In Response to Sarah's Post...

Have u experienced all of these steps before? Have you had any cognitive dissonance? If so what was it and what did you do, did you keep the product, give it to a friend, or return it?

I have experienced all of the steps in the buying decision process. Whenever I buy anything I usually subconsciously go through the five buying decision stages. For example I use this process when I go to the grocery store. An example I recently ran into was when the grocery store was out of my typical brand of bread and needed to buy another brand. The first step was already completed after my problem occurred, where the usual bread was out of stock. In step two, my information search kicked in immediately. The first thing I thought of was the difference in the other brands that I had used in the past. Step three occurred right away also, comparing the different brands and prices. Step four occurred when I purchased the store brand bread. In step five, I evaluated the bread after I had eating this specific type for the first time. Personally I wouldn't buy the store brand again. It wasn't terrible, just not something I would buy on a regular basis. I have also experienced cognitive dissonance. When I was at best buy I saw a pair of headphones that I really liked. I also needed headphones, so I made an impulse decision to buy the headphones. The headphones worked great and I didn't regret buying them until I went to Walmart. Walmart had the same exact set of headphones for much cheaper than best buy. I regretted not shopping around for the cheapest ones rather than making the impulse decision. Do you think it's more important to shop around for the cheapest price rather than buy on impulse?

Buying Behavior: Attittudes

Attitudes of consumers are very important for marketers to take into consideration. According to Marketing Express, attitude is described as an individuals evaluation of, feelings about , and behavioral tendencies toward a specific object or idea. These objects can be any attitudes toward something that can be living, nonliving, tangible or intangible. It is important to know that attitudes do change but they tend to stay stable and not vary from moment to moment. Every individuals attitudes are acquired through experience and interaction with other people. There are three major parts an attitude is made up of. The three parts are cognitive, affective, and behavioral. The cognitive part is made up of the person's knowledge about the idea or object. The affective part is mad up of the person's emotions toward the object or idea. Lastly, the behavioral part is made up of the person's actions regarding the object or idea. If there are changes within one of these components it is possible that it could alter another component. It is important for any marketing firm to measure consumer attitudes toward package designs, advertisements, prices, brand names, salespeople, repair services, store locations and social responsibility efforts. There are a few different ways markets can measure consumers attitudes. The first way is to measure consumers attitudes is to just ask them directly. Using this method could have some flaws. People who do not like confrontation may lie about their real attitudes toward the subject. Another way marketers can measure consumer attitudes is by using the attitude scale. An attitude scale is made up of a series of adjectives, sentences, or phrases about an object. The consumer indicate their feelings about the object by reacting to the phrases, sentences, or adjectives in a certain way. Business and non business organizations will try to change peoples attitudes about various issues. This can range from health and safety issues to prices and product features. It's important for any firm to know the attitudes of their consumers to sell your product or service the way the majority of people want it. The four P's of the marketing mix are also important factors to take into consideration. Like illustrated in the picture you want your target market to have a positive attitude involving the marketing mix. Do you think it is important to learn the attitudes of consumers if you worked in a marketing firm?