Editing Consumer behaviour (section)

== Consumer decision styles ==
[[File:Stockholm 2274 (3352866081).jpg|thumb|Those who shop for pleasure are said to be recreational shoppers.]]
A number of theorists have argued that certain fundamental decision-making styles can be identified.<ref>Durvasula, S., Lysonski, S. and Andrews, J.C. (1993), "Cross-cultural generalizability of a scale for profiling consumers' decision-making styles", ''The Journal of Consumer Affairs'', Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 55-65</ref><ref>Sproles, G.B. (1985), "From perfectionism to fadism: measuring consumers' decision-making styles", in Schnittgrund, K.P. (Ed.), ''American Council on Consumer Interests (ACCI), Conference Proceedings'', Columbia, MO, pp. 79-85.</ref>  A decision-making style is defined as a "mental orientation characterising a consumer's approach to making choices."<ref>Sproles, G. B. (1983). Conceptualisation and measurement of optimal consumer decision making. ''Journal of Consumer Affairs'', Vol. 17 No. 2, pp 421-438.</ref>  Sproles and Kendall (1986) developed a consumer style inventory (CSI) consisting of eight factors, such as price-sensitivity, quality-consciousness, brand-consciousness, novelty-seeking, fashion-consciousness, and habit. Based on these factors, the authors developed a typology of eight distinct decision-making styles:<ref>Sproles, G. B., & Kendall, E. L., "A methodology for profiling consumers' decision-marking styles", ''Journal of Consumer Affairs'', Vol., 20 No. 2, 1986, pp 267 -279</ref>
* '''Quality conscious/Perfectionist''': characterised by a consumer's search for the very best quality in products; quality conscious consumers tend to shop systematically making more comparisons and shopping around to compare quality and value.
* '''Brand-conscious''': characterised by a tendency to buy expensive, well-known brands, or designer labels. Those who score high on brand-consciousness tend to believe that the higher prices are an indicator of quality and exhibit a preference for department stores or top-tier retail outlets. The concept of Brand Consciousness can be defined as the awareness of the brand and its product offerings that are quite distinctive from the other brands in the market having a competitive advantage. The consumers are very concerned about what the brand company thinks about its name and products.
* '''Recreation-conscious/Hedonistic''': characterised by the consumer's engagement in the purchase process. Those who score high on recreation-consciousness regard shopping itself as a form of enjoyment.
* '''Price-conscious''': characterised by price-and-value consciousness. Price-conscious shoppers carefully shop around seeking lower prices, sales, or discounts and are motivated by obtaining the best value for money.
* '''Novelty/fashion-conscious''': characterised by a consumer's tendency to seek out new products or new experiences for the sake of excitement; who gain excitement from seeking new things; they like to keep up-to-date with fashions and trends. Variety-seeking is associated with this dimension.
* '''Impulsive''': characterised by carelessness in making purchase decisions, spur of the moment purchases, and lack of significant concern with expenditure levels or obtaining value. Those who score high on impulsive dimensions tend not to be engaged with the object at either a cognitive or emotional level.
* '''Confused (by [[over-choice]])''': characterised by a consumer's confusion caused by too many product choices, too many stores, or an overload of product information. A result of [[information overload]].
* '''Habitual/brand loyal''': characterised by a consumer's tendency to follow a routine purchase pattern on each purchase occasion; consumers have favourite brands or stores and have formed habits in choosing so the purchase decision does not involve much evaluation or shopping around.

The Consumer Styles Inventory (CSI) has been extensively tested and retested in a wide variety of countries and purchasing contexts.<ref>Jain, R. and Sharma, A., "A Review on Sproles & Kendall's Consumer Style Inventory (CSI) for Analyzing Decision Making Styles of Consumers", ''Indian Journal of Marketing'', Vol. 43, no. 3, 2013</ref>  Many empirical studies have observed cross-cultural variations in decision styles, leading to numerous adaptations or modifications of the CSI scale for use in specific countries.<ref>Bauer, H. H., Sauer, N. E., and Becker, C., "Investigating the relationship between product involvement and consumer decision-making styles", ''Journal of Consumer Behaviour''. Vol. 5, 2006 342–354.</ref>  Consumer decision styles are important for marketers because they describe behaviours that are relatively stable over time and are therefore useful for market segmentation.<ref>Mishra, A., "Consumer innovativeness and consumer decision styles: a confirmatory and segmentation analysis", ''The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research'', Vol. 25, no. 1, 2015, {{doi|10.1080/09593969.2014.911199}}</ref>