Ch. 6 - Consumer Decision Making

Consumer Behavior is the processes a consumer uses to make purchase decisions as well as to use and sipsose of purchased goods or services; also includes factors that influence purchase decisions and product use.

Consumer decision-making process begins with need recognition, (With Sony Playstation, the customer wants the new system/or new games that go with the system), when stimuli trigger awareness of an unfulfilled want. If additional information is required to make a purchase decision, the consumer may engage in an internal or external information search (Internal: Do I need this game? Is it any different then what I have now? External: Is this the best system out there?) The consumer then evaluates the using the additional information and establishes purchase guidelines (Is this better then Xbox or Wii? How many games do I buy for this or accessories?). Finally a purchase decision is made.

In terms of Sony PlayStation, the system is never absolutely necessary but a lot of people will buy it to satisfy there wants for the games and new experiences. A lot of the time people will struggle with the decision to buy a playstation because it is not cheap. However around the holidays its the ultimate gift and people tend to buy it a lot more often. Playstation 4 currently has 1 million preorders and it has not even been released yet. Its more about image of having a playstation and being the most updated because the Playstation 3 is almost as good.