Make your mind up!

Ever have difficulties making a purchase decision?

Entertainment is something that has played a major role throughout my 21 years on planet earth. Coming from a family of boys, winning expresses your superiority and the best way to compete would be through gaming or playing sports. 

The testosterone levels would be overflowing through screaming at each other and putting each other down for losing a game. Nothing is better than a bunch of boys bonding over a session of games and ordering some food. But soon enough one thing came missing, the new PlayStation 4 Gaming System. We knew we had to get it but there was only one problem, a problem that electronic businesses usually undergo; competition! The Xbox 1 was just released earlier than that and both the systems delivered outstanding features, which made it an impossible decision to make. Which one to get? Making decisions is often difficult and there are various factors to consider. The idea of upbringing alternate gaming systems was something new to us and we didn't know how to approach the situation.

I realised that we had some sort of information about both systems but we had to perform an external search to help us decide what to get. Friends had different opinions, reviewers brought up solid point about the system of their preference and the more information we got, the more confusing it became. We went on searching for more information online and used the comparing platform to see the differences in the two gaming systems. 

We always purchased the Playstation rather than the Xbox and brand switching was questionable due to the competitive features the two brands delivered. Usually we would experience loss aversion where we would consider the loss over the gain but the upgrade created a whole other dilemma; both systems had good features. We approached a few people and they recommended extended problem solving by discussing the dilemma with the employee at the store who is much more educated about both systems. The worst we would face is functional risk and after evaluating the opportunity cost, the decision we were going to make because much clear.

The Playstation 4 was positioned according to our price range and delivered the quality of graphics we desired. The ability to play online was more viable in the Playstation as we already had a set account with a certain amount of points. Buying a whole other system would require the consumer to learn the new operations and be introduced to new features that were designed differently by the competitor brand. The rational decision to make was to continue using the Playstation and form a loyalty towards their operating system. I think because the decision to be made was not habitual, it required us as the consumer to perform a search about the two products. I learned about something known as consumer inertia. It just means to choose a specific brand out of mere habit as it requires less effort. Now I understand that consoles are not a product that is purchased based on habitual factors but since so many generations of consoles from the same brand are released, you tend to stick to the brand because it is the one you are adapted to. Would this decision of Playstation 4 over Xbox 1 be a factor of consumer inertia? To a certain extent, yes!

I understood that the level of involvement when making a decision increases as the price increases and because we are cautious when it comes to luxury products, we needed to ensure that we don’t regret the decision.

Consumers make decisions every day when buying a soft drink to buying lunch and even groceries. The fact that new brands are established every now and then, our ability to make a decision becomes more complex and we are required to perform extended search even if we have little information about the product.

The more something means to us, the longer it takes to make a decision after you have recognised a need for it and evaluating alternatives would impact our decision to buy the product. Buying a gaming system made me realise the amount of information we need and the factors we need to consider when making a purchase decision. Click on the video below to know how we are influenced by various decision attributes. Putting the idea of decision making processes in a real life situation might intrigue you how we make certain decisions. 

Lets run through this decision making process that I had to undergo:
Problem recognition: Two new gaming system was released with improved graphics, speed and new games would be launched with additional features.
Information search: Spoke to educated employees, friends, internet search and gaming reviewers.
Evaluation of alternatives: Playstation 4 or Xbox 1
Product choice: Playstation 4 because I recognise the operating system, I have been a loyal customer, cheaper online play than Xbox, existing purchased playstation 3 games would function on the next generation model.
Consumption and Learning: With the Xbox I could have used the additional camera feature to play multiplayer games while the Playstation cannot perform such function and this was a compensatory decision rule I had to make. The new gaming system was fun and easy to play with and I enjoyed it.

If you perform such a decision making process, it will definitely guide you towards something you desire but are not aware because of the alternatives available. Next time you purchase something significant, see how effective this procedure is in helping you decide what YOU want!