HOLIDAY DECISION MAKING: PROCESS OF LEISURE DISCOVERY AND ADAPTABILITY.
The following essay attempts to discuss and critically evaluate the traditional problem solving, cognitive model of consumer decision making process with that of holiday decision making. The writing begins with the introduction phase which discusses the traditional model of consumer decision making process. The following subsection discusses the sequential stages involved in the traditional consumer decision making, following is a comparative analysis between holiday decision making and traditional consumer decision making based on the stages involved in traditional consumer decision making. A conclusion that summarizes this study follows thereafter.
I. INTRODUCTION
“Consumer behavior reflects the totality of consumers’ decisions with respect to the acquisition, consumption and disposition of goods, services, activities, experiences, people and ideas overtime.” (Wayne D. Hoyer, Deborah J. Maclnnis 2008). This means that as much as the consumer will purchase a certain product e.g. soap, based on his preference of brands, he may also purchase a product such as a book just because it has been written by a popular author.
Consumer decision making is about market choice behavior where consumers must make a decision between two or more competing alternatives, and thereafter decide on whether to purchase the alternative.
The consumer decision making process is the stages that a consumer goes through in order to decide on the best alternative to purchase. The traditional decision making process makes an assumption that a consumer has to go through five stages before reaching his decision hence very important for a marketer to understand this process.
II. DECISION MAKING – THE TRADITIONAL PROCESS
The five stages in the traditional consumer decision making process include: Need recognition or