Ch. 6 - Consumer Decision Making

It is very important to know how consumers behave and make decisions. Understanding how consumers make decisions can help us better serve and compete in the market. When making a decision of whether to buy, not to buy, and what to buy the consumer generally follows the consumer decision-making process. This post might be a bit longer than my usual, but I wanted to thoroughly explore the process regarding Apple.

The first stage is need recognition. Many electronics are things people want and not necessarily need, but many have become more than that. They have become needs.Through external stimuli, such as the popularity of Apple products among peers, their recommendations, the perceived superiority of the product, and the slick design wants and needs are created.

After recognizing a need or want consumers will search for information about the product. There are many ways a consumer may search for information. The information search can be external, internal, or both. When thinking of buying an Apple product many consumers search for internal information, such as previous experience with the product. Apple consumers are very loyal. Many people upgrade their iPhones as soon as the next generation is out, because they have had a positive experience with the previous generation and are often anticipating the new features in the next generation as soon as they get the current one. The iPad 2 is already greatly anticipated. According to a few blog post I read and a Huffington Post story I read, there is already a man in Texas camping out to be the first to get the iPad 2! Consumers may also seek external information. This might be recommendations from friend. The external information may also be market-controlled. Apple is in the fortunate position of being a trusted company. Consumers will trust what Apple tells them. Apple communicates greatly with their customers with their keynotes. These keynotes make people feel well informed, like they really know the product.

After getting information, the consumer is ready to make a decision, to help make that decision the consumer may evaluate alternatives. Apple is in the unique position of being an industry standard, particularly with their iProducts. That is to say, one wouldn't generally think, 'I'd like to buy an MP3 player,' but rather 'I want to buy an iPod,' alternatives are almost moot. Apple product are in a category of their own.

Next in the process is purchase. Luckily for Apple, people are purchasing A LOT of their products! At the iPad 2 keynote event Steve Jobs announced that about 100 million iPhones had been sold and about 15 million iPads!

Finally, when buying products consumers expect certain outcomes from the purchase. How well these expectations are met determines whether the consumer is satisfied or dissatisfied with the purchase. This is postpurchase behavior. By the man I mentioned earlier already waiting for the new iPad and the expected madness for the iPad 2, I would say consumers are pretty satisfied with their Apple purchases. In addition, because of the high demand for Apple products, iPads have greatly booster the recommence industry, which I will post about shortly.