How do consumers identify and evaluate choices?
6.2 Consumer Decision-Making Process
DEFINED The consumer decision-making process is the steps that consumers take to identify and evaluate choice options.
The consumer decision-making process can range from a simple, low-involvement decision made without much investigation, to a programmed response to a complex high-involvement cognitive task. Involvement is primarily classified into two segments: high and low. High involvement is typically considered a cognitive and verbal process that is referred to as left-brain processing.
Consumers under high-involvement conditions often reach deeper levels of information processing due to the significance of the decision being made. However, some high-involvement situations maybe considered nonverbal, emotional, and even metaphorical; these are referred to as right-brain processing. Low-involvement situations are much like hypnotic suggestion and involve links to brain pathways that have been formed from prior experiences. This is common with routine purchases that offer little risk.

Consumer purchase decisions are influenced by personal, psychological, situational, and social factors. The extent to which businesses can understand these influences is significant
when determining success. Each of these areas of influence is discussed in the following sections. Personal Influence on Decision Making.
·Consumer behavior is influenced by a variety of personal characteristics. These personal characteristics include self-identity, personality, lifestyle, age and life stage (shared life events), vocation, and level of affluence(material comfort or wealth).
·Psychological Influence on Decision Making
Consumer behavior is influenced by a variety of psychological characteristics. These personal characteristics include perception, motivation, attitudes and beliefs, and learning.
·Situational Influence on Decision Making
Consumer behavior is influenced by a variety of situation specific characteristics. These characteristics include the purchase environment, digital environment, time, and context.
·Social Influence on Decision Making
Consumer behavior is influenced by a variety of social characteristics. These characteristics include culture, subculture, global, groups, social class, gender roles, and family.

