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|184 PART 2 Understanding the Marketplace and Customer Value

Need Recognition

The buying process starts with need
recognition—the buyer recognizes a prob-
lem or need. The need can be triggered by
internal stimuli when one of the person’s normal
needs—for example, hunger or thirst—rises to
a level high enough to become a drive. A
need can also be triggered by external stimuli.
For example, an advertisement or a discussion
with a friend might get you thinking about
buying a new car. At this stage, the marketer
should research consumers to find out what
kinds of needs or problems arise, what brought
them about, and how they led the consumer to
this particular product.

Information Search

An interested consumer may or may not search

Need recognition: This ad for National Geographic Kids reminds parents that, in for more information. If the consumer’s drive
these days of game consoles and social networking sites, they need to be certain
that their children “make room for nature.” is strong and a satisfying product is near at
hand, he or she is likely to buy it then. If not,
Courtesy National Geographic Society, Fox P2 Advertising, and Lung Animation. the consumer may store the need in memory
or undertake an information search related

Need recognition to the need. For example, once you’ve decided you need a new car, at the least, you will

probably pay more attention to car ads, cars owned by friends, and car conversations. Or

The first stage of the buyer decision you may actively search online, talk with friends, and gather information in other ways.

process, in which the consumer Consumers can obtain information from any of several sources. These include personal

recognizes a problem or need. sources (family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances), commercial sources (advertising, sales-

Information search people, dealer and manufacturer Web and mobile sites, packaging, displays), public sources
The stage of the buyer decision process (mass media, consumer rating organizations, social media, online searches and peer re-
in which the consumer is motivated to views), and experiential sources (examining and using the product). The relative influence of
search for more information. these information sources varies with the product and the buyer.

Traditionally, consumers have received the most information about a product from

commercial sources—those controlled by the marketer. The most effective sources, how-

ever, tend to be personal. Commercial sources normally inform the buyer, but personal

sources legitimize or evaluate products for the buyer. Few advertising campaigns can be as

effective as a next-door neighbor leaning over the fence and raving about a wonderful ex-

perience with a product you are considering.

Increasingly, that “neighbor’s fence” is a digital one. Today, consumers share prod-

uct opinions, images, and experiences freely across social media. And buyers can find an

abundance of user-generated reviews alongside the products they are considering at sites

ranging from Amazon.com or BestBuy.com to Yelp, TripAdvisor, Epinions, and Epicuri-

ous. Although individual user reviews vary widely in quality, an entire body of reviews

often provides a reliable product assessment—straight from the fingertips of people like

you who’ve actually purchased and experienced the product.

As more information is obtained, the consumer’s awareness and knowledge of the

available brands and features increase. In your car information search, you may learn

about several brands that are available. The information might also help you to drop cer-

tain brands from consideration. A company must design its marketing mix to make pros-

pects aware of and knowledgeable about its brand. It should carefully identify consumers’

sources of information and the importance of each source.

Alternative evaluation Evaluation of Alternatives
The stage of the buyer decision process
in which the consumer uses information We have seen how consumers use information to arrive at a set of final brand choices. Next,
to evaluate alternative brands in the marketers need to know about alternative evaluation, that is, how consumers process
choice set. information to choose among alternative brands. Unfortunately, consumers do not use a
simple and single evaluation process in all buying situations. Instead, several evaluation
processes are at work.