The product: buying the product

Psychology A2 · Consumer Psychology. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

The Engel Kollat Blackwell (EKB) model treats buying as a process in stages, not a single reaction. The buyer recognises a need, searches for information, evaluates the alternatives, purchases, and then evaluates the purchase. Personal factors (motives, attitudes) and environmental factors (family, culture) affect each stage.

Store choice depends on things such as distance, range of goods, price, service and atmosphere. Sinha et al. (2002) studied shoppers in India and found that reasons varied with age, gender and the type of store.

After buying, a person may feel post-purchase cognitive dissonance: uncomfortable doubt about whether the choice was right. Nordvall (2014) reported that this can happen even with ordinary grocery choices.

Rules to remember

EKB order: need recognition → information search → evaluation of alternatives → purchase → post-purchase evaluation.
Information search can be internal (memory) or external (reviews, friends, sellers).
Sinha et al. (2002): convenience (nearness) and merchandise were leading reasons for store choice; men and women weighted them differently.
Dissonance is stronger when the purchase is expensive, important, hard to reverse and the rejected options were attractive.
Reducing dissonance: seek information that supports the choice, value the chosen item more, devalue the rejected one, or return the item.
Retailers reduce it with guarantees, easy returns and reassuring follow-up messages.

Common mistake

Students place “evaluation of alternatives” after the purchase. It comes before buying; the stage after buying is post-purchase evaluation.

Worked example

Sana wants new headphones. She compares three models on price and sound quality in a shop, then picks one. Which EKB stage is the comparing?

She already knows what she needs, so need recognition is over.
She is not collecting new facts but weighing the options against each other.
She has not paid yet, so it is before the purchase stage.

Answer: Evaluation of alternatives, the third stage of the EKB model.

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