Ch.6 Consumer Decision Making

The "Consumer Decision-Making Process" is what every single customer goes through before trying out a new product or brand. It is quite essential to know how the customer comes to its final decision- buying or not buying.

Consumer Decision Making Process

This Exhibit shows the single steps of that process. Of course, not everybody will have the same need nor information.All these steps are depended on cultural, social, individual and psychological factors.

The effort- and time investment depends on what the customer wants to purchase. More time and effort will be invested on more expensive goods. Since Starbucks sells beverages and food, the decision making process is not as complex as it would be when buying a house or car. 

The first stage that would lead a costumer into a Starbucks store is the need recognition of coffee. Since Starbucks belongs to one of the top coffee brands, people will automatically think of the company when it comes to satisfy the need. 

Because Starbucks belongs to the low-involvement product purchases, the customer does not exactly know what kind of beverage the person might want until he/she gets into the store.Therefore, Information search takes place while being at the store. The coffee brand provides in store promotion by eye catching advertisement of popular or new products (drinks or food) or having programs such as "one free coffee day" / "happy hours" to promote their coffee.

After being in one of Starbucks coffee houses, the customer will quickly notice the unique ambient that the store offers. Starbucks comes out on top when it involves alternative evaluation most of the time because of their unique "experience". Starbucks is able to build up human contact through their employees. Those try to make the customer feel good about being at Starbucks. Not for nothing Starbucks is considered as a high prestige-brand.

The next stage is purchasing. Starbucks is a beverages company, it does not happens all to often that a customer walks in because of the desire of coffee, but walks out without a cup. In most cases, the customer already decided to purchase by the time he/she stepped into the store. 

Overall, most of Starbucks customers are retained. They know what they want and what they can expect from experience. That is one major reason why most of the customers are satisfied with the product after the purchase ( Purchase evaluation). Furthermore, because of Starbucks great amount of loyal customers, the Consumer Making process is irrelevant. It is basically reduced to two stages: need recognition and purchase.