Consumer Behavior and Consumer Involvement - Essay Example

? High and Low Consumer Involvement High and Low Consumer Involvement Introduction Marketing is a wide area of study, which deals with all core activities of the supply chain. One of the basic elements of marketing is consumer behavior, which enables businesses to assess consumer behavior towards their offerings and design and promote products that are popular among consumers. This essay would discuss the high and low consumer involvement processes and how they compare and contrast to each other. In addition, the essay would also discuss the core element of high or low consumer involvement, i.e. consumer buying process, as this is the stage in the product or service purchase, where the level of involvement can be measured. What is Consumer Involvement? The study of decision-making behavior reflected by the customers is known as the customer involvement. The buying pattern of consumers varies from product to product based on the perception of consumers towards a product pertaining to its importance or relevance for the customer. In this manner, the study of purchasing behavior of customers enables businesses to understand the level of involvement each consumer has towards a product or service. The literature for consumer behavior is not considered in the modern business world as complete, without discussing customers’ involvement. For this reason, marketers have carried out extensive research in the area and have asserted that for understanding involvement, it is also important to consider the socio-psychological aspects as well. Although, researchers and marketers have fallen short of prescribing a comprehensive definition for the term “involvement”, but Kapferer and Laurent (1985) have suggested that there are five types of involvements. First level of involvement is for interest in the product, then involvement because of risk importance, risk probability, sign value or involvement due to hedonic value of the product. Other researchers like Schiffman and Kanuk (1991) perceives involvement as the reaction to ego’s call, perceived risk of the product or the importance of purchase of the product. Another perspective of consumer involvement is presented by Hansen (1981). He views involvement as: "Variations in the extent to which the individual is more or less motivated toward a specific piece of information, product, or the like. With high involvement, more psychic energy is released for handling incoming information, sorting it out, and making choices" (Hansen, 1981). The definition presented by Hansen (1981) is also supported by researchers like Mitchell (1981) who also suggested that consumers are motivated by businesses to commit high involvement in the purchasing decision so that they can close study the product, its attributes and its benefits. Moreover, Hensen’s (1981) definition is also close to perfect as it defines involvement on the basis of motivation that a marketing strategy of a business produces amongst consumers. To summaries the various definitions of involvement found with the review of literature, it can be asserted that involvement refers to the degree of attraction and the level of individual experiences an individual feels towards a product at the time of making a purchasing decision. The next section of the report would discuss the most important aspect of marketing studies, i.e. consumer behavior and its relevance to consumer involvement. Consumer Behavior and Consumer Involvement Consumer behavior is a wide area of marketing studies, which deals with the understanding of patterns depicted by individual or group of customers towards a particular product or service. It consists of a purchasing process, which includes the selection of a product, securing the product, disposing the product and experiencing the performance of the product. Therefore; consumer behavior is the study of attitude shown by consumers while purchasing and using a product or service. The study of consumer behavior requires marketers and researchers to study the psycho-sociological, anthropological and economical background of consumers in order to understand the decision-making practices of the given market place. The assertions about the consumer behavior of a target segment of the market, the marketers gather information about the demographic profile of the target market and the general behavior shared by all members of the target segment. By doing this, consumer preferences and influential factors on consumers’ purchasing decision are open to the business. On the basis of this information, product design, attributes, performance standards, pricing strategy, marketing and distribution strategy are designed and implemented (Armstrong, 1991; Khosla, 2010). When a consumer intends to buy a product, he or she evaluates different alternatives available. If the intended product to be purchased is expensive or is included in luxury items, consumers take keen interest in information gathering. This is because; purchase of expensive items requires substantive financial resources to be spent. Moreover, these items are durable and are expected to be satisfying a number of consumer preferences, which might include prestige, quality, and performance that the item might deliver. In this case, the consumer would depict a high degree of involvement in the product. Moreover, the customer would also evaluate the item on the basis of its ability to satisfy the ego of the customer. Additionally, the customer would expect