LOW-INVOLVEMENT

CONSUMER DECISION MAKING

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 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Low Involvement Consumer Decision Making

➢ Consumer Involvement

➢ Passive learning

➢ Social Judgement theory

➢ Elaborative Likelihood model

➢ Assael’s matrix – Consumer buying behavior

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 How involved are you?

Scene 1
You’re at the grocery store,
looking at toothpaste.

How long does it take you to

choose a product, buy it, and
get out of the store?

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 How involved are you?
Scene 2
You’re on a car sales lot,
looking at the selection of
vehicles for sale.

How long does it take you to

choose a product, buy it, and
drive off?

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 CONSUMER INVOLVEMENT
Level of involvement

➢Low involvement - Routine response behavior

➢High involvement - Extensive problem solving

➢Limited involvement - Limited Problem Solving

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 COMPONENTS OF INVOLVEMENT
1. Product importance • Self-image tied to product (Car and owner’s personality)
• Expensive
• Functional role

2. Emotion appeal • Hedonic (Harley-Davidson motorcycle)

3. Continuous interest

4. Risk • Financial risk (House), Technology, Social, Physical risk

5. Badge value • Identified with norms of a group

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 TYPES OF CONSUMER INVOLVEMENT
Depending on whether the involvement is short term or long term

➢ Situational involvement

➢ Enduring involvement

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 TYPES OF CONSUMER INVOLVEMENT
➢ Situational involvement

• Occurs only in specific situations

• Temporary
• Low or High-involvement purchases, depending upon the situational factors

Ex: MBA graduate buying suit for job interview

Ex: Champagne

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Godiva for all occasions

What does the advertisement convey in terms of

consumer involvement (Situational/Enduring)?

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 TYPES OF CONSUMER INVOLVEMENT
➢Enduring involvement

• Continuous interest in a product

• Extends over a period of time
• High-level of interest
• Permanent
• Opinion leader

Ex: Harley-Davidson fan

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 CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR
Aim of marketer: Convert

HIGH- INVOLVEMENT PRODUCT

LOW- INVOLVEMENT PRODUCT

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 CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR
Aim of marketer: Convert 1. Link product to an issue
Ex: Toothpaste for sensitivity –
Sensodyne
HIGH- INVOLVEMENT PRODUCT Ex: TATA Tea with Voting campaign

2. Link to personal situation

Ex: Coffee to shake off sleepiness -
Nescafe

LOW- INVOLVEMENT PRODUCT 3. Trigger strong emotions

4. Add product feature

Ex: fortifying plain drink with vitamins
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LOW v/s HIGH INVOLVEMENT BUYING BEHAVIOR

LOW INVOLVEMENT HIGH INVOLVEMENT

Information processing Little or No information Extensive
Purchase frequency Frequent Infrequent
Product cost Lower-priced products Higher priced products
Consumer involvement - Time Low High
Risk Low High
Product importance Low High

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THEORIES OF LOW-INVOLVEMENT CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

➢ Passive learning - Krugman

➢ Elaboration Likelihood Model – Petty and Cacioppo

➢ Social Judgement - Sherif et.al

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 PASSIVE LEARNING
• Herbert Krugman

• First perspective on low-involvement consumer behavior

• Studied (in 1960’s) effects of TV as a medium

• Why TV ads produced high levels of brand recall yet little change in consumer’s
brand attitudes?

• Hypothesis: Television is a low-involvement medium → results in passive learning

• Applied Hemispheric lateralization/ Spilt-brain theory and termed his theory

passive learning

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 HEMISPHERIC LATERALIZATION
• Split-brain theory
• Stems from medical research – 1960

• Human brain is divided into two distinct hemispheres

• left hemisphere / right hemisphere

• Operate together, but “specialize” in processing different types of cognitions

How would a brand would use this concept in conveying their message?

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 What does this convey?
Tagline of Mercedes Benz –Split-brain theory print ad

Left brain Right brain

I am the left brain.
I am a scientist. A mathematician.
I love the familiar. I categorize. I am accurate. Linear.
Analytical. Strategic. I am practical.
Always in control. A master of words and language.
Realistic. I calculate equations and play with numbers.
I am order. I am logic.
I know exactly who I am.
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I am the right brain.
I am creativity. A free spirit. I am passion.
Yearning. Sensuality. I am the sound of roaring laughter.
I am taste. The feeling of sand beneath bare feet.
I am movement. Vivid colors.
I am the urge to paint on an empty canvas.
I am boundless imagination. Art. Poetry. I sense. I feel.
I am everything I wanted to be.
 What does this convey?
Mercedes Benz –Split-brain theory print ad

• Ad campaign: “the two opposing parts of the brain that

complement each other”

• Uses the metaphor of left-brain, right-brain functions

• Hedonic and Functional characteristics of Mercedes Benz

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 PASSIVE LEARNING
Why TV ads produced high levels of brand recall yet little change in
consumer’s brand attitudes?

