Process of Decision Making-1

Making a decision is a rational and conscious process in which the consumer evaluates each of the available alternatives to select the best amongst them. Each decision you make involves an elaborate mental thought process, a degree of active reasoning, though on the surface it may not always seem to be so.

There are three factors which influence the degree of active reasoning that is undertaken by the consumer in his process of decision-making. There are:
1. involvement,
2. alternative differentiation, and
3. time pressure.

Involvement: When a product is perceived to be of great personal importance to the customer, such as personal clothing, or its purchase involves a great deal of money or risk such as jewellery, car, house, company shares, the level of involvement in making the decision is likely to be very high. The consumer is likely to spend a great deal of time before arriving at the final decision. In contrast, when buying items which do not reflect much on the consumer’s personality or their purchase involves small amounts of money or the risk associated with them is not high, the degree of involvement of the consumer is likely to be low. Product such as shoes, polish, toilet soap, toothpaste, biscuits etc. would fall in this category.