Definition of black box concept

idea that consumer decision processes are not completely understandable or predictable. The black box concept attempts to mark the pattern followed by consumers when making purchasing decisions. The concept lists the components involved in the reception of marketing messages and the influences they have on consumers, taking into account external forces and consumers' personal characteristics. The factors considered in the black box concept are environmental, such as economic conditions; personal, such as the ideas that guide the consumer's desire for a product; and the buyer's responses, such as the process by which the consumer makes a decision about a particular brand or quantity of a product. Although the black box concept is used as a model to demonstrate the influence of the marketing mix in concert with other external variables, no one can actually pinpoint the definitive formula that results in the consumer's decision; hence the name, black box.