Exam 13: Decision Making Ii: Alternative Evaluation and Choice

Using which type of decision rule does a consumer set a minimum, but usually high, mental cutoff for various features and selects the product that meets or exceeds this cutoff on any feature?

A characteristic that allows a consumer to diagnose something distinctive about an alternative is called a(n) _____.

The different levels of product categories can be referred to as being either _____.

Consumer researchers have identified four major categories of noncompensatory rules: the conjunctive rule, the disjunctive rule, the conjoint rule, and the cluster rule.

Which term is used to describe the practice of offering essentially identical products with different model numbers or names?

Carl is evaluating an xBox 360, a PS3, and a Nintendo Wii and has identified attributes to compare, such as price, game options, DVD players, and so on. He has decided that a game player must score above his minimum cutoffs. However, he has set these minimum cutoffs relatively high, and he will select the one that exceeds the relatively high cutoff on any attribute he's identified. Which decision rule is Carl using?

Compensatory rules allow consumers to select products that may perform poorly on one attribute by compensating for the poor performance by good performance on another attribute.

John is evaluating four brands of 3-D televisions and has decided that picture quality is the most important attribute. All of the alternatives exceed his minimum cutoff for this attribute, so he next compares them on price. One option did not meet his acceptable price cutoff because the price was too high and was eliminated from further review. Next, he looked at the number of HDMI inputs and eliminated another alternative because it did have the minimum number of inputs. He continued in this manner until only one alternative was left and that's the one he decided to purchase. Which decision rule was John using?

Consumers actually use decision rules quite frequently, but the comparisons are almost always made mentally rather than using mathematical formulas.

Absolute quality refers to the actual quality of a product that can be assessed through industry specification or expert rating.

Judgments are mental assessments of the presence of attributes and the benefits associated with those attributes.

The number of levels and details within each level of a consumer's product categories is influenced by involvement and perceived risk.

List the factors that determine the type of evaluative criteria that consumers use.

It's difficult for consumers to assess the quality of a product just by looking at it. Oftentimes, consumers must use a product to determine the quality level, and even then, it is still sometimes difficult to determine the quality. Quality is best describes as which type of attribute?

Sometimes consumers will decide where they will buy before they determine what they will buy.

Joseph A. Bank, a men's clothing store, has recently started advertising weekly sales such as "three suits for the price of one," or "get 30% off your first item, 50% off the second, and 70% off the third." This type of advertising might result in consumers thinking the quality is not very good in order to offer such deep discounts. This advertising and promotion serves as a(n) _____ to consumers regarding the quality of the product sold in the store.

Size, shape, color, and price are absolute attributes.

A performance characteristic of an object is called a(n) _____.

Name and describe the four types of noncompensatory decision rules.

When purchase involvement is high, consumers use signals such as brand name, price, appearance, and retailer reputation to infer information about product quality.