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Consumer Decision-Making and Impulse Buying

💼 Business By CampusDown Wiki Editorial Team Last updated
Quick answer: consumer decision-making is a process that starts with recognising a need and moves through information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and post-purchase evaluation, while impulse buying is buying on a sudden, strong urge with little of that deliberation. It is a basic concept in consumer behaviour and marketing.
Contents
  1. 1. The five stages of the buying decision
  2. 2. The role of involvement
  3. 3. Post-purchase cognitive dissonance
  4. 4. Impulse buying
  5. 5. Marketing implications
  6. 6. References

The five stages of the buying decision

Consumer behaviour research, including the Engel-Kollat-Blackwell (EKB) model (1968), treats buying as a problem-solving process, and marketing textbooks (Kotler & Keller) usually summarise it in five stages.

  • Need recognition: the consumer senses a gap between the current state and the desired state, triggered by internal stimuli such as hunger or external stimuli such as advertising.
  • Information search: the consumer looks at information in memory (internal search) and at outside sources such as friends, reviews and ads.
  • Evaluation of alternatives: candidates are compared on attributes such as price, quality and brand.
  • Purchase decision: the consumer decides what, where and when to buy. Other people's attitudes or unexpected situations can change the decision.
  • Post-purchase behaviour: comparing expectations with performance leads to satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and to repurchase and word of mouth.

The role of involvement

For expensive, high-risk, high-involvement products such as cars or homes, consumers go through all five stages carefully, while for low-involvement products such as daily necessities the stages shrink into habitual buying. Zaichkowsky (1985) defined involvement as a person's perceived relevance of an object and built a scale to measure it.

Post-purchase cognitive dissonance

According to Festinger's (1957) theory of cognitive dissonance, after buying an expensive product people easily feel the discomfort of 'maybe I should have bought the other one'. Consumers seek favourable information to justify their choice, and firms try to reduce dissonance with warranties, after-sales service and post-purchase communication.

Impulse buying

Rook (1987) defined impulse buying as buying immediately after experiencing a sudden, powerful and persistent urge to buy. Stern (1962) divided impulse buying into four types.

  • Pure impulse buying: novelty or escape buying that breaks the usual buying pattern.
  • Reminder impulse buying: seeing a product reminds the shopper that stock at home is low or of an advertisement.
  • Suggestion impulse buying: seeing a product for the first time and feeling a need for it on the spot.
  • Planned impulse buying: the shopper intends to buy something but decides what according to in-store discounts and displays.

Marketing implications

Each stage calls for a different strategy: advertising to awaken needs at need recognition, reviews and comparison information during search and evaluation, impulse triggers such as displays and limited-time discounts at purchase, and satisfaction management and repurchase incentives after purchase. How these tools are combined is covered under the marketing mix.

References

  1. Engel, J. F., Kollat, D. T., & Blackwell, R. D. (1968). Consumer Behavior. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
  2. Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2016). Marketing Management (15th ed.). Pearson.
  3. Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford University Press.
  4. Stern, H. (1962). The significance of impulse buying today. Journal of Marketing, 26(2), 59-62.
  5. Rook, D. W. (1987). The buying impulse. Journal of Consumer Research, 14(2), 189-199.
  6. Zaichkowsky, J. L. (1985). Measuring the involvement construct. Journal of Consumer Research, 12(3), 341-352.

Reports and materials that use this theory (Korean)

There are no materials dedicated to this theory yet, but you can search related reports in the CampusDown library (Korean).

Find more reports · Search '소비자 구매의사결정과 충동구매' on CampusDown →
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This article was last updated on October 15, 2026. It is based on widely recognized original works and textbooks; when citing it in a paper, please check the original sources listed in the references.