Product-Level Choice: A Top-Down or Bottom-Up Process?

C Whan Park and Daniel C Smith

Journal of Consumer Research, 1989, vol. 16, issue 3, 289-99

Abstract: Examination of the process by which consumers form decision criteria and subsequently evaluate and choose product-level alternatives when purchase goals are well defined indicates that decision criteria are formulated in a goal-driven, top-down fashion rather than a product-driven, bottom-up fashion. Evaluations of alternatives follows a within-product strategy, as opposed to a within-attribute strategy, and is characterized by less reliance on price information than reported in previous research. Even without a specific goal for product decisions, the formation and utilization of decision criteria did not follow the bottom-up process. Alternative explanations are offered for these contrasts along with implications for future research on product-level decisions. Copyright 1989 by the University of Chicago.

Date: 1989
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