Buying consumer products and services in a market place full of choices can often be a tedious task. Often times a consumer may begin the process of shopping by soliciting recommendations from friends and family or other sources such as magazines and Internet web sites. Sometimes recommendations are for a final product while at other times they are merely starting points for a consumer to investigate further.
For example, a consumer may want to buy a digital camera and a friend suggests buying nothing less than a five megapixel camera but makes no suggestion as to which model or brand. At which point the consumer may then make a note regarding the five megapixel camera and begins the process of refining the search with a constraint of nothing less than five megapixels. This time a friend recommends Kodak as a brand but not a model and the consumer makes another notation. Additionally, other notations may be made while investigating other informative avenues, such as specific web sites which deal in the desired product (or service).
This notational shopping process may continue for multiple brands and models until enough data is collected that the consumer is comfortable making purchasing decision. Because this process is very tedious and time consuming, some consumers may quit shopping for the product or settle for a product that does not fulfill their needs or criteria.