• TV: Low-involvement medium – results in “Passive Learning”

• Viewer is passive, little opportunity for reflection

• Information catchers v/s information seekers

• When consumers watch advertising on TV - “passively” process right brain, pictorial information

• Repetition of message – High recall

• Evaluate brands after buying – Reminder effect

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 IMPLICATIONS OF PASSIVE LEARNING
What are the implications of Passive learning for a marketer?
How to apply this to the development of TV and print advertisements?
Involvement with the medium Print
Television • Print media (i.e.
• Passive medium newspapers, magazines,
journals, brochures etc)
• Low-involvement medium
• Audio-visual medium – right brain • High-involvement media
• TV commercials should be short duration (15-20 seconds) • Left-brain activity
• Rich in visual symbolism • Present “overall image,”
• Repetition - Familiarity with the brand
• Cognitive evaluations
Induce purchase behavior
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 CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IMPLICATIONS ON
PASSIVE LEARNING
Low-involvement, view of a passive consumer High-involvement, view of an active consumer
1. Consumers learn information at random 1. Consumers are information processors.
2. Information catchers 2. Information seekers
3. Consumers represent a passive audience for 3. Consumers represent an active audience for
advertising -→ effect of advertising on the advertising -→ effect of advertising on the
consumers is strong. consumers is weak.
4. Consumers buy first. 4. Consumers evaluate brands before buying.
Evaluate brands after the purchase.
5. Seek some acceptable level of satisfaction. 5. Seek to maximize expected satisfaction.
Familiarity is the key. Consumers compare brands on multiple
attributes.
6.Reference groups exert little influence on 7. Reference groups influence consumer behavior
product choice -- importance of the product to group norms and
values.
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 Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
➢ Petty and Cacioppo

➢ How consumers process information in high and low involvement

conditions?

➢ Proposes two major routes to persuasion:

• Elaborate (Central)
• Nonelaborate (Peripheral)

➢ Degree of elaboration: Consumer’s motivation to process information

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 Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

CENTRAL PHERIPHERAL
ROUTE ROUTE

Consumer is extremely Level of consumer

involved with the issue involvement is low

• If Consumers are more involved →they are More motivated to process information → leading to
More elaborate (central) processing

• If Consumers less involved → Less motivated to process information → Leading to nonelaborate

(peripheral) processing

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Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

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 Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
What are the implications of ELM for a marketer?

Ex: A commercial on pain reliever which claims to relieve pain of arthithis

• An arthritic consumer – Central cues

• Uninvolved consumer – Peripheral cues

• Central cues: Quality and strength of the message

• Peripheral cues: Use of color in ad, nature of background, use of an expert

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Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM): Example

• Central and peripheral routes

combined together in the
advertisement

• Brand’s message – Central cues

• Message of Dr.Fixti with the help of
a celebrity -- Peripheral cues

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 Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
Adolescents take up drinking alcohol after watching
Alcohol ads and Peripheral cues
Beer advertisements that are not targeted at them

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Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM): Example
• Dreft (P&G) baby detergent
• Gentle on babies' sensitive
skin, but tough on stains.

• Strategy to increase
involvement for an
uninvolving product.

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 SOCIAL JUDGEMENT THEORY (SJT)
• Muzafer Sherif et.al

• Individual’s position on an issue according to his/her

involvement with the issue (Ego- involvement)

• Three zones: Latitude

o Latitude of acceptance (positions the individual accepts)
o Latitude of rejection (positions the individuals rejects)
o Latitude of noncommitment (positions towards which the
individual is neutral)
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 CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL JUDGEMENT THEORY
Latitude of Latitude of Non- Latitude of
Acceptance commitment Rejection

• Wide latitude of • Wide latitude of non- • Narrow latitude of

acceptance commitment acceptance

• Wide latitude of rejection

Assimilation effect Contrast effect

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 CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL JUDGEMENT THEORY
• Narrow latitude of acceptance and wide latitude of rejection
A highly involved individual who has a definite opinion about an issue would
accept very few other positions and would reject a wide number of positions

• Wide latitude of acceptance

An uninvolved individual would find more positions acceptable

• Wide latitude of non-commitment

An individual who would have no opinion about the issue

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 CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL JUDGEMENT THEORY
Assimilation effect
A highly involved individual who agrees with a message (within his or her latitude
of acceptance) interprets it as more positive than it actually is.

Contrast effect
A message that the individual disagrees with (within the latitude of rejection) is
interpreted as more negative than it actually is.

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 SOCIAL JUDGEMENT THEORY (SJT)
What is your stand on an issue such as gun control?
Degree of restriction
1. No ordinary citizen should be permitted to possess a
gun? (One extreme)

2. There should be few restrictions on ordinary citizens’

possession of a gun?

3. Ordinary citizen should be allowed to possess gun for

safety?

