AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE INFLUENCIBILITY OF CONSUMER DECISION STYLES

JOHN COLLAMORE WHITNEY, Purdue University

Abstract

Research in consumer information processing has provided evidence that the consumer has a large assortment of decision rules from which to select for a given decision. While advances have been made in the identification of situational factors which may influence the preference for certain decision rules, advertising managers have been reluctant, if not unable, to implement certain strategic implications due to the inability to identify a relatively homogeneous group of decision makers. In an effort to facilitate this implementation, a communication message was designed to encourage individuals to process information in a specified manner and, therefore, to develop a relatively homogeneous audience of decision makers. Namely, the effort was made to encourage subjects to focus upon a specific subset of attributes and, with respect to those attributes, employ cutoff levels in the processing of attribute information. Local residents were recruited for a laboratory experiment in which their decision styles pertaining to a new communication service presently unavailable to the public were investigated. The "active profile evaluation paradigm" was employed as the experimental task by which to investigate consumer decision strategies