Editing Consumer behaviour (section)

=== Evaluation of alternatives ===
[[File:Burlington Arcade, shops.jpg|thumb|right|Consumers shopping at London's Burlington Arcade engage in a variety of recreational and functional purchasing activities - from window shopping through to transporting their purchases homewards.]]

Consumer evaluation can be viewed as a distinct stage. Alternatively, evaluation may occur continuously throughout the entire decision process. Consumers evaluate alternatives in terms of the '''functional''' (also called ''utilitarian'') and '''psycho-social''' (also called the ''value-expressive'' or the ''symbolic'') benefits offered.<ref>Belch, G, Belch, M.A, Kerr, G. and Powell, I., Advertising and Promotion Management: An Integrated Marketing Communication Perspective, McGraw-Hill, Sydney, Australia, 2009, p.138</ref>
* ''Functional benefits'' are the tangible outcomes that can be experienced by the consumer such as taste or physical appearance.
* ''Psycho-social benefits'' are the more abstract outcomes or the personality-related attributes of a brand, such as the social currency that might accrue from wearing an expensive suit or designer label or driving a 'hot' car.

[[Brand image]] (or brand personality) is an important psycho-social attribute. Consumers can have both positive and negative beliefs about a given brand.<ref>Winchester, J. R. and Bogomolova, S., "Positive and negative brand beliefs and brand defection/uptake", ''European Journal of Marketing'', Vol. 42, No. 5/6, 2008,  pp.553 - 570</ref> A considerable body of research suggests that consumers are predisposed towards brands with a personality that matches their own and that a good match can affect brand preference, brand choice, satisfaction with a brand, brand commitment and loyalty, and the consumer's propensity to give positive word-of-mouth referrals.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} The branch of consumer behaviour that investigates the matching of a brand's personality and the consumer's personality is known as ''self-congruity research.'' <ref>Sirgy, M. J., "Using self-congruity and ideal congruity to predict purchase motivation", ''Journal of Business Research,'' 1985, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp 195-206, {{doi|10.1016/0148-2963(85)90026-8}}</ref> The social media presence of a brand plays a huge part in this stage, with the effect described as "Think of regular media as a one-way street where you can read a newspaper or listen to a report on television, but you have very limited ability to give your thoughts on the matter. Social media, on the other hand, is a two-way street that gives you the ability to communicate too."<ref>Nations, D. (2019). "[https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-social-media-explaining-the-big-trend-3486616 What Is Social Media?]" Lifewire.</ref> Consumer beliefs about a brand or product category may vary depending on a range of factors including the consumer's prior experience and the effects of selective perception, distortion, and retention. Consumers who are less knowledgeble about a category tend to evaluate a brand based on its functional characteristics. However, when consumers become more knowledgeable, functional attributes diminish and consumers process more abstract information about the brand, notably the self-related aspects.<ref>Sirgy, H.J., Lee, D-J and Yu, G.B., "Revisiting Self-congruity Theory in Consumer Behavior", in ''Routledge International Handbook of Consumer Psychology,'' Cathrine V. Jansson-Boyd and Magdalena J. Zawisza (eds), Routledge, 2017, p. 193</ref>

The marketing organisation needs a deep understanding of the benefits most valued by consumers and therefore which attributes are most important in terms of the consumer's purchase decision. It also needs to monitor other brands in the customer's consideration set to optimise planning for its own brand. During the evaluation of alternatives, the consumer ranks or assesses the relative merits of different options available. No universal evaluation process is used by consumers across all-buying situations.<ref>Kotler, P and Armstrong, G., Principles of Marketing, Upper Saddle River, N.J., Pearson, 2014.</ref> Instead, consumers generate different evaluation criteria depending on each unique buying situation. Social media further enables consumers to share views with their peers about the product they are looking to purchase.<ref>Stileman, P. (2009), To What Extent has Social Media Changed the Relationship between Brand and Consumer, Dissertation of MA Advertising, Bucks New University</ref> This way, consumers can gauge the positive and negative sides of each alternative, and decide even more conveniently as for the best product to buy. Thus the relevant evaluation attributes vary according to across different types of consumers and purchase contexts. For example, attributes important for evaluating a restaurant would include food quality, price, location, atmosphere, quality of service, and menu selection. Consumers, depending on their geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioural characteristics, will decide which attributes are important to them. Potential patrons seeking a pleasant dining experience may be willing to travel further distances to patronise a fine-dining venue compared to those wanting a quick meal at a more utilitarian eatery. After evaluating the different product attributes, the consumer ranks each attribute or benefit from highly important to least important. These priorities are directly related to the consumer's needs and wants.<ref>Suri, R. and Monroe, K.B., "Effect of Consumers' Purchase Plans on the Evaluation of Bundle Offers", in Advances in Consumer Research Vol. 22, Frank R. Kardes and Mita Sujan (eds), Provo, UT, Association for Consumer Research, 1995 pp 588–593, Online: http://acrwebsite.org/volumes/7816/volumes/v22/NA-22</ref> Thus, the consumer arrives at a weighted score for each product or brand which represents the consumer's subjective assessment of individual attribute scores weighted in terms of their importance. Using these scores, they arrive at a total mental score or rank for each product/brand under consideration.<ref>Siddiqui, S. and Agarwal, K., "The Consumer's Purchase Decision Process: A Theoretical Framework", ''International Journal of Science Technology and Management,'' Vol. 6, No. 6, 2017, pp 361-367</ref>