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1. What are the stages of the consumer decision process? Give examples of how advertising can influence each stage. Find an ad that addresses the concern of customers in each stage.

Stages in the Consumer Decision Process

First Stage (Need Recognition)
• Perceiving a difference between a person's ideal and actual situations big enough to trigger a decision.
• Can be as simple as noticing an empty milk carton or it can be activated by marketing efforts.
Advertising influences this stage because products and services are everywhere. Advertising lets consumers know that a certain product or service is available, even if the need for it does not arise immediately. Food product advertisements are abundant in newspapers, road billboards and on the television.

Second Stage (Information Search)
The information search stage clarifies the options open to the consumer and may involve:
Internal Search:
• Scanning one’s memory to recall previous experiences with products or brands.
• Often sufficient for frequently purchased products.
• When past experience or knowledge is insufficient
• The risk of making a wrong purchase decision is high
• The cost of gathering information is low.
External Search
The primary sources of external information are:
1. Personal sources, such as friends and family.
2. Public sources, including various product-rating organizations such as Consumer Reports.
3. Marketer-dominated sources, such as advertising, company websites, and salespeople
When a consumer recognizes a product, he/she tries to find information about it. Advertising in newspapers and other published materials give such information. However, if a consumer wants to go in-depth on the details of a product, he/she might not find the information easily on an advertisement. Recently, advertisements have been evolving in a...