1. Types of Buying Decision Behavior
   1. Complex Buying Behavior
      1. Consumers undertake complex buying behavior when they are highly involved in a purchase and perceive significant differences among brands. expensive, risky, purchased infrequently, and highly self-expressive.
   2. Dissonance-reducing buying behavior
      1. Dissonance-reducing buying behavior occurs when consumers are highly involved with an expensive, infrequent, or risky purchase, but see little difference among brands.
   3. Habitual buying behavior
      1. Habitual buying behavior occurs under conditions of low consumer involvement and little significant brand difference. Consumers do not search extensively for information about the brands, evaluate brand characteristics, and make weighty decisions about which brands to buy.
   4. Variety seeking buying behavior
      1. Consumers undertake variety-seeking buying behavior in situations characterized by low consumer involvement but significant perceived brand differences.
2. The Buyer Decision Process
   1. Need Recognition
      1. The buyer recognizes a problem or need triggered by either internal stimuli or external stimuli where it may occur because of an advertisement or a discussion with a friend and get you thinking about buying a new car. This is the stage where the marketer should research consumers to find out what kinds of needs or problems arise, what brought them about, and how they led the consumer to this particular product.
   2. Information Search
      1. Personal sources (family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances)
      2. Commercial sources (advertising, salespeople, Web sites, dealers, packaging, displays)
      3. Public sources (mass media, consumer rating organizations, Internet searches)
      4. Experiential sources (handling, examining, using the product)
   3. Evaluation of alternatives
      1. Alternative evaluation is how the consumer processes information to arrive at brand choices. How consumers go about evaluating purchase alternatives depends on the individual consumer and the specific buying situation.
   4. Purchase Decision
      1. Attitudes of others and their effect on you either positive or negative
      2. Unexpected situational factors (the need of a new phone, toothpaste finishing, etc...)
   5. Post-Purchase Decision
      1. The difference between the consumer’s expectations and the perceived performance of the item purchased determines the degree of consumer satisfaction. (Reality – Expectations = Satisfaction) If the product falls short of expectations, the consumer is disappointed; if it meets expectations, the consumer is satisfied; if it exceeds expectations, the consumer is said to be delighted.
3. Adoption and diffusion process for new products
   1. Awareness
      1. The consumer becomes aware of the new product, but lacks information about it.
   2. Interest
      1. The consumer seeks information about the new product.
   3. Evaluation
      1. The consumer considers whether trying the new product makes sense.
   4. Trial
      1. The consumer tries the new product on a small scale to improve his or her estimate of its value.
   5. Adoption
      1. The consumer decides to make full and regular use of the new product.
4. Influence of Product Characteristics on Rate of Adoption
   1. Relative advantage
      1. The degree to which the innovation appears superior to existing products.
   2. Compatibility
      1. The degree to which the innovation fits the values and experiences of potential consumers.
   3. Complexity
      1. The degree to which the innovation is difficult to understand or use.
   4. Divisibility
      1. The degree to which the innovation may be tried on a limited basis.
   5. Communicability
      1. The degree to which the results of using the innovation can be observed or described to others.
5. Individual Differences in Innovativeness
   1. Innovators
      1. Venturesome—they try new ideas at some risk.
   2. Early Adpoters
      1. Guided by respect—they are opinion leaders in their communities and adopt new ideas early but carefully.
   3. Early Mainstream
      1. Deliberate—while rarely leaders, they adopt new ideas before average persons.
   4. Late Mainstream
      1. Skeptical—they adopt an innovation only after a majority of people have tried it.
   5. Lagging Adopters
      1. Tradition bound—they are suspicious of changes and adopt the innovation only when it has become something of a tradition itself.