Consumer Decision Making.

When buying new products, especially expensive, consumers follow the consumer decision-making process which consists of  5 steps. The first one is need recognition which occurs when consumer is exposed to either internal or external stimulus. For example, you want to buy a TV and you see a commercial of Sony 3D TV, the next thing you want to go to the store and have this new viewing yourself. After you recognize what you need or want, you go to the next step information search. For example,  you already had a good experience with Sony products, you saw a commercial about that product on TV, read about it in a magazine or heard about it from your friends or family.  Once you get the information you move to the next step evaluation of alternatives. You begin narrowing the number of choices by either using cuttoffs or picking up a product attribute and exclude all products that dont have that attribute. For example, you need to buy a TV, at least 40 inch, you want it to have 3D, HD, and access to internet. Next step is a purchase. Ultimately you have to decide whether to buy or not to buy, specifically, when, what, where to buy and how to pay. Nowadays, there are so many ways to purchase a product, you can go to of of the electronic retailer stores and buy the TV or you can order it from online store. Same way, you can pay for you purchase right away or buy it on credit. The last step is postpurchase behavior which influenced by certain expectations. For example, people have high expectations regarding performance of Sony 3D TV which are satisfied because Sony's main goal is to satisfy costumers by making high quality products. Sometimes people tend to feel cognitive dissonance. in that case,Sony provides warranty for its products,product replacement plans or product insurance to help reduce dissonance.