Differences in consumers' decision-making styles across product categories with varying complexity

Abstract

Researchers in consumer behaviour agree that consumers’ purchasing behaviour is influenced by a variety of factors, including – but not limited to – personal or individual characteristics such as personality, attitudes, knowledge and motivation, and external factors such as social, situational or contextual factors, as well as marketing-related and market-related factors. These factors influence consumers’ decisions in terms of what, where and why they purchase certain products, and also how consumers behave and react in the marketplace, more specifically pertaining to their application of specific consumer decision-making styles when purchasing products. Most researchers in consumer behaviour concur that consumers’ purchasing decisions can be arranged along a continuum of complexity, ranging from extended and in-depth decision-making through to low involvement/routine decision-making. The aim of this study was to determine and describe demographic differences in consumers’ predominant decision-making styles in the South African context, and subsequently to ascertain how the predominant decision-making styles of specific demographic subsets of the population are similar (or differ) across selected product categories varying in complexity, namely major household appliances, clothing (workwear or best daywear), and groceries. A survey research design was implemented, using a structured, self-administered questionnaire to measure consumers’ decision-making styles with an adapted version of Sproles and Kendall’s (1986) consumer style inventory (CSI) across the three product categories. Through the EFA procedure, the data pertaining to consumers’ decision-making styles (CDMS) was reduced to between 18 and 28 items per product category, which were distributed amongst five factors for each product category. Of the five factors, three factors showed similar results across the product categories in terms of item content, namely the perfectionist, the confused by over-choice, and the heuristic decision-making styles. The perfectionism CDMS was identified as the most pertinent (fairly strong); the heuristics CDMS was the second most pertinent, and the confused by over-choice CDMS was the least pertinent across the three product categories. More specifically, the results showed that consumers were fairly perfectionistic in their CDMS when purchasing major household appliances and clothing. These consumers were also concerned about value for money when it came to groceries and major household appliances. Overall, the confused by over-choice CDMS was the least prevalent across the product categories. It appears that the confused by over-choice CDMS is dependent on the product category, as consumers were more prone to apply a consumer decision-style that epitomises confusion when purchasing major appliances, than when purchasing clothing and groceries. The MANOVA indicated that across all three of the product categories, consumers with a low level of educational attainment and Millennials were respectively more likely to apply the confused by over-choice or the heuristic CDMS, which both suggest a lack of rationality. This is of concern in terms of informed consumer decisions. In addition, specific consumer decision-making styles were more prominent for certain product categories and among consumers with specific demographic characteristics. The study makes a valuable contribution towards the literature, and also for consideration by marketers, brand managers and retailers of appliances, clothing and groceries.