that the communication message from the manufacturer would answer all his/her questions regarding the product, its design and attributes and its performance. With respect to the theory of consumer behavior, the process of purchasing will be long and requires the consumer to carefully understand the product dynamics (Blackwell & Engel, 2006). If the consumer intends to purchase a cheap and frequently utilized item, he/she will not put extensive efforts into information gathering and evaluation of alternatives. This is because; the purchasing decision does not require extensive financial resources and perceived risk is also low for these products. In this manner, the consumer would depict a low degree of involvement in making a purchasing decision of such products. With respect to the theory of consumer behavior, the consumer would not spend much time into decision-making, as he / she has to buy it more frequently (Solomon et al., 2006). As the consumer behavior varies from product to product, the involvement of consumer also varies from product to product, depending upon several factors. In the coming lines, the essay would discuss the types of consumer involvements. High Degree of Consumer Involvement A purchasing decision made by a consumer towards a product, which is expected to be representing a high level of perceived risk or the consumer perceives it of high personal relevance, refers to a high degree of consumer involvement. For example, a consumer will surely reflect a high degree of involvement while purchasing a vehicle, apartment, house, banking services. These are the items that are purchased by consumers rarely but they are considered as essential items for a household. The level of risk involved in these purchasing decisions is financial, but the necessity overcomes the negative factors in the purchasing decision. For this reason, consumers buy these items after detailed research and knowledge gathering by the customers regarding the intended item to be purchased. By doing this, customers try to reduce the risks involved in purchasing (Brijball, 2003). Low Degree of Consumer Involvement If intended product to be purchased reflects a low level of perceived risk to the consumer, the degree of involvement is on the lower side. Products, which are low priced and frequently used by consumers such as detergent, soap, pre-cooked food, dairy products. Consumers usually require little information to evaluate the product usage and its benefits while buying above stated products and alike. Although alcohol, drinks, tobacco and other alike are usually considered as items of low consumer involvement, the ego risk associated with these products requires customers to gather as much information as possible (Hoyer & Maclnnis, 2008). The basic types of consumer involvement are discussed in the last two sections of the essay. The next section would discuss the five sub-types of consumer involvement. Consumer Involvement due to Ego Ego is defined as the perception and expectation of a person’s central value system. If a wife wants to purchase coffee, she would think of her husband’s perception of herself whether she is good in making coffee or not. In this manner, this woman would develop ego involvement with the product and would gather information from authentic sources pertaining to the selected coffee brand. In businesses’ struggle to understand consumer behavior, ego involvement is defined as the degree of product’s engagement with consumers’ central value system. For this reason, personal values of customers in the target segment are closely monitored and studied by businesses in order to design attributes of a product, which are egoistically appealing to the target segment (Muncy & Hunt, 1984). Consumer Involvement due to Commitment Freedman (1964) is considered as the first researcher who studied the impact of commitment shown by the customer while involving in the purchasing decision about a product. This usually happens when a consumer perceives ego risk involvement from a product. In other words, if a customer develops a commitment with a product or brand, it is the resultant of customer’s self obsession to the product. Businesses usually achieve consumers’ commitment with their brands by establishing a link between the product attribute or design and the personal values of consumers. Without commitment, it is possible that egoistic involvement is not there. For example, if a consumer is looking to buy a car, he would purchase a vehicle that is according to his/her personality and financial worth. For this reason, consumers gather a significant amount of information before committing to buy a particular brand of vehicle. Customers’ commitment towards a particular product or brand is also known as customers’ loyalty amongst marketers and researchers. If a person repeatedly makes a purchasing decision towards the same brand of commodity, it is considered that the person is loyal to that particular brand of commodity. To build loyalty amongst customers, product’s design and attributes are designed in such a manner, that a customer does not switch to the competing brand of the same commodity (Sahney, 2012). Consumer Involvement due to Communication In order to communicate the usage and benefits of a product, businesses engage into marketing activities. These marketing activities are designed keeping in view the dynamics of the target segment of the market and answers critical questions which might arise in consumers’ minds. This communication process builds