Quiz: Consumer Decision Making

First Four Steps of the Consumer Decision Making Model

The purchase that I have recently made is an office chair: I need it at home to work in front of a computer and feel comfortable. The main problem due to the absence of such a chair was my backache because of sitting uncomfortably. Thus, problem recognition was the first step. The next stage was information search: I started browsing the Internet in order to find a necessary product for a suitable price. Searching for the item I needed, I faced the third step, namely, alternative evaluation. I found many different chairs with their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, I got to the product choice step: I chose one chair that was more suitable for me in terms of its price, convenience, and size because my room is not very large.

Asian Americans as an Attractive Market Segment

Today, Asian Americans are a rather attractive market segment since they are the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States. Besides, this minority is more educated than others. As a result, such people have better jobs and more money to make purchases. However, marketers may find it difficult to reach this market segment due to the fact that this ethnic group consists of different representatives, different nations. Consequently, they require diversified approaches. Moreover, Asian-American media differ from the American one.

Gen X and Gen Y Consumer Segments

Gen X is represented by people who were born in 1965-1979 years, while representatives of Gen Y, who are also known as millennials, were born in 1980-1984. Millennials are the generation of the Internet technologies, while Gen X use it only in the most necessary issues, such as shopping and internet banking. However, in some issues, millennials are still similar to Gen X consumers. For instance, almost half of Gen Y consumers get to know about various products from their families and friends rather than from the Internet.

Discretionary Income

Discretionary income is a certain amount of money that is available for non-essential spending or for savings. In other words, this money is what remains after basic spending that an individual needs to do every month, such as food, rent, and utilities among others. In fact, from economic point of view, each individual should be able to have discretionary income as a means for ensuring one’s financial growth.

Consumer Confidence

Consumer confidence is a financial indicator that assesses the degree of confidence that consumers feel about the general state of the market and their personal economic situation. The level of consumer confidence has a great impact on consumers’ decisions regarding money spending and purchases. Therefore, this issue is extremely important for marketers since, in case the level of customer confidence is low, they will not spend much money on purchases, especially those that are not essential for their life. The less money a customer has, the less he or she spends.

Conspicuous Consumption

Conspicuous consumption is a term that is used with regard to customers who buy luxurious products in order to show their financial wellbeing. However, such customers may be not wealthy at all; they may simply purchase one or several products from this category in order to have an upper-status image. One of the most widespread examples of conspicuous consumption in the American society is brand clothes. People buy clothes from the world fashion houses and brands to show their status, which may be often fake. However, when people see a girl wearing world brand clothes, they often think that either she or her parents are wealthy. In any case, the analyzed concept demonstrates that such assumptions may be false.

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