Explain different types of buying decision behaviours and its effect on buying decision process

Buying decisions are based on buying behaviour. Consumer behaviour and business behaviour can differ because their buying processes are different. Consumers will often buy on emotion or impulse whereas businesses will buy based on need. The type of buying decision impacts the marketing mix and the promotional mix for a product. It will also affect the product life cycle. Sometimes the type of product will make a difference in the buying decision. For consumers, large ticket items, such as an appliance, a car, or a home, aren't impulse items. A company needs to know about the features of a product and how it will help fill a specific need. Businesses are also worried about price and return on investment. In this essay four types of buying decision behaviours will be discussed.
Complex buying behaviour A highly involved purchase, for a product in which there is significant differences between the brands, requires the customer to exhibit complex buying behaviour. This is complex because it involves huge risk. Also it provides a lot of information. Example - Buying a new home requires complex buying. It has high risk as huge financial investment is needed. Also, the customer has to take informed decisions about various factors like locality and future value before making the purchase. Provide better service guaranteed.
Dissonance-reducing behaviour
High involvement purchases where there are few differences between brands. In this case the consumer does not have enough information based on which to make a decision. Therefore the consumer will try to reduce his/her anxiety by not believing on any negative information about the brand purchased. Customer wants to try new brand. Example - Customers who want to purchase the newly arrived LED TVs will not find many differences between the brands but the price of the product and its technicality will make them involve more.
Variety seeking buying behaviour
Refers to situations where there is low consumer involvement, but the consumer perceives significant differences between the brand options in front of them. In variety seeking situations consumers tend to do a lot of brand switching. There is no real brand loyalty. Example – buying different packet of chips, to change the taste.

Habitual buying behaviour
This is the that kind of buying behaviour of customer where they don’t think much before buying the product and involvement in the decision making is very low. The product is perceived as commodity and doesn’t provide much difference from its rivals. Customer under this buying behaviour goes for the products which they are buying regularly and where they don’t give thoughts before buying it. Provides better advertisement to expose consumers. Example - The purchase of milk or bread in the nearby store is the example of habitual buying behaviour.

Now that we have looked at the influences that affect buyers, we are ready to look at how consumers make buying decisions. Figure shows that the buyer decision process consists of five stages: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post purchase behaviour. Clearly, the buying process starts long before actual purchase and continues long after.
Marketers need to focus on the entire buying process rather than on just the purchase decision. The figure implies that consumers pass through all five stages with every purchase. But in more routine purchases, consumers often skip or reverse some of these stages. A woman buying her regular brand of toothpaste would recognize the need and go right to the purchase decision, skipping information search and evaluation. However, we use the model in Figure because it shows all the considerations that arise when a consumer faces a new and complex purchase situation.
Need Recognition
The buying process starts with need recognition—the