Perception & The Decision Making Process

Today's lecture was based on the perception and the decision making process. Everyday will go through the decision making process no matter what they do. However the main focus of this lecture was the different stages a person will go through while making these decisions.

Kotler's buyer decision process is the main model that was used in the lecture to help us understand what stages a customer goes through while purchasing a product or service. Koter assumes that every person goes through each on of these steps.


Kotler's buyer decision process starts with the need of recognition for example a student realises that they have broken their camera. After this step it is then followed by the information research stage, the student gathers up all the information it can find on the different types of cameras that are available to purchase. Once the student is in the shop it evaluates the prices and the difference there is between other cameras this is known as the third step evaluation of alternatives. Once the student has made their decision on what camera to buy then they would go and purchase it.

Here is a a little video that also explains how the buyer decision process works in a different type of way.

The perceived risk model was proposed by the Harvard Business School in the mid 1960s they believed 'behaviour is said to depend upon an individuals subjective perception of the risk inherent in buying a product', so this suggests that a customer buying a product weighs more heavily than it would while making the decision to purchase it. For example, a couple buying a house for the first time is a very important and risky purchase as there is many elements that need to come together like making sure the couple have enough money for the deposit and enough money to pay off the mortgage every month. If this was to go wrong in any sort of way the couple could lose their whole life savings. However if the couple was to buy a dinner set for their new house there would hardly be any risk if they was to purchase the dinner set and there defiantly wouldn't be as much thinking put into it as there was for the purchase of the house.

Laruent & Kapferer (1985) argued that the consumer's level of involvement will be affected by four components these are:

1. Importance & Risk (FTPEPS)

Finance- How much will it cost to purchase a product or service?

Time- How much time will you spend using the product or service? until you lose interest

Performance- How well will it work once you have purchased the product or service?

Ego- How will this purchase make you feel?

Physical- Will it do any harm to you once purchased?

Social- How people will see your item.

So for example, a 21 year old student buying a new phone. depending on what type of phone they would wish to buy this would be at a medium risk however if they would want to buy the lasted cool phone they would be at a high risk as it would cost them at least £300. Time- the student most probably will use their phone everyday therefore it's at a high risk. Performance- medium risk if the phone is one of the lasted phones out the performance would be very good. Ego- medium risk having a new phone would make the student feel good about themselves. Physical- low risk once the student has purchases the phone it will not do any harm to the student. Social- this will have a medium risk as the friends of the student and other people will think that they have a very nice phone and some may even think how on earth they could afford to buy the phone :)