0 Comments