Exam 15: Consumer Decision Making and Beyond

All consumer decision-making situations require the same degree of information search.

GIFT MINI CASE: Winston needs to buy his girlfriend, Vanessa, a gift for her birthday.He knows she will expect the "perfect" gift.He feels like boyfriends are "supposed" to get their girlfriends jewelry or perfume.His older sister recommends a necklace or earrings. While he's at the jewelry store, he also buys a watch for himself, rationalizing that he hardly ever buys stuff for himself and he "deserves it." -In the GIFT MINI CASE,Winston's sister represents a(n)________ source of prepurchase information.

________ are procedures used by consumers to reduce the burden of making complex decisions by providing guidelines or routines that make the process less taxing.

The consumer's experience with a product plays a major role in the ________ stage of the model of consumer decision making.

Martin needs a new hybrid-electric car that can seat 4 people comfortably and has a trunk that will hold a set of golf clubs,but isn't sure which brand of hybrid-electric car would be best.Martin's is a case of ________.

Consumers rarely have all the information or sufficiently accurate information or even an adequate degree of involvement or motivation to make the "perfect" decision.

Beth is tired of carrying around a cumbersome CD player and a heavy collection of CDs so she can listen to her music on-the-go,and so has decided to convert her CD music collection to MP3 and buy an iPod.This is an example of ________ need recognition.

Within the context of the model of consumer decision making,________ is likely to occur when a consumer is faced with a "problem."

Tom wants a candy bar and is trying to decide between a Crunch,a Snickers,or a Milky Way.These three candy bars are in Tom's ________.

COLLEGE MINI CASE: Evelyn is a high-school senior from Philadelphia looking to apply to colleges.She has decided to apply to the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, and Princeton.She chose not to apply to Brown, Dartmouth, or Yale because she considers them to be too far away from home.A college counselor had suggested to her that Columbia has a comparable reputation to the schools Evelyn was considering, but Evelyn didn't perceive Columbia as having any particular advantage over the schools to which she had already decided to apply.She is eventually accepted to, and decides to attend Cornell University.Upon arriving on campus, Evelyn immediately notices a deliberate effort on the part of the college to make new students not only feel at home, but that they have absolutely made the right decision in attending Cornell. -In the COLLEGE MINI CASE,Evenlyn's college counselor is a(n)________ source of prepurchase information.