Firstly a decision is the selection of an action from two or more alternative choices. This includes consumers who have to make decisions on whether or not to make the purchase and which brand to purchase. I recently bought a pair of football boots where I had to make a decision on whether to buy from the Nike brand or the Adidas brand.
The decision-making process is concerned with how consumers make decisions. It has three steps the consumer goes through. These steps include need recognition, pre-purchase search and evaluation of alternatives.
In my recent purchase of football boots, I went through the need recognition step when I realised that my current football boots were smaller than desired. In my decision-making process I also did an external pre-purchase search on perceived risk, particularly on the costs of certain brands of boots to see of the product was worth the cost. Once I found a desired price and brand I did an evaluation of different colours and styles of boots I wanted until I found right pair.
This type of consumer decision I made in my football boots purchase was a “habitual behaviour” decision as I have had a lot of experience with this product category.
My decision-making process was however affected by my social surroundings. When deciding on what brand and style of boot I wanted I took into consideration what type of football boots my friends have. This is because I wanted the boots I purchased to be somewhat unique in a way. In the end I ended up happy with my purchase.
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