Question

Before purchasing a car, John sought advice from his friends and researched auto reviews on the Internet. He also visited car dealers and went for a test-drive. In which of the following stages of the consumer decision-making process is John engaged?
a. internal information search
b. external information search
c. postpurchase evaluation
d. problem recognition
e. evoked set manipulation

Answer 1

Answer: b. external information search

Explanation: As majority of us are not experts on everything, in the external information search stage if the consumer decision-making process, one researches for products and services that can satisfy our needs and wants. This is the beginning of risk management where we access pros and cons while taking into account past experiences we have had.

External information search occurs when the buyer has no previous knowledge about a product, which then leads them to seek information from personal or public sources or marketer dominated sources especially when the buyer's previous experience is limited inefficient. During the information search, the options available to the buyer are either identified or clarified.