Black Box Model
This article covers meaning, importance, components & process of Black Box Model from marketing perspective.
What is Black Box Model?
In consumer behavior study in marketing, the human brain is referred as the black box, which takes all decisions as a consumer. The black box model of consumer behavior identifies the stimuli responsible for buyer behavior. Hence, to impact the decision making of a consumer, the focus must be to change the stimuli so as to entice the mind to take a decision.
Importance of Black Box Model
For any company, it is important for them to under the mind of the consumer. Companies ensure that their products & services are communicated with the consumer via advertisements & promotions. The stimuli, whether advertisement and other forms of promotion about the product, that is presented to the consumer by the marketer and the environment is dealt with by the buyer’s black box or human mind.
Understanding a customers mind, buying patterns, decision making process, decision triggers etc. are critical for any business or marketer to succeed. Based on these customer behaviors, a company can invest in marketing & promotion, and look to earn return on those investments more tactfully.
Components of Black Box
The buyer’s black box or mind, comprises two sub components - the buyer’s characteristics and the buyer decision process.
1. Buyer's Characteristics
The buyer’s characteristics could be personal, social, cultural and psychological. These are internal to the buyer and the marketer cannot hope to bring much change into this.
2. Decision Making Process
The buyer’s decision making process consists of the following steps:
a. Problem recognition: The consumer identifies the need for a product
b. Information search: Once the need has been recognized, the consumer will look for more information on the various products that satisfy the need. For example, if the consumer is looking for a cellphone-he might want to get in-depth knowledge of various phones available in the market
c. Evaluation of alternatives: The set of all phones are then compared upon certain parameters that the user will desire in his product. For example the user might compare phones on style, design, features, aesthetics etc.
d. Purchase decision: Based on the above parameters, the user ranks the products and then buys the one which fit all criteria
e. Post purchase behavior: The user might want to revise his views on the product or criteria of selection based on the product’s performance.
The black box model considers the buyer's response as a result of a conscious and well-informed decision making process in which he is not impulsive.
Hence, this concludes the definition of Black Box Model along with its overview.
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