Consumer Involvement Theory
a) Take a theoretical topic we have covered over the five weeks and explore it in more detail critiquing the theory and illustrating those critiques.
Consumer Involvement Theory
There exist many varying theories on consumer involvement and its effect on consumer behaviour. Essentially, consumer involvement is ‘a process, or processes by which interested and affected individuals are consulted and included in the decision making of an agency, planning group or collaborative entity’ (Creighton 1981). In marketing, consumer involvement is often equated to perceived product importance. Although ‘consumers’ involvement in products is believed to considerably moderate their reactions to marketing and advertising stimuli’ (Kapferer and Laurent 1985), ‘there is little agreement on what cognitive processes correspond to variations in involvement, or on the consequences of these variations for communication effectiveness’ (Greenwald and Leavitt 1984).
The writings of Krugman were instrumental in introducing the idea of ‘involvement’ to consumer behaviour. He was perplexed with ‘knowing that advertising works but being unable to say much about why’ (Krugman 1965) and for this reason he began investigating the theory. ‘His definition of involvement is based on the number of connections a person makes between a communication and something existing in their life.’ (Muncy and Hunt 1984) Krugman believed that there were two ways of experiencing or being influenced by mass media: ‘one way is characterized by lack of personal involvement…the second is characterized by a high degree of personal involvement.’ (1965) He also stated that both types of involvement could be associated with effective advertising, however, that this advertising would have to take different routes. Finally, Krugman was of the opinion that the concept of involvement concerned ‘bridging experience, connections, or personal references’ (Ibid). Scholars have taken Krugman’s work as a stepping-stone to
Consumer Involvement Theory
There exist many varying theories on consumer involvement and its effect on consumer behaviour. Essentially, consumer involvement is ‘a process, or processes by which interested and affected individuals are consulted and included in the decision making of an agency, planning group or collaborative entity’ (Creighton 1981). In marketing, consumer involvement is often equated to perceived product importance. Although ‘consumers’ involvement in products is believed to considerably moderate their reactions to marketing and advertising stimuli’ (Kapferer and Laurent 1985), ‘there is little agreement on what cognitive processes correspond to variations in involvement, or on the consequences of these variations for communication effectiveness’ (Greenwald and Leavitt 1984).
The writings of Krugman were instrumental in introducing the idea of ‘involvement’ to consumer behaviour. He was perplexed with ‘knowing that advertising works but being unable to say much about why’ (Krugman 1965) and for this reason he began investigating the theory. ‘His definition of involvement is based on the number of connections a person makes between a communication and something existing in their life.’ (Muncy and Hunt 1984) Krugman believed that there were two ways of experiencing or being influenced by mass media: ‘one way is characterized by lack of personal involvement…the second is characterized by a high degree of personal involvement.’ (1965) He also stated that both types of involvement could be associated with effective advertising, however, that this advertising would have to take different routes. Finally, Krugman was of the opinion that the concept of involvement concerned ‘bridging experience, connections, or personal references’ (Ibid). Scholars have taken Krugman’s work as a stepping-stone to