Management and Organizational Studies 1021A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Consumer Behaviour, Consumer Reports, Cognitive Dissonance

• School: Western University
• Department: Management and Organizational Studies
• Course: Management and Organizational Studies 1021A/B
• Professor: Michael Aloisio

Document Summary

Consumer behavior= actions a person takes when purchasing and using products and services. Purchase decision process= stages that a buyer passes through when making choices about which products or services to buy. Five stages: problem recognition= perceiving a need. Occurs when a person realizes that a difference between what he/she has and what he/she would like to have is big enough to actually do sth about it. E. g. finding an empty milk carton in the refrigerator. In marketing, advertisements or salesppl can activate a consumer"s decision process by showing e. g. the shortcomings of a consumer"s cellphone and the advantages of owning a smartphone: information search= seeking value. After recognizing a problem, consumer search for info about what product/service might satisfy the newly discovered need. Internal search= scan memory for knowledge of/ previous exp. with products or brands. May be enough if searching for frequently purchased products e. g. shampoo.