What are the stages of buying decision process? And how does it affect marketing?

1.       Awareness: They notice that you offer something that could help.

2.       Interest: They decide to find out a little bit more.

3.       Evaluation: They see if you look credible.

4.       Trial: They find out what it would be like to buy from you.

5.       Adoption: They become a customer.

6.       Loyalty: They keep buying, buy more, and/or tell others about you.

Consumer purchase decision making can be simplified using a funnel called "Consumer Disposition Funnel". The number of levels/steps involved in this funnel can vary for different category of products/services.

For Example - An FMCG product (which falls under low cost & low involment category) can have following steps in the funnel 

1. Awareness - simple visibility of the brand or awareness about the brand

2. Consideration - each product can have consideration set which comprises of multiple brands of same product category

3. Trial - since FMCG being an low cost & low involvement product, trial is one of the most important stage which can bring back repeated purchase

4. Repertoire - can also be simply termed as Occasional usage. If consumer (after trial) is convinced with the product offered by that brand, can make few more purchases. This brand can also be consumer's next best brand after their regular brand (alternative brand).

5. Regular - The most often used brand and can be only one brand. This is a brand that a consumer would chose more often than others 

6. Loyalists - If a consumer chooses only brand and does not even bother to try a different brand, then they can well termed as loyalists 

The marketing strategy of a company can be targetted towards overcoming the bottleneck.

For Example: If consumers are trying the brands (new trailists) and continuing with their trial or not becoming occasional users - then there might be some issues with the product or some image correction needed for the product. Marketing strategy can be based on this bottleneck (product performance) and can try to deliver goodwill message about the product to overcome it.