The consumer decision process is broken up into five steps:
- Need Recognition
- Information Search
- Evaluation of Alternatives
- Purchase Decision
- Post-Purchase Evaluation
Each step has its own level of importance and its own way of being targeted. This means that companies come up with different strategies to market to customers and potential customers during each step of their journey. As a student of marketing, it pays to know the difference between ads targeted at someone who doesn't know about your product vs those who are deciding between you and your competition.
Choose a company in the clothing industry. You can choose any type of clothing company you'd like: sports apparel (Nike, Adidas, etc.), women's apparel, shoes, yoga clothes, whatever! Once you've got your company, head to Google/YouTube/Vimeo and search for advertisements that company puts out. Identify one advertisement that speaks to customers in each step of the decision process and explain why it sells to that step. Also identify what type of ad it is - recognition, affinity, or call to action - and why.
Choose your company wisely and be strong with your research - you cannot use the same advertisement for more than one step!