Week 11 Information Search and Alternative Evaluation and Selection

Search memory for information already known

internal search

Search outside sources for additional information, which can involve independent sources, personal sources, marketer-based information, and product experience

external search

the initial BLANK generally produces a set of guides (e.g., must-have attributes) or decision constraints (e.g., maximum price that can be paid) that limit and guide external search.

internal search

this alternative set consists of brands that consumers are aware of

awareness

this alternative set comprises brands consumers are aware of and view neutrally. These are brands that consumers might consider acceptable if their favorite alternative is unavailable. These are also brands for which consumers will be open to positive information although they will not be actively seeking it out.

inert

alternative set which is composed of those brands consumers are aware of and view negatively. These brands are ones for which consumers will generally not process or accept positive information even if readily available

inept

alternative set (also called the consideration set) that is composed of those brands or products one will evaluate for the solution of a particular consumer problem.

evoked

set of alternatives the consumer does not know about

unawareness

based not on what people say but on what they actually do online.

behavioral targeting

This requires consistent attention to product quality, distribution (avoiding out-of-stock situations), and a reinforcement advertising strategy

maintenance strategy

If the brand is not part of the evoked set and the target market engages in nominal decision making, the marketer's first task is to disrupt the existing decision pattern.

This is a difficult task because the consumer does not seek external information or even consider alternative brands before a purchase.

disrupt strategy

Limited decision making generally involves a few brands that are evaluated on only a few criteria, such as price or availability. Much of the information search occurs at the point of purchase or in readily available media prior to purchase. If the brand is one given this type of consideration by the target market, the marketer's objective is to BLANK as large a share of the purchases as possible

capture strategy

If the target market engages in limited decision making and the brand is not part of the evoked set, the objective will be to BLANK the consumer during the search for information on the brands in the evoked set or during general search for related information. Again, the emphasis will be on local media with cooperative advertising and at the point of purchase with displays, shelf space, package design, and so forth. Coupons also can be effective

intercept strategy

Extended decision making with the brand in the evoked set requires a

preference strategy

similar to the preference strategy. However, it is complicated by the fact that the target market is not seeking information about the brand. Therefore, in addition to the activities involved in the preference strategy described above, the marketer must attract the consumers' attention or otherwise motivate them to learn about the brand

acceptance strategy

is often based exclusively or primarily on the immediate emotional response to the product or service. Use the "How do I feel about it" heuristic or decision rule? Consumers imagine or picture using the product or service and evaluate the feeling that this use will produce.

affective choice

underlie behaviors that are intrinsically rewarding to the individual involved.

Consummatory motives

activate behaviors designed to achieve a second goal.

Instrumental motives

Consumers with high purchase involvement or motivation are more likely to make

attribute-based choices

the lower the motivation to make an optimal decision, the more likely an BLANK will be made

attitude-based choice

are the various dimensions, features, or benefits a consumer looks for in response to a specific problem

Evaluative criteria

include asking consumers what criteria they use in a particular purchase or, in a focus group setting, noting what consumers say about products and their attribute

direct evaluative criteria

techniques assume consumers will not or cannot state their evaluative criteria:

Projective techniques

Perceptual mapping

indirect evaluative criteria

indirect technique for determining evaluative criteria. First, consumers judge the similarity of alternative brands. This generally involves having the consumer look at possible pairs of brands and indicate which pair is most similar, which is second most similar, and so forth until all pairs are ranked. No evaluative criteria is specified.

perceptual mapping

allow the respondent to indicate the criteria someone else might use, are often helpful. The "someone else" will likely be a projection of the respondent, of course, and thus the marketer can indirectly determine the evaluative criteria that would be used.

projective tecniques

The average consumer is not adequately trained to judge the performance of competing brands on complex evaluative criteria such as quality or durability.

accuracy of individual judgements

Consumers frequently use an observable attribute of a product to indicate the performance of the product on a less observable attribute. For example, a consumer might infer that, because a product has a relatively high price, it must also be of high quality

use of surrogate indicators

An attribute used to stand for or indicate another attribute is known as a

surrogate indicator

is used to eliminate alternatives that are outside a consumer's price range, are outside the preferred location, or lack other desired features

conjunctive rule

Establishes a minimum required performance for each important attribute (often a high level).

disjunctive rule

requires the consumer to rank the evaluative criteria in terms of their importance and to establish a cutoff point for each criterion

elimination-by-aspects decision rule

is similar to the elimination-by-aspects rule. The difference is that the BLANK seeks maximum performance at each stage, whereas the elimination-by-aspects seeks satisfactory performance at each stage.

lexicographic rule

states that the brand that rates highest on the sum of the consumer’s judgments of the relevant evaluative criteria will be chosen.

compensatory decision rule

decision rules because very good performance on one evaluative criterion cannot compensate for poor performance on another evaluative criterion

The four previous rules are noncompensatory

tends to be the most time-consuming and mentally taxing. Also, consumers often find it difficult to consider more than a few attributes at a time in the trade-off process. In addition, as competitors enter the market, they can change the attractiveness of existing alternatives.

the compensatory rule