Information search process and it evaluate criteria of consumer behaviour

Introduction of information search

Information search starts the moment a need is recognized. Once he need has been felt, the customer needs information on various dimensions related to need satisfying objects. So, a consumer is constantly recognizing problems. Having recognized the problem, he moves on the next stage in the decision-making process i.e., information search. We receive information about products or service from a wide range of source. And even we have no plans to make purchase we pick up all kinds of information through incidental learning. When we do have a plan to purchase of course our attention to such information is active and intense.

Information Sources 

1. Own personal experience.
2. Shop window display e.tc
3. Word of mouth.
4. A lecture on the product.

Information search and decision making

Consumers engage in both internal and external information search. Information search is a stage in the consumer decision process during which a consumer searches for internal or external information. Consumers undergo a brainstorming session during this phase of buying decision.

1. Internal search – It involves the consumer identifying alternatives from his or her memory. For certain low involvement products, it is very important that marketing programs achieve “top of mind” awareness. An internal search refers to a consumer’s memory or recollection of a product, oftentimes triggered or guided by personal experience. It more actively practiced for low involvement products.
2. External search - For high involvement products, consumers are more likely to use an external search. Before buying a car for instance the consumer may ask opinions from friends and relatives read reviews from past consumers so on. An external search is conducted when a person who has no prior knowledge about a product seeks information from personal sources e.g., word of mouth from friends and family and public sources which includes online forms, consumer report or marketer dominated sources. It is more practiced for high involvement products. 

Source of consumer information

Primary sources of information available to consumers are 

1. Memory of past searches
2. Personal experiences 
3. Low involvement learning
4. Personal sources such as friends, family and others
5. Independent sources such as magazines, consumer groups, and government agencies
6. Marketing sources such as sales personnel, websites and advertising
7. Experiential sources such as inspection or product trial.

Consumer decision making required information inputs form the following process 

1. Evaluate Criteria – If a consumer decides to buy a product his first thought would be why do I need the product and what feature will meet with my requirements then he would engage in an internal & external search to determine the features required to meet his needs.
2. Appropriate Alternatives – After searching for appropriate evaluative criteria our prospective buyer would try to locate various alternative brands again, he will engage in internal & external to come up with a comprehensive awareness set.
3. Alternative Characteristics – The consumer compares them on the basis of relevant evaluative criteria this process naturally requires the consumer to gather information on each brand on each evaluative criteria.
4. Information collection & processing – All the brands known to the customer constitute his awareness set. The awareness set in turn consists of three sub categories.
• Evoked Set – This comprises of those brands which he thinks are worthy further consideration since they can solve his problem.
• Inept Set – This comprises of those brands which he thinks are unworthy of further consideration.
• Inert Set – Consumer will generally accept favorable information about brands in this set. Brands in this set will be considered only if the preferred brands are not available.

The Nature of Information Search

Consumers continually recognize problems and opportunities, so internal and external searches for information to solve these problems are ongoing processes.

1. Internal Search – It is a mental process of recalling and reviewing information stored in memory relating to a purchase situation. There are two dimensions of internal search –
• Extent of search – The degree of internal search can be widely from a simple recall of only a brand name to a more complete search through memory for relevant information, feeling and experience.
• Kind of information retrieved – A consumer generally recall four major kinds of information. Brand name, attribute, evaluation done earlier and experience.
2. External Search – if information in the memory is missing, inadequate or is a suspect then an external search is required. It can be from personal sources i.e., friends, exports, sales people or from impersonal sources i.e., advertising, media reports e.tc.

Evaluate Criteria 

Evaluate Criteria are typically product features or attributes associated either with benefits desired by the customer or the cost he has to incur. To assess the benefits offered by goods a consumer uses a range of evaluative criteria.

It can be tangible such as price, color, and size shape or performance characteristics or intangible such as brand image. Evaluate criteria can differ in number, type and importance. They also vary from customer to customer from product to product and situation to situation. For example, while buying a pair of trouser one person may go by the fit factors while the other may go for the styling, color, and price.

Evaluation criteria are the various dimensions, feature, or beliefs a consumer looks for in repose to a specific problem. Evaluation criteria can differ in type, number and importance. The type of evaluation criteria a consumer uses in a decision varies from tangible cost and performance factors such as style, taste, prestige, feeling generated and brand image.

One potential objective of both internal and external search is the determination of appropriate evaluative criteria.

1. Government agencies and consumer organizations want consumers to use sound evaluative criteria.
2. Marketers wanted consumer to use evaluative criteria that match their brand’s strengths.
3. Both marketers and government agencies provide information designed to influence the evaluative criteria used.

Consumer Decisions Rules 

Rules govern the way in which different consumer evaluate different products in different buying situation. Consumer may use either compensatory or non-compensatory processes as decision rules in evaluating attributes of the alternative products under consideration.

1. Non-Compensatory Decision Rules – A non-compensatory rule is on in which the weakness of a possible alternative of a possible alternative is not offset by its strength. There are four types of non-compensatory rules.
• Disjunctive Rule – Using this rule the consumer first decide which criteria are determinants of his choice while which one are not. Then he establishes a minimum score on each one.
• Conjunctive Rules – Using this rule a consumer considers all evaluative criteria as determinant and a minimum acceptable value or score is established for each one.
• Lexicography Rule – The consumer using this rule rank each of the evaluative criteria in order of importance. If two suppliers score the same on the highest rank criterion, then the consumer uses the second, the third and so on
• Elimination by Aspects Rules – Here the consumer ranks the evaluative criteria and also sets minimum score that must be met on each of them. The alternative that doesn’t meet each minimum are eliminated.
2. Compensatory Decision Rules – Compensatory rule are more practical as here the consumer is able to make trade off while comparing alternative. If one attribute is very strong, it may compensate for the weakness in another. This approach therefore uses more than one evaluation criterion for assessment by consumer. There are two types of compensatory rules
• Simple Additive Rule – Using the simple additive rule the consumer totals the score on all evaluative criterions for each alternative and the highest score wins. This rule assumes that all criteria are of equal importance.
• Weighted Additive Rule – Using this rule the consumer assigns a relative weight to each evaluative criteria based on its perceived importance. Then the score on each evaluative criterion is multiplied by the relative weight to produce a weighted score. These weighted scores are summed up and brand with highest weighted score chosen.

FAQ’s

What is Passive search?

it refers to consumers activity for short period involvement. They tend to involve themselves in a short activity such as watching videos, TV shows, turning on the pages of magazines and knowing new things, blogs etc. but they further don’t make any discussion on the topic they recently encountered with they are the real observers. That video is not shared, the article is not spoken about and that blog definitely does not get any more readers or subscribers as a result of this person.

What is Active search?

customers involved in such type of information search activity are ration and real learners. They involve themselves for a long discussion and sharing time. When the passive consumer’s encounter in activities like reading a new current affair in the magazines, videos in YouTube channels, articles in magazines etc. then they tend to learn more. They will discuss with their friend, family etc. They may read article and follow this up by writing a blog post discussing it, looking into some of the subtleties and investigating the topic a little further. These kings of consumers are the kind that the content creators love. The consumers themselves take so much more from the content, understanding it on better level to remember it much better and evaluate its immediate and potential long-term impact on their job or industry or lives etc.

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