Consumer Judgment and Decision Processes

Abstract

Many models of consumer information processing emphasize that, although a wide variety of products and services are commercially available, consumers tend to consider a relatively small set of alternatives when making purchase deci­ sions (Hauser & Wernerfelt, 1990; Kardes, Gurumurthy, Chandrashekaran, & Dornoff, 1993; Nedungadi, 1990). This finding is remarkably pervasive, despite that consumers are exposed to extensive amounts of information concerning a large number of different products and services every day. The typical American consumer is exposed to over 300 advertisements per day (Britt, Adams, & Miller, 1972). This estimate does not include exposure to product-related information provided by sales representatives, package labels, coupons, sweepstakes, pointof-purchase displays, consumer magazines, brochures, and friends and relatives. Due to capacity limitations (Miller, 1956), consumers process a relatively small proportion of the available information bearing on the products and services that are considered for purchase or use (Russo, 1977; Russo, Staelin, Nolan, Rus­ sell, & Metcalf, 1986). The information that is processed can have multiple im­ plications and can influence judgment in many different ways (Hoch & Deighton, 1989). These issues lead to a number of interesting questions: What information is considered when consumers judge products and services? How is product in­ formation stored and organized in memory? How is information used to make product-related judgments and decisions?