Information Search

Information Search Insight

1. Consumer decision making is a central part of consumer behavior, but the ways people evaluate and choose products vary widely, depending upon such dimensions as the degree of novelty or risk related to the decision. Consumers are constantly faced with the need to make decisions about products. Some of these decisions are very important and entail great effort, whereas we make others on a virtually automatic basis. The decision-making task is further complicated because of the sheer number of decisions we need to make in a marketplace environment characterized by consumer hyper-choice. I notice then whenever I or friends are searching for information on products or services. We use the internet to find that information, or sometimes, we use the reviews from other people we know that have used the product or service. So, if I'm considering buying a CD for example, and after I do some research and find out it's not very good, I won't buy it.

Judgment and Decision Making Insight

1. We often fall back on well-learned "rules-of-thumb" to make decisions. Very often, we use mental rules-of-thumb, to simplify decision making. In particular, people develop many market beliefs over time. One of the most common beliefs is that price is positively related to quality. Other rules rely on well-known brand names or a product's country-of-origin as signals of product quality. When a brand is consistently purchased over time, this pattern may be due to true brand loyalty or simply to inertia because it's the easiest thing to do. I definitely recognize that the higher price tends to yield "higher quality" subconsciously. For example, when looking at laundry detergent, Tide is one of the most expensive compared to a Member's Mark brand. Yet in a recent Reader's Digest, they compared the effectiveness