1. Decision Making II: Alternative Evaluation and Choice
BABIN / HARRIS CB
PART 4
CHAPTER 13
Decision Making II: Alternative Evaluation and Choice
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

2. Learning Outcomes
Understand the difference between evaluative criteria and determinant criteria.
2. Comprehend how value affects the evaluation of alternatives.
3. Explain the importance of product categorization in the evaluation of alternatives process.
4. Distinguish between compensatory and noncompensatory rules that guide consumer choice.
13-2
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

3. Decision-Making Model
Need recognition
Search for information
Alternative evaluation
Choice
Postchoice evaluation
LO1
13-3
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

4. Evaluative Criteria
The attributes, features, or potential benefits that consumers consider when reviewing possible solutions to a problem.
Feature—a performance characteristic of an object.
Benefit—a perceived favorable result that is derived from the presence of a particular feature.
LO1
13-4
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

5. Determinant Criteria
The evaluative criteria that are related to the actual choice that is made.
Can depend largely on the situation in which a product is consumed.
LO1
13-5
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

6. Value and Alternative Evaluation
Hedonic criteria—emotional, symbolic, and subjective attributes or benefits that are associated with an alternative.
Utilitarian criteria—functional or economic aspects associated with an alternative.
LO2
13-6
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

7. Rationality
Bounded rationality—perfectly rational decisions are not always feasible due to constraints found in information processing.
LO2
13-7
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8. Types of Evaluation Processes
Affect-based evaluation—consumers evaluate products based on the overall feeling that is evoked by the alternative.
Attribute-based evaluation—alternatives are evaluated across a set of attributes that are considered relevant to the purchase situation.
LO2
13-8
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

9. Product Categories
Mental representations of stored knowledge about groups of products.
Product category levels:
Superordinate categories—abstract in nature and represent the highest level of categorization.
Subordinate categories—more detailed.
LO3
13-9
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

10. Attributes
Perceptual attributes—visually apparent and easily recognizable.
Search qualities
Underlying attributes—not readily apparent and can only be learned through experience.
Experience qualities
Signal—a characteristic that allows a consumer to diagnose something distinctive about an alternative.
LO3
13-10
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

11. Factors Determining Evaluative Criteria Used
Situational influences
Product knowledge
Expert opinions
Social influences
Online sources
Marketing communications
LO3
13-11
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

12. Consumer Judgment
Mental assessments of the presence of attributes and the benefits associated with those attributes.
Consumers make judgments about:
Presence of features
Feature levels
Benefits associated with features
Value associated with the benefit
How objects differ from each other
LO3
13-12
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

13. Issues Affecting Consumer Judgments
Just noticeable difference
Attribute correlation
Quality perceptions
Brand name associations
LO3
13-13
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

14. Conjoint Analysis
Marketers use conjoint analysis to understand the attributes that guide preferences.
This is accomplished by having consumers compare products across levels of evaluative criteria and the expected utility associated with the alternatives.
LO3
13-14
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

15. Consumer Choice: Decision Rules
Compensatory rules—allow consumers to select products that may perform poorly on one attribute by compensating for the poor performance by good performance on another attribute.
Noncompensatory rules—strict guidelines are set prior to selection and any option that does not meet the specifications is eliminated from consideration.
LO4
13-15
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

16. Attitude-toward-the-object model (Fishbein model)
Compensatory Model
Attitude-toward-the-object model (Fishbein model)
LO4
13-16
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

17. Noncompensatory Model
Conjunctive rule
Disjunctive rule
Lexicographic rule
Elimination-by-aspects rule (EBA)
LO4
13-17
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

18. Use of Decision Rules
Noncompensatory rules are often used in low-involvement decisions because they help consumers simplify the decision making process.
Consumers can combine rules to reach a final decision.
Lexicographic rule is most often used because consumers usually already know what features are important to them.
Consumers use these rules frequently. The comparisons are made mentally, without the use of a formula.
LO4
13-18
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.