The widespread use of smartphones has made it possible for consumers to purchase goods and services on the spot, regardless of where or when they shop.
In addition, it has become commonplace for people to quickly search for things that come to mind in their daily lives on their smartphones, and this information-seeking behavior has a significant impact on purchasing behavior.
In this article, we will introduce how consumer purchasing behavior is changing due to changes in the living environment, and explain the eight motivations that drive information search proposed by Google.
Consumer purchasing behavior is influenced by information seeking behavior
The ability to shop anytime and anywhere with just a smartphone has brought about a major change in consumer purchasing behavior.
Traditional purchasing behavior involves gradually increasing a consumer’s desire to purchase.
However, current purchasing behavior is instantaneous. While looking at their smartphones, consumers are instantly motivated to make a purchase, and it has become common for them to complete the purchase at that moment.
Google calls this new purchasing behavior “pulse type” and proposes that today’s consumers behave differently from traditional purchasing behavior.
Additionally, with the spread of smartphones, consumer search behavior has become established.
It has become commonplace to search for something on your smartphone instead of asking someone about something you suddenly noticed, something you want to know, or something you don’t understand.
According to Google, “search” is the most used method for gathering information when shopping.
When it comes to purchasing, the time share for “search” is 60.6%, overwhelmingly compared to “specialized sites” (13.2%), “family/friends/acquaintances” (7.8%), “SNS” (7.8%), etc. It has become a share.
In other words, consumers’ purchasing behavior is greatly influenced by their information seeking behavior.
Reference: Google “
Traditional purchasing behavior no longer applies: What we learned from analyzing information-seeking behavior: The Butterfly Circuit and 8 Motivations
”
Irregular information-seeking behavior
The conventional way of thinking about information seeking behavior was to arrive at purchasing behavior in stages, in the order of “awareness,” “interest,” “comparative consideration,” “purchase intention,” and “purchase.”
In other words, it was a straight road from awareness to purchase.
However, actual information seeking behavior was neither gradual nor linear.
It keeps appearing and disappearing, sometimes appearing after a short period of time, and sometimes disappearing suddenly.
We found that consumers’ information-seeking behavior repeats these irregular movements over and over again.
Furthermore, this irregular information seeking behavior is common regardless of the product, and it is almost impossible to proceed in a straight line from awareness to purchase as in the conventional information seeking behavior model.
Furthermore, this trend is not limited to Japan; similar results have been found in surveys in the United States and Europe.
We also found that there is a “motive” that drives consumers’ disordered information seeking behavior.
Consumers explore information, oscillating between potential motives.
8 motivations that drive consumers’ information seeking
Google lists eight potential motivations that drive consumers’ information seeking.
In addition, these motives can be classified into two types: “search” and “consolidate”.
[Search]
- Distract me (heh): I want to enjoy collecting information.
- Let me learn (hmmm): A feeling of wanting to accumulate knowledge that I didn’t know before.
- What everyone is telling me (or something like that): I want to know about the products that people and people around me are choosing.
- Let me smile (Ushishi): A feeling of wanting to know about products that are not generally known.
[Harden]
- Convince me (I see): The feeling of wanting to confirm whether your idea is correct.
- Let me solve it (yes yes): The feeling of wanting to get a useful answer right away
- Make me feel prepared (after all): I feel like I want to lower my expectations so that I won’t be disappointed later.
- Let me match the answer (right?): The feeling of wanting to believe that your choices are correct.
“Exploring” is a mode in which consumers are trying to explore their options. On the other hand, when you are in a “hardening” mode, you have already decided on your options and are trying to solidify them.
However, “searching” and “hardening” do not necessarily involve linear movements (searching → hardening).
For example, they make back-and-forth movements, such as a “gathering” motion followed by a “groping” motion.
Reference: Google “
Greece? Bali? Or maybe Hawaii? The reality of information seeking behavior as seen from honeymoon search behavior: The butterfly circuit and eight motivations
.”
summary
◆ Due to the spread of smartphones and changes in the living environment, consumer purchasing behavior is changing to a “pulse type”. Additionally, purchasing behavior is greatly influenced by information seeking behavior.
◆Actual information seeking behavior is not gradual or linear, but rather irregular movements that appear and disappear.
◆The things that stimulate consumers’ information search are “Let me distract myself,” “Let me learn,” “Let me tell you something,” “Let me relax,” “Convince me,” “Let me solve it,” “Let me prepare,” and “Let me match the answers.” These are eight motives.
◆The eight motives can be divided into “search” and “harden”, but the movement does not necessarily go from “search to harden”.