consumers’ involvement with the help of attractive and creative marketing campaigns and increases the degree of involvement that a consumer might reflect while purchasing (Horey, 2010). Researchers suggest that communication involvement is different from ego involvement. This is because ego involvement is long lasting, as it is associated with objects or ideas. On the other hand, communication involvement serves the current purpose to the business and is designed for specific timings. For this reason, communication involvement is non-permanent and needs to be refreshed on a regular basis. Businesses decide to engage into activities developing communication involvement only if the activities are increasing the number of sales of the product or engaging target segment into extensive information gathering activities. In contrast, if a business is successful in establishing ego involvement, it would stay there throughout under a number of market related situations (Horey, 2010). Consumer Involvement due to Importance of Purchasing Decision Howard and Sheth (1969) defined importance of purchase as: “A variable in the buyer's frame of reference that corresponds to the intensity of motives. It is product class specific only and does not distinguish among brands. It is the saliency of one product class with respect to another... It is variously labeled degree of involvement, importance of task, and seriousness of consequences” (Howard & Jagdish, 1969). Purchase importance in this regard has remained the center of focus for modern business and marketing studies. Hupfer and Gardner (1971) suggest that the purchasing of expensive items is important to consumers, as it requires extensive use of financial resources. These are usually items that are a basic necessity in modern lifestyle and are expensive. Therefore; the degree of consumers’ involvement is higher, whereas the purchase of cheaper products requires low involvement. Kassarjian (1978) viewed it differently and stated that: “But of the dozens, if not hundreds, of mundane decisions made each day by the average consumer, I wonder just how many are important to high, just how many are significant or high involvement decisions” (Kassarjian, 1978). Consumer involvement due to purchase importance is usually confused amongst the businesses and consumers as similar to ego involvement. As it is found that the purchase importance is only present when the customer has established an ego involvement due to that the product being near to the central value system. In this regard, purchased decisions made after involvement due to a purchasing decision are usually viewed as a high degree of consumer involvement items. Going further, purchase importance also reflects a strong commitment reflected by the consumer towards purchasing a product or service. If the product depicts a low degree of purchase importance, the buyer would not be as loyal to that particular product as he is to a product, which requires him to gather extensive information. In this manner, it is eminent that the consumer need to go through a purchasing decision making process which is different for different products (Hansen, 1981). Consumer Involvement due to Response The complete set of cognitive and behavioral factors that design a purchasing decision on behalf of the consumer is known as involvement shown by the consumer due to response to the evolving factors. For example, if a customer is active in information seeking process to make a purchasing decision, the scenario would depict a high response involvement. On the other hand, if the consumer is reflecting passive involvement in choosing a product to buy after no physical or psychological efforts, it is said to be low response involvement. As suggested by theory of consumer behavior, the type of product decides what would be the level of cognitive and behavioral processing reflected by consumers. Keeping this in view, it can be suggested that the buying decision is made after three stages, i.e. detailed problem solving, reduced problem solving and repeated response behavior. As it is already established that response involvement variates from product to product, thus marketing efforts are designated in the similar manner keeping in view the ego, communication and purchase importance involvement of consumers (Solomon et al., 2006). From this point forward, the essay would discuss the consumer-buying process with respect to its relevance with the degree of involvement depicted by the consumer. Consumer Buying Process The consumer buying process also varies from product to the product, but the most common consumer behavior would consist of following buying process’s stages: 1. Recognizing the need for purchase At the first stage, the consumer recognizes that he/she needs a particular product or service to fulfill their need and satisfy their desire. If the identified need for a product involves purchasing of expensive items, the consumer would evaluate the purchasing decision with the purchasing of other items that are also required at the time. If the consumer decides that he/she needs to satisfy the first stated need, he would move to the second stage of the buying process (Kotler et al., 2009). 2. Gathering Information At this stage, the consumer would gather as much information about the intended expensive item to be purchased. He/she would search for available brands, prices of each brand, life duration of each brand. If the intended item to be purchased is cheap, the consumer might not spend much time on this stage and move on to the third stage of the buying process (Kotler et al., 2009). 