Exam 2: Decision-Making and Consumer Behavior

Sylvester is a financially poor college student. He tries to make every purchase decision a wise one because of his economic situation. Based on the types of risk mentioned in the text, Sylvester's primary risk when making decisions would appear to be a psychological risk.

The experiential perspective stresses the importance of learning in decision-making.

Alternatives a consumer knows about are his evoked set, and the ones that he actually considers are called his consideration set.

Casinos make their interiors very plush and expensive looking, knowing that gamblers who would be reluctant to make a $10 bet in average surroundings would gladly make $100 wagers in luxurious surroundings. Which of the following best explains the gamblers' behavior?

The first step in the cognitive decision-making process is to conduct an information search.

Incidental learning occurs after a very concentrated search for information.

A customer searching for an SUV is trying to decide what to buy. She decides to limit her options by using the following strategy. First, the car must be a Honda or a Toyota because the customer believes that they have the highest quality. Second, the vehicle cannot cost more than $30,000 or get less than 10 miles per gallon. Third, the remaining vehicles' interiors, comfort, and instrument panel will be judged by giving each a score and summing them. The SUVs that are left, with the highest summed scores, will be selected for an intensive test drive. What type of decision rules was this customer proposing to use? There will be more than one rule used.

A consumer who falls back on "mental rules of thumb" when making a decision is using heuristics.

Consumers can be thought of as ________ because they tend to make decisions in the simplest way possible.

Kraft has repackaged its salad dressings as "anything" dressings to encourage people to shift their ________ and consider the dressings as a complement to more than just salads.

A mental or problem-solving shortcut to make a purchase decision is called a(n) ________.

People often engage in brand switching, even when their current brand satisfies their needs.

Define problem recognition. Show how problems can arise. Give a brief example to illustrate the problem recognition process.

A consumer is most likely to engage in ________ when she is in a good mood or when she is uninvolved in other activities.

When Japanese cars first became popular in the United States, some drivers of domestic cars placed bumper stickers on their vehicles that stated "Hungry? Eat your foreign car." These stickers encouraged people to support local workers and keep an American advantage in the balance of trade between Japan and the United States. The attitude expressed by the stickers is best described as ________.

Under what conditions would a customer resort to cognitive decision-making when presented with a problem characterized as a need recognition? Give an example.

According to the theory called ________, a company can make money if it sells small amounts of items that only a few people want if the company sells enough different items.

The higher the ________, the higher the level of product involvement as the consumer makes the decision.

A ________ rule means that a product with a low standing on one attribute cannot make up for this position by being better on another attribute.

Habitual decision-making is the lowest order of buying decision-making.