BEYOND CONSUMER DECISION MAKING

This article proposes that consumer purchase behavior may be viewed from three perspectives — the decision making, the experiential, and the behavioral influence. The decision‐making perspective holds that buying behavior results from consumers' engaging in a problem‐solving task in which they move through a series of stages. The experiential perspective argues that in certain instances consumers make purchases in order to create feelings, experiences, and emotions rather than to solve problems. The behavioral influence approach proposes that in other instances consumers act in response to environmental pressures. Each approach can be linked to the predominant effect of one of the three components of the classic hierarchy of effects. Managerial implications of the three perspectives on consumer buying behavior are discussed.