Chapter 6 - Consumer Making Decision

The Consumer Decision Making Process is what most customers go through before endeavoring into new product or brand. For marketers it is key to note how the customer comes to its final decision- buying or not buying. The diagram below shows the single steps of that process. The depth of information gathered will vary from consumer to consumer. All these steps are depended on individual, social, cultural and psychological factors.

The effort and time investment depends on what the customer wants to purchase. More time and effort will be invested on more expensive goods. Since Starbucks sells beverages and food, the decision making process is not as intricate as it would be when buying a house or car. 

Values are an important factor when engaging the decision making process for example Americans place high value on convenience. As Starbucks is almost on every block in Manhattan and is among top coffee brands, people will automatically think of the company when it comes to satisfy the need. Because Starbucks belongs to the low-involvement product purchases, the customer does not exactly no what kind of beverage the person might want until the customer gets into the store. Therefore, Information search takes place while being at the store. The coffee brand provides in store promotion by eye catching advertisement of popular or new products or having deals such as “buy before 2:00pm get $2 in the afternoon” and  "happy hours" to promote their coffee. The next stage is purchasing. Starbucks is a beverages company; it does not often happen where a customer walks in because of the desire of coffee, but walks out without a cup. In most cases, the customer already decided to purchase by the time he or she stepped into the store. 

 

Overall, most of Starbucks customers are routine purchases. They know what they want and what they can expect from experience. That is a vital reason why most of the customers are satisfied with the product after the purchase.