Purchase Decision Process Case Study

This chapter primarily focuses on existing bodies of knowledge on demographic characteristics of residential property buyers. It will start with an introduction, and highlight the existing bodies of knowledge which will subsequently followed by a chapter summary.

2.1 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR AND THE PURCHASE DECISION MAKING PROCESS

This section explains consumer behaviour and the purchase decision-making process in general. Research has found that in any purchase, a consumer goes through a five step decision making process (White, 1996), seeing that the residential house purchase choices are influenced by consumer behaviour. The five stages of the Buying Decision Process are: problem recognition, searching for information, evaluating of alternatives,

That is, the evaluation is made by examining alternatives advantages and disadvantages along important product attributes. A different way consumers can evaluate a product is according a categorization process. The evaluation the alternative process depends upon the particular category to which it is assigned. Categories can be very general or very specific. Typically the categories are associated with some degree of liking or disliking. To the extent that a product can be can be assigned membership to a particular category, it will receive an evaluation similar to that attached to the category. Brand extensions, in which a well-known and respected brand name from one product categories is one way companies, employ categorization to their advantage (McDaniel,

How well these expectations are met determines whether the consumer is satisfied or dissatisfied with purchase. Price often influences the level of expectations for a product or service. For marketers, an important element of any post purchase evaluation is reducing any doubts that the decision was sound. When purchasers recognize inconsistency between their values or opinions and their behaviour, they tend to feel an inner tension called cognitive dissonance.

Consumers try to reduce dissonance by justifying their decision. They may seek new information that reinforces positive ideas about the purchase, avoid information that contradicts their decision, or revoke the original decision by returning the product. Ensuring satisfaction therefore reduces dissonance. Dissatisfied customers sometimes rely on word of mouth to reduce cognitive dissonance, by letting friends and family know that they are displeased (Zeng,