ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the distinct approaches can identified and they classified according to several criteria. Disaggregation is certainly not necessary either, when there is such a wealth of market research techniques for examining individual preferences and behaviour. Heuristics may be thought of as the decision rules and methods which reduce the complex task of assessing quality and selecting purchases to a relatively simple process. Search theory presents formal search models showing how a buyer could make an optimal or satisfactory choice, balancing the probable cost of further search against the probable benefit from that search. Careful examination shows that many of these models implicitly make use of economic models such as hedonic theory in drawing up specifications, particularly for multicharacteristic models. There are approaches to quality based on regularities in aggregate consumer behaviour which are commonly used in marketing. The approach is characterized by sophisticated data analysis and rather simple descriptive models.