3. Evaluating Available Alternatives Once the information is gathered, the consumer will now evaluate the best available alternatives and then focus on top three or four brands. If the intended item to be purchased is expensive, the consumer would select only specialized brands and depict the high degree of involvement in studying and understanding the differences between top brands (Kotler et al., 2009). 4. Buying Decision At this stage, the consumer would make a definite purchasing decision. If the item to be purchased is expensive, than the consumer would carry out cost benefit analysis and depict purchase importance involvement while finally making a purchasing decision. Product or service would also be evaluated on the basis of its ability to match the consumer’s life style, worth, ego requirements and the marketing campaign of the product (Kotler et al., 2009). 5. After Sales Behavior When the consumer has finally purchased the product, he would now monitor the performance of the purchased brand. If the purchased item is expensive, consumer would spend extensive time on monitoring the performance and depict the high degree of involvement in seeking expected satisfaction from the purchase decision. On the other hand, if the purchased item is cheap, the consumer would not reflect a high degree of involvement in noticing brand’s performance (Kotler et al., 2009). Although, this buying process has been seen as universally accepted and adopted by consumers, the length of the process might vary depending upon the level of involvement that a consumer reflect. The decision making process ranges from low involvement behavior, such as in the purchasing decision of a burger at a local fast food joint, or high involvement, such as in the purchasing decision of a continental dish at a five star restaurant. In the purchasing decision of low involvement products, consumers do not require a significant amount of information. On the other hand, in the purchasing decision of high involvement products, the consumer would spend a significant amount of time on information gathering and understanding the problem solving attributes of a product. After understanding what consumer involvement is, what are its types and how it is considered as the core element of consumer behavior, the essay will now move to conclusion and present a summary of key findings. Conclusion After the analysis of gathered literature regarding consumer involvement, it is revealed that the marketing strategies of a business help it to establish the level of consumer involvement in the purchasing decision. If the product manufacturing decision and supply chain activities of the business delivers a product which is expensive, perceived to be performing for a long time, satisfies the ego and value centered systems of the consumer, the degree of involvement in the purchasing decision making would be high. Similarly, if the product is cheap and purchased to be used frequently, the consumer would reflect a low degree of involvement. Businesses establish the consumer involvement barometer with the help of marketing its products according to the consumers’ preferences. List of References Armstrong, S.J., 1991. Prediction of Consumer Behavior by Experts and Novices. Journal of COnsumer Research, 18(1), pp.251-56. Blackwell, M. & Engel, A., 2006. Consumer Behavior. London, NY: Thomas Learning. Brijball, S., 2003. The level of importance attached to price and quality in purchasing behaviour. Journal of Industrial Psychology, 29(1), pp.93-99. Freedman, J.L., 1964. Involvement, Discrepancy, and Change. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 69(9), pp.752-66. Hansen, F., 1981. Hemispheral Lateralization: Implication for Understanding Consumer Behavior. Journal of Consumer Research, 8(1), pp.23-36. Horey, D., 2010. Consumer involvement in the cochrance collboration: Baclground paper. Strategic Report. Auckland: La Trobe University La Trobe University. Howard, J.A. & Jagdish, N.S., 1969. The Theory of Buyer Behavior. NY: John Wiley and Sons. Hoyer, W.D. & Maclnnis, D.J., 2008. Consumer Behavior. NY: Cengage. Hupfer, N.T. & David, G.M., 1971. Differential Involvement With Products and Issues: An Exploratory Study. In Gardener, D.M., ed. Second Annual Conference of the Association for Consumer Research. NY, 1971. Association for COnsumer Research. Kassarjian, H.H., 1978. Presidential Address, 1977: Anthropomorphism and Parsimony. Advances in Consumer Research, 5(1), pp.22-24. Khosla, S., 2010. COnsumer psychology: The essence of Marketing. International Journal of Educational Administration, 2(2), p.220. Kotler, P., Keller, K.L., Koshy, A. & Jha, M., 2009. Marketing Management. New Delhi: Prentice Hall India. Laurent, G. & Kapferer, J.-N., 1985. Measuring Consumer Involvement Profiles. Journal of Marketing Research, 22(1), pp.41-53. Mitchell, A.A., 1981. The Dimensions of Advertising Involvement. Advances in Consumer Research, 7(1), pp.25-30. Muncy, J.A. & Hunt, S.D., 1984. Consumer Involvement: Definitional Issues and Research Directions. Advances in Consumer Research, 11(1), pp.193-96.. Sahney, S., 2012. Consumer Behavior. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 18 November 2013]. Schiffman, L.G. & Kanuk, L.L., 1991. Consumer Behavior. NJ: Prentice Hall. Solomon, M.R., Bamossy, G.J., Askegaad, S.T. & Hogg, M.K., 2006. Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective. NY: Prentice Hall. Read More