Your in-depth guide to consumer decision-making

As a B2C marketer, there are some areas of your career that you want to grasp with ease. The consumer decision-making process is probably high on that list. 

And understandably so — the decisions consumers make directly affect your marketing strategies, sales and the overall success of your brand. Recognizing the deciding factors that guide consumers, when they’ll commit to a choice and what makes them loyal to a brand is something like a superpower, and it’s one you’ll gain from this guide.

How do consumers make decisions? 

Consumer decisions are carefully thought-out choices pertaining to purchases and brand support, and it’s one that consumers take seriously. So much so, that they have a system in place to ensure they’ll be confident in their purchases. It’s called the consumer journey. 

In speaking with Sharmin Attaran, Ph.D., Professor of Marketing, Director of the Digital Marketing program at Bryant University, we gained a ton of helpful information on the consumer journey and its most influential stages. 

The consumer journey is what consumers use to guide their decisions. It contains five areas consumers must “journey” through when interacting with a brand: awareness, consideration, decision, retention and advocacy. The decision stage is where consumers come to a conclusion on what they’ll be doing with your brand — it’s also when the most conversions happen during the consumer journey. 

During the journey to purchase, consumers consider a variety of elements before deciding on a product or service. A product’s price point, brand values, consumer reviews, customer service and other factors all impact consumer decisions.

(Read more about the consumer journey or more about the decision stage.)

Psychological factors impacting consumer decisions 

Aside from the standard marketing tactics consumers use as a baseline for their purchase decisions, there are also psychological factors that consumers consider when contemplating buying a product or service. 

These five factors were concluded upon following five separate conversations with experts in marketing, consumer psychology and cultural sciences. We spoke with the following thought leaders: Bernadette Butler, CEO & Co-founder, Storytap; Shagoon Maurya, psychotherapist and found of ursafespace; Colleen Kirk, D.P.S., Associate Professor of Management and Marketing Studies at New York Institute of Technology; Margaret J. King, Ph.D., Director of The Center for Cultural Studies & Analysis; and  Carl Turner, CEO and founder, SWIPEBY.

1. Emotional connectivity

Emotions drive purchase decisions. An internal motivator, your consumers’ feelings toward your product, service or brand are the deciding factor in whether or not that conversion will happen.

2. Anticipation

When you spark anticipation in your customers, you fuel action — an action that can directly correlate to increased purchases and customer engagement. When consumers look to satisfy their anticipation during the customer journey, they will also think about how a product or service will help them do that.

3. Simplicity

Humans need simplicity, and this translates to their experiences as consumers. It makes for a fulfilling, easy-to-understand shopping process. It also helps to bring them back for future experiences.

When brands clearly outline product abilities and benefits, they make the consumer decision-making process easier and decrease the chance consumers will look at other brands to meet their needs. 

4. Cultural values

Human culture is a psychological response to life and has a major influence on the actions taken by consumers. Purchase decisions, services rendered and brand support can all be tied back to culture (socioeconomic statuses, geographic locations, aspirations, etc.). Marketing efforts must leverage cultural aspects and clearly communicate to consumers the purpose products and services will have in their lives.

5. Relevancy

Consumers often base their decisions on how well a product or service will be able to meet their needs. Simply put, relevancy is incredibly important.

When your product or service fulfills consumer expectations and proves how much of an asset it truly is, those positive results have a major impact on perceived value. The more value a customer believes a product has, the more relevant it will be, and that relevance makes all the difference in a consumer’s decision to return to that product or brand again.

(Read more about the five psychological factors behind consumer decision-making.)

Brand factors influencing consumer decisions

Not all consumer decisions are influenced by the consumer themselves. At some points during the consumer journey, the brand has the most influence on what choices are made. 

In a conversation with Jason Ten-Pow, Founder and CEO of ONR, a customer experience strategy agency, we learned that consumers lean on brands to differentiate themselves from their competitors in hopes that significant differences will make the decision-making process easier. If those differences are easily identified, consumers will rely on other factors to form their decision-making. 

Consumers also want brands to make them feel heard, valued and cared about. These three post-sale checkpoints can help ensure that consumers are getting the sort of aftercare they’re looking for:

1. Reassure the customer that they have been heard.

2. Empathize with the position your customer is in.

3. Make every effort to resolve any issues as swiftly and cooperatively as possible.

(Read more about helping consumers feel confident in their decision to purchase from you.)

Persuasion can help consumers make better decisions

Brands can certainly lead consumers to make a certain decision using psychology. Persuasion is one tool that, when used ethically, can help move consumers in the right direction and help them make a decision they’ll be happy with.

Andres Lares, co-author of "Persuade" and Managing Partner at Shapiro Negotiations Institute, a negotiation training consulting firm, gave us a four-step outline for ethical persuasion and actionable tips you can implement into your marketing strategies.

1. Building credibility

Persuasion starts with credibility, which is formed through trust. Consumers aren’t just going to follow your lead because you want them to. You have to give them something tangible to work with.

You can rely on expert opinions of your products, awards you’ve received, and reviews and testimonials from other customers to help build your credibility with consumers. 

2. Engaging consumer emotions

Humans are emotional creatures, and the way a brand or product makes them feel has a major impact on their decisions regarding it.

Emotion is the main motivating factor that pushes consumers toward or away from a brand. When you elicit strong positive emotions in consumers, you increase the likelihood that they’ll become a customer.

3. Using logic

Logic is a key ingredient in consumer decision-making. It’s how consumers convince themselves that purchasing a product is a smart investment.

The logic your customer uses is justification for them to think back to themselves and say, 'This brand must be good because _______. ' That justification could be the expert endorsements your brand received, awards you won or any other proof that your brand will offer value.

4. Facilitating action

At some point during their time with you, consumers will complete some sort of action, and they’ll want that action to be as simple as possible. You can influence the actions they take by leading them to the option you think will fit them best.

You can ask your customers if they’d like to complete an action, preferably one that is in line with the other choices they’ve made thus far.

A common example of this is a pretty standard interaction between the cashier and the customer: “Would you like a fry with that?” It’s a simple question and it leads your customer to consider buying another product, one that will likely compliment the rest of their purchase. When asking the question, you increase the likelihood of them making the purchase more than if you would’ve left it up to chance. 

(Read more about how the psychology of persuasion helps customers make the best decisions.)

Consumers make decisions using a wide range of measures produced by their psychological needs or the brands they’re in contact with. This guide is designed to help you better understand those thought processes and support consumers.