Page 21 - Decoding Decisions ~ Making sense of the messy middle

21 CHAPTER 2 IDENTIFYING THE MESSY MIDDLE

The exploration and evaluation loop

This seemingly infinite construct is the defining characteristic of the messy
middle (the design we’ve chosen for the loop isn’t an accident). Consumers

explore their options and expand their knowledge and consideration sets,
then – either sequentially or simultaneously – they evaluate the options
and narrow down their choices. For certain categories, only a brief time
might be required moving between these modes, while habitual and impulse
purchases may bypass the loop altogether. But other purchases, typically
more complex, encourage or even oblige us to engage in lengthy exploration,
generating a healthy number of options to evaluate.