4. Hold any intermediate positions?

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 SOCIAL JUDGEMENT THEORY
Social judgement theory applied to consumer behaviour
Low High
High Low Involvement
Fewer
attributes used
LATITUDE OF to evaluate High Involvement
ACCEPTANCE more brands

More attributes used to evaluate fewer brands

Low

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 SOCIAL JUDGEMENT THEORY
Social judgement theory applied to consumer behaviour
➢ Highly involved consumers use more attributes to evaluate fewer brands (Horizontal
bar)
- Latitude of acceptance is narrower
- Fewer brands considered

➢ Less involved consumers use fewer attributes to consider more brands (Vertical bar)
- Uninvolved consumers are willing to consider a wider number of brands because of
lack of commitment to one or several brands
- But they do not search for alternatives
- Purchase the most familiar brand and buy the same brand repetitively
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CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR – ASSAEL’s MATRIX
Assael’s matrix
• 4 types of consumer buying behavior
• Degree of buyer involvement v/s Differences among brands

o Complex buying behavior

o Habitual buying behavior
o Dissonance – Reducing buying behavior
o Variety – Seeking buying behavior
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ASSAEL’s MATRIX

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ASSAEL’s MATRIX

• Product is expensive
• Bought infrequently
• High perceived risk
• Highly self-expressive
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ASSAEL’s MATRIX

• Product is expensive
• Bought infrequently
• High perceived risk

• Shops around to learn –

buys quickly
• Respond to good price or
purchase convenience
• After purchase dissonance

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 ASSAEL’s MATRIX
• Product is low-cost
• Purchased frequently
• Low perceived risk
• Routine response behavior
• Passive recipients of information – TV medium
• Ad repetition → Brand familiarity

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ASSAEL’s MATRIX

• Brand switching –
for variety,
not dissatisfaction
Ex: Cookies

• Dominate shelf-space,
Avoid out-of-stock,
Ad frequent reminder

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 MEASURES OF CONSUMER LEARNING
➢ Recognition and Recall measures

➢ Brand loyalty

➢ Brand equity

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What brands can you think of when I mention NOODLES?

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 MEASURES OF CONSUMER LEARNING
Recognition and Recall measures

How can marketers use measures of recognition and recall to study the extent of consumer learning?
✓ Whether consumers remember seeing an ad
✓ Extent to which they have read it or seen it and can recall its content
✓ Attitudes toward the product and the brand
✓ Purchase intentions

• Recognition tests use aided recall

- The consumer is shown an ad and asked whether he or she remembers seeing it and can remember
any of its salient points.

• Recall tests use unaided recall

- The consumer is asked whether they have read a specific magazine or watched a specific television
show, and if so, can recall any ads or commercials seen, the product advertised, and any salient points
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about the product.
 MEASURES OF CONSUMER LEARNING
Brand loyalty
• Measures
✓ Purchase frequency
✓ Brand switching
✓ Commitment to buy the brand
• Brand loyalty = Attitudinal + Behavioral measures

Degree of brand loyalty depends on Factors: Types of brand loyalty:

o Risk aversion / Variety seeking o Covetous loyalty
o Brand reputation/ Substitute availability o Inertia loyalty
o Social influence o Premium loyalty

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 MEASURES OF CONSUMER LEARNING
Brand loyalty: Types of brand loyalty:
1. Covetous brand loyalty
• No consistent purchase of a given brand, in spite of strong attachment.

2. Inertia brand loyalty

▪ Purchasing the brand because of habit and convenience, but without any emotional
attachment
▪ Example: Low involvement products
▪ Buy a brand only because of familiarity and convenience.

3. Premium brand loyalty

▪ High attachment to the brand and repeat purchase
▪ Represents truly brand-loyal consumers.
▪ Committed to a brand, unlikely to switch to other brands

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 MEASURES OF CONSUMER LEARNING
Brand Equity
• Intrinsic value of a brand name

✓ Consumer’s perception of the brand’s superiority

✓ Social esteem the brand provides
✓ Customer’s trust and identification with the brand

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Summary: Low-involvement consumer decision making

1) Consumer Involvement
•Level of involvement: Low| High| Limited involvement
•Involvement is short term or long term: Situational | Enduring involvement

2) Theories of low-involvement consumer behavior

•Passive learning - Krugman
•Elaboration Likelihood Model – Petty and Cacioppo
•Social Judgement - Sherif et.al

3) Passive learning
•TV: Low-involvement medium – results in “Passive Learning”
•Repetition of message – High recall
•Applied Hemispheric lateralization/ Spilt-brain theory

4) Elaborative Likelihood model (ELM)

•Elaborate (Central) route | Nonelaborate (Peripheral) route

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Summary : Low-involvement consumer decision making

5) Social Judgement theory

•Individual’s position on an issue/brand is according to level of involvement
•Three zones: Latitude → Latitude of acceptance| Latitude of rejection |Latitude of noncommitment
•Assimilation effect | Contrast effect

6) Assael’s matrix
•Degree of buyer involvement v/s Differences among brands
•High involvement: Complex |Dissonance – Reducing buying behavior
•Low involvement: Habitual | Variety – Seeking buying behavior

7) Measures of consumer learning

•Recognition and Recall measures: Recognition tests - aided recall | Recall tests-unaided recall
•Brand loyalty: Covetous |Inertia| Premium loyalty
•Brand equity

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