As marketers, understanding consumers is key, even when sometimes their decisions are unpredictable or don’t make any sense at all. That’s why understanding the decision-making process is so important, as it will allow us to determine where potential buyers are at each stage of their journey and how to approach them.

1. Recognition

At this moment, the consumer is just realizing they need or want something. This can come from either internal (hunger, thirst…) or external (advertising, talking with friends…) stimulus.

2. Development

This is the search stage, consumers will begin to do research and compare all the options that are out there. Consumers will evaluate the pros and cons, compare brands, models and attributes. As marketers, we have to know where our product/service stands compared to our competition and what matters to our customers.

3. Fulfillment

At this stage, two things will happen: After evaluating all the alternatives, the customer may buy the product/service and after that, they will evaluate whether they are satisfied with the purchase or not. Was this a good deal? Am I satisfied with my purchase? Did it exceeds my expectations? Fulfillment is not the same as satisfaction, so we want to make sure we are keeping customers satisfied.