Consumer purchase decision processes for low and high involvement products

Low and High Involvement Products

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Products chosen

The low involvement product chosen is a sandwich which is usually bought by consumers without any real planning or previous thought before the purchase. Most of the times, the consumers simply buy it on the spot since they feel that they are hungry and they just need something to eat. The product is not necessarily bought on impulse but consumers may form a habit towards purchasing the product. The high involvement product chosen is a holiday package. The consumer takes considerable amount of time to plan and find alternatives before settling on the holiday package they want to buy. This is because it is not a routine purchase and costs a lot of money. The consumer thus needs to spend time to compare different holiday packages based on their location, number of days, price, etc.

The first step of the five stage model of the purchase decision process is problem recognition. This is where the consumer receives the trigger for the decision which can either be an internal or external stimulus. The second step is the search for information where the person scans their memory or consults with friends for previous experiences with certain products. The consumer may also search other sources such as magazines and newspapers for advertisements of the products they wish to buy. The third step is the evaluation of alternatives. Here, the consumer assesses the value of each product and tries to develop their own perception on which is more valuable. The fourth step is purchase decision where the consumer decides where they will buy the product, when and how they will pay for the product. The last step is the post-purchase behavior. Here, the person compares their expectations of the product with the actual satisfaction or dissatisfaction received. For high involvement products, the consumer goes through all steps in the model but for low involvement model, the consumer may make an impulse purchase to avoid making the choice Rao, 1969()

Application of model of consumer buying behavior

The implications for marketers as a result of the model of consumer buying behavior on high involvement products are different from those of low involvement products. The marketer needs to understand that for low involvement products, cognition leads to behavior which then leads to attitude. Therefore, marketing strategies should be targeted at creating awareness and beliefs regarding the brand or product. This applies for both new and existing products. At this stage, the marketer does not aim at forming or changing attitudes. He simply aims at developing cognition through the marketing strategies. The marketer is therefore trying to change the old beliefs with new ones without any change in attitude at first. After cognition is established, the marketer should target behavior change by ensuring the customer is satisfied by the product in order to encourage repeat purchases. This forms or changes the attitude of the consumers regarding the product. For high involvement products, the marketer needs to follow a sequence of cognition leading to attitude then behavior. This is because these products are not purchased repeatedly and they involve a longer planning and decision making process. Therefore, the marketer needs to create product and brand awareness. This will help the customers form or change their attitude regarding the products which then influences their behavior to purchase the product Neslin, Henderson, & Quelch, 1985()

For low involvement and high involvement products, it is essential for the marketer to identify the factors that trigger the interest of consumers on the product in order to develop marketing programs for the products. The marketer then uses this identified trigger to create an external stimulus such as an advertisement or in-store display that makes the consumer desire the product. A good example is the direction of aroma from bakeries and pastry shops to the streets outside them in order to attract customers Padberg & Westgren, 1979()

The marketer needs to know the sources of information for consumers for both high and low involvement products in order to design marketing campaigns to maximize increase in awareness and knowledge of the potential of consumers. The marketer should use low involvement media such as radio and TV for low involvement products in order to create cognition and change behavior which then changes the attitude of the consumers. For high involvement products, the marketer should use high involvement media such as print media in order to bring about a change from cognition to attitude to behavior.

The marketers also need to study the target market in order to understand how buyers evaluate each of the alternatives they have. The marketer needs to evaluate each attribute to find out which receives the highest attention from the buyer. This involves the marketer designing the product to provide some benefits that are superior to those of competitors such as flexible payment terms for holiday packages or bundled promotional items such as a gift hamper for purchasing the holiday package. For the low involvement products, the marketers need to focus on the use-related attributes such as satisfaction after eating a sandwich.

Marketers also need to understand the psychological importance of the purchase which comes from understanding the purchase decision process of the individuals. For low involvement products, the marketer should establish whether pricing and other factors such as distribution influence purchase decision and thus create strategies to increase involvement of their consumers. For high involvement products, the marketer needs to understand the perception process for the consumer in order to increase consumer perception. This can be done through creating marketing multimedia items such as informational CDs and DVDs and using high involvement promotional media Brinkmann, 2004()