Consumer’s Evoked Set

Why is it difficult to place a product in a consumer’s evoked set after it has already been rejected?

Consumers normally face challenges in making decisions about services and products on a daily basis (Wirtz & Mattila, 2003). These decisions are vital to the consumers and they take a lot of effort. Other decisions are made on an impulse basis. The perception of making decisions varies from the point to habits that people create over time (Wirtz & Mattila, 2003). The decisions involved may be risky, and therefore, consumers should carefully search and analyze the information before making any decision (Wirtz & Mattila, 2003).

Why is it difficult to place a product in a consumer’s evoked?

Proliferation of brands normally happens for the consumer’s goods in the market place. It is true that consumers do not give equal treatment to all brands that are in the market. To make the task of decision-making easier, a lot of brands are eliminated in the first stage of the decision process, and the final decision in the selection is made from a lower number of brands available (Wirtz & Mattila, 2003). This remaining subset of brands considered to be bought by the consumer is known as the evoked set.

One of the reasons that make it difficult to place a product in consumers’ evoked set is the perception of the brand. The consumers might have a wrong perception of the brand. The brand that had been bought by the consumer and turned out to be wrong might not be considered when making a decision to purchase (Wirtz & Mattila, 2003). Perception shapes the consumer’s psychology and evoked set (Wirtz & Mattila, 2003). Therefore, if the products had been deemed too bad by the consumer, it means that it would be very difficult to convince the consumer to purchase such brands (Wirtz & Mattila, 2003).

Motivation is another factor that drives the consumer to make a decision on what products to purchase or not. Motivation comes from within, and it greatly influences the psychology of consumers on what products to purchase. Each brand has a motivational factor that influences the consumers to like it. Some brands are deemed to be durable and not expensive. This factor can motivate the consumer to go for this brand. Some, on the other hand, are expensive and less durable (Wirtz & Mattila, 2003). This takes away the motivation of the consumers to purchase the brand. Therefore, if the consumers are motivated by a particular brand, they would look for it and purchase it. But when they are not motivated by that brand, they would not make a choice to purchase it even if you place the product in the consumer’s evoked set.

Brand classification. Many consumers classify brands based on their need for use. Some brands are needed for consumption and construction, among other needs (Wirtz & Mattila, 2003). Therefore, if the consumers were planning to buy the brand for consumption for dinner, the consumer would not buy the products for lunch at that time, however much it falls within their evoked set (Wirtz & Mattila, 2003). This is because the time in which the product is needed varies. Therefore, the consumers will only go for the products according to the classification of their needs.

The financial status of the consumer. Some brands are expensive, and they fall out of the consumer’s choice. The consumers have a set of mind on a particular amount of money to be used in purchasing some products. If such products still go at higher prices, then the consumers would not consider buying them even if they are placed within the consumer’s evoked set (Wirtz & Mattila, 2003). Consumer’s financial status is vital in making a decision on what to buy, and it influences a lot in their buying processes (Wirtz & Mattila, 2003). If the products still seem to be stagnated in their high prices then the consumers would not make a choice in purchasing them. Finally, prior experience may influence the consumer’s buying decisions (Wirtz & Mattila, 2003). For instance, if such products give a bad experience to the consumers, they do not consider buying them however much it’s within the consumer’s evoked set(Koo, 2006).

One of the strategies that marketers can use is finding the consumer’s insights, which is vital in building a good relationship with them. Finding consumer insights also helps in finding consumers’ needs, wishes, likes and dislikes to solve them. This would change the perception of the consumer and their evoked set (Koo, 2006). Marketers should produce quality and less expensive products to attract consumers so that they can establish their brand. While marketing these brands, they should use convincing language and pictures illustrating why that brand is better than others (Koo, 2006).

Non –compensatory decision rules. Decision rules are deemed to be non-. Compensatory rules when the evaluation performance criteria offsets from another evaluation criterion, of the brand. One of the rules is the disjunctive rule (Koo, 2006). This rule is used when the consumer finds minimum agreeable standards that each brand is required to meet (Wirtz & Mattila, 2003). Any brand will e accepted if it meets the requirement of minimum standard of any criterion used. The decision rule will assist in selecting the brands that exceed others by the criterion used. The second rule is the conjunctive rule (Wirtz & Mattila, 2003). This requires the consumer to establish lower levels of acceptability on the attribute of each brand. Hence, each evaluation criterion is of importance to consumers when the cutoff point is set below where the brands would not be considered further.

Any company that wishes to market its brands should work out efficient strategic measures to win the hearts of consumers. There are consumers who have evoked consumer sets. Such consumers have their reasons why they do not wish to purchase a particular product. Finding consumer’s insight before marketing is important because it helps in the satisfaction of the consumers.

References

Wirtz, J., & Mattila, A. S. (2003). The effects of consumer expertise on evoked set size and service loyalty. Journal of Services Marketing, 17(7), 649-665.

Koo, D. M. (2006). The fundamental reasons of e-consumers’ loyalty to an online store. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 5(2), 117-130.