What my marketing students taught me about how people choose among important options
Most people think of marketing as something companies do: advertising campaigns, product launches, or social media strategies. All of those are part of marketing, but they aren’t the whole story.
Marketing is also a way of understanding how people make decisions. In a world filled with choices—schools, jobs, cities to live in—we’re constantly evaluating alternatives and deciding what matters most. The frameworks used in marketing are essentially attempts to explain how those choices unfold.
The goal of this blog, Living with Marketing, is to show how these tools can help us navigate a world full of options. I recently saw a perfect example of this in my marketing class at Boston College.
How People Actually Make Big Decisions
This semester, I asked my students to apply a framework called the Consumer Decision Process to a choice they’d already lived through: choosing where to go to college.
The assignment asked them to identify which stage of the process was most decisive, which competing school came closest to being chosen, and what that competitor could have done differently to change the outcome.
The essays revealed that major decisions rarely hinge on a single universal moment. Instead, the “tipping point” occurs at different stages depending on the individual.
The Logic of the Trade-Off
One of the most striking takeaways from the students was how they managed “trade-offs.” In marketing, we often look at how a brand “positions” itself—the specific benefits it offers compared to its rivals.
One student’s essay perfectly captured the tension between Prestige and Proximity. They were torn between Boston College and a highly prestigious university located in a more rural environment. The student acknowledged that the rural university had a slightly higher national ranking and more famous athletic programs—factors that might make a resume “pop” a bit more.
However, the student chose BC because of the “backyard” factor. They realized that being in a major city meant easier access to internships and job interviews. This wasn’t a choice between a “good” and “bad” school; it was a choice between two different life strategies: Do I value the legacy of a name, or the utility of a location?
The Role of Comparisons and “Tie-Breakers”
Another consistent theme was the presence of a “close second.” Consumers rarely evaluate every factor equally. Instead, they identify a small set of criteria to break ties among otherwise acceptable options.
For some, this tie-breaker was financial. One student was very candid: while they preferred the environment at BC, a significant scholarship from a competing school would have acted as a non-compensatory factor. They admitted that if the price difference had been large enough, they’d have “overlooked the disadvantages” of the other school because it would have been the more financially responsible path.
This reminds us that “rationality” in big decisions often has a tipping point. When a competitor changes their price, they aren’t just changing a number; they’re changing how we perceive their flaws.
The “Product Trial”
Finally, many students emphasized the “Information Search” stage—specifically the campus visit. For a high school senior, a campus visit is more than a tour; it’s a Product Trial. Just as you might test-drive a car to see how it handles, sitting in a dining hall or walking across the quad is how a student tests if the “brand” of the university matches the daily reality of the life they want to lead.
From a marketing perspective, this is about reducing risk. Choosing a college is a high-stakes investment. Seeing the campus firsthand transforms an abstract option into a concrete reality, providing a “signal” that brochures or rankings can’t convey.
What This Reveals About Life
Although this assignment focused on college, the patterns are universal. Whether we’re choosing a job offer, a city to live in, or a graduate program, we follow a similar path:
- We identify a set of acceptable options.
- We gather information to reduce uncertainty.
- We compare alternatives using a small number of key criteria (like prestige vs. proximity).
- We commit to the path that feels most aligned with our values.
The process may not always look perfectly rational from the outside, but it reflects a practical way of navigating a complex world. Marketing frameworks help explain how we navigate environments filled with options and eventually decide which one feels right.