The Effort of Consumer Decision-Making

In a previous post, I considered the levels of consumer consciousness that might be employed in making a decision, and ended on the waffle of "it depends on the customer, purchase, and situation."   I still sense that to be true -no one level of effort is used by all customers for all purchases in all situations - but I likely could have gone further in considering the factors that influence the level of effort a customer will place in making a decision.   Hence, this follow-up:

In general, consumers decide how much effort they will place into the tasks of information-gatehring and decision-making for each purchase.   A person doesn't (or shouldn't) approach the task of deciding which beverage to have with a meal with the same level of effort and deliberation they approach purchasing real estate.   This much is intuitive - but to make it more deliberate, consider the following factors that may be influential:

• Information – People can only make decisions based on information that they have.   This includes both knowledge gained in the past and information that can be obtained prior to making a decision.
• Mental Ability – Likewise, people can only apply the systems and methods of analysis with which they are familiar or can become familiar before a decisions is made.  One cannot expect a simple-minded person to be capable of complex reasoning.
• Experience – An individual’s level of experience making a certain kind of decision will influence the level of effort.  This can work in either direction: experience provides more knowledge and logical tools that can be brought to bear, but it also causes a person to choose to be less deliberate and rely on their instincts or repeat past decisions without sufficient analysis.
• Importance of Outcome – A customer will place more or less effort into a decision based on the importance of the outcome they wish to achieve.  A fashion-conscious person will place greater effort into choosing a jacket than someone who simply wishes to be kept warm.
• Relative Cost of Acquisition – Greater effort will be placed into decisions where there is higher cost, which includes not only money-price, time, and effort but also opportunity cost (the ability to use the time and money to obtain something else to serve a different need).   Few people put much effort into decisions costing less than ten dollars, unless that is all they have to spend.
• Distraction – There are various situational factors that may prevent or obstruct an individual’s ability to acquire information and apply logic.  A common example is time pressure, which causes people to make decisions based on superficial information and logic out of panic.

There are likely many other factors that can influence the level of effort that a person can and will place into a decision.  Also, the degree to which each factor is influential is subjective.  Some people consciously decide to put a great deal of effort into seemingly trivial decisions and then take a very casual approach to more important ones - but the assessment of triviality/importance is done from the subjective perspective of the customer.