Decisions can be complex or simple depending on the context of the situation, we make decision everyday without realising these decisions are based on routine-response behaviour which is often habitual and consumers often don’t go searching for external information as they believe they have enough information to make a informed decision.
(Solomon, Russell-Bennet and Previte, 2019)
Another level of information involved in decision making includes Limited problem solving . Limited problem solving involves consumers having some internal information with basic criteria for evaluating the product but hasn’t completely established preferences. (Solomon, Russell-Bennet and Previte, 2019)
The final level involved in consumer decision making is extensive problem solving where consumers have little to no information about a product and has not identified criteria or any sort of preferences. (Solomon, Russell-Bennet and Previte, 2019)
In relation to an example of my consumer decision making i recently purchased food a at restaurant that i had never been to. So when i was determining what i would like on the menu i narrowed down a few options based on prior knowledge of items on the menu such as what meat i preferred and dishes that i had heard of. So, i created a basic criteria but had not fully established my preferences between the meats, how they where served or what else was on the plate. This means i had a limited problem solving level of decision making, i had to read further into the details about each individual dish to determine what my preferences were.
To determine my preferences i followed the decision making process which consists of three steps:
Need recognition – Involves identifying my actual vs desired state, in this case my desired state was to eat food that i would enjoy and satisfy my wants, my actual state was that i didn’t need food but wanted it. (Solomon, Russell-Bennet and Previte, 2019)
Pre-purchase search – Next I had to look at the menu and narrow down my options but identifying familiar dishes and the ones which had the meats that i liked in them. by doing this i could lower my perceived risks of getting a dish that i didn’t like as they were somewhat familiar to me (the evoked set). (Solomon, Russell-Bennet and Previte, 2019)
Evaluation of alternatives – My next step was to further narrow my options down, so i compared prices, sides and extras, level of hunger (how much food i needed to feel satisfied), and the food i actually felt like eating to determine.
(Solomon, Russell-Bennet and Previte, 2019)
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