The marketer is responsible for selling the goods in the market so he must have the knowledge how the consumers actually make their buying decisions. For this he must study the consumer buying decision process or model. It involves five stages.

 1.)    Need recognition:- consumer buying decision process  starts with need recognition. The marketer must recognize the needs of the consumer as well as how these needs can be satisfied. For example if a person is hungry then food is desired or if it is a matter of thirst than water is desirable.

2.)    Information search:– in consumer buying decision process information search comes at second number. In this stage consumer searches the information about the product either from family, friends, neighborhood, advertisements, whole seller, retailers, dealers, or by examining or using the product.

3.)    Evaluation of alternatives:– after getting the required knowledge about the product the consumer evaluate the various alternatives on the basis of it’s want satisfying power, quality and it’s features.

4.)    Purchase decision:– after evaluating the alternatives the buyer buys the suitable product. But there are also the chances to postpone the purchase decision due to some reasons. In that case the marketer must try to find out the reasons and try to remove them either by providing sufficient information to the consumers or by giving them guarantee regarding the product to the consumer.

5.)    Post purchase behavior:– after buying the product consumer will either be satisfied or dissatisfied. If the consumer is not satisfied in that case he will be disappointed otherwise If he is satisfied than he will be delighted. It is usually said that a satisfy consumer tell about the product to 3 people and a dissatisfy consumer tell about the product to 11 people. Therefore it is the duty of the marketer to satisfy the consumer.

Thus, these are the five stages of the consumer buying decision process.