buyer readiness states

also called buyer readiness stages, the six decision-making stages through which consumers normally pass on their way to making a purchase. To be effective, the marketer must know at which stage of readiness the consumers in the target audience stand and to what stage the consumer must be moved so that the marketer can select correct communication objectives for the marketing plan.

These stages are (1) aw areness-the marketer must be able to gauge the consumer's awareness of the product and be prepared to launch a campaign to build consumer awareness; (2) knowledge- consumers may be aware of a product but know very little about it, making product knowledge the focus of the marketing campaign; (3) liking-if consumers know the product, how do they feel about it? (4) preference-consumers may like the product but not prefer it to others, thus the product's positive qualities must be promoted; (5) conviction-consumers might prefer the product but not have any conviction about purchasing it, so the marketer must build conviction that purchasing the product is the right thing to do; (6) purchase -some consumers may have conviction about the product but might not actually get around to buying it, thus marketers must lead consumers to take this last step with marketing strategies such as trial purchases, premium offerings with purchase, or offering the product at a low price.

The buyer readiness states are important considerations in any marketing plan, and the marketing plan must remain flexible so that it can be adjusted to keep pace with the changing distribution of buyer readiness.