ABSTRACT
Consumer decision making is usually depicted as a cognitive process. Consumers become aware of a need or want and a possible means of satisfying it, typically announced in an advertisement for a new brand. They call mentally on the information they have at hand to evaluate the advertiser’s claims and, when that proves inadequate, search for further information – perhaps from other manufacturers and from friends. The ensuing deliberation entails a detailed comparison of the probable attributes of the competing brands and the selection of the brand which comes closest to fulfilling the consumer’s goals. When the cognitive models of consumer behaviour were first formulated in the 1960s, it did not seem to matter much whether the consumer was buying a brand in a familiar product class such as medicated shampoo or making a first time purchase of a new durable. The assumed pattern of decision making, modelled on the information processing of digital computers, was the same.
