If consumers gather as much information as possible about the needed product or service, and answer the above questions objectively, they should be able to determine if that product or service is affordable. If it isn t affordable, they will have to assess the affordability of other products or service and choose one that is affordable. This process leads to the thought that more than one product or service might be affordable, and consumers might want to choose the most affordable. In any case, choosing an affordable product or service is a decision-making process. Decision-making requires a consumer to choose between alternatives.
Consumers always have at least two alternatives, one of which is to do nothing.
Of course, this implies that they really don t need the unaffordable product or service they chose not to buy. In order to find something they can afford, they might have to look for candidate alternatives that conform to their performance and availability needs and budget constraints. In most cases, buyers will find several alternatives with varying performance, availability, and cost attributes. They may have to search for or even create alternatives. After finding or creating these alternatives, they will probably want to choose the most affordable alternative.