Consumers make decisions on a daily basis and about nearly every product they buy and use, Blackwell et al. (2006, p.69). Complex buying behaviour occurs when the consumer is highly involved with the purchase. High-involvement purchases include those involving high expenditure or personal risk, usually associated to purchases such as buying a house, laptop, diamond ring or motor vehicle. These items are not purchased often, and the tasks associated to the decision process are complex because the risk is high in terms of the significant financial commitment needed to go through with the decision. The large differences among brands or products require a person to gather a substantial amount of information prior to purchasing the good or service. The high involvement requires the consumer to engage in what’s called extended problem solvingextended problem solvingPurchasing decisions in which a consumer gathers a significant amount of information before making a decision., where they spend a lot of time comparing the features of the products, the prices, warrantees, and so forth. High-involvement products can cause buyers a great deal of post purchase dissension if they are unsure about their purchases to begin with, therefore it is best to exhaust all the options available to them.
The high involvement purchase decision made by a friend and I, saw us utilise all seven stages of the Consumer Decision Process Model, as discussed by Blackwell et al. (2006, p.70). The purchase that was carefully researched evaluated and finally purchased; was a trip for two weeks in Thailand. A few examples of the questions we had to ask ourselves and research were the following: What specific countries we each wanted to travel to, what country would be the final destination point? Did we have enough money to do what we wanted to? What did we need to buy for the trip? How were we going to find the best package at a low price? Who would we ask advice from? The stages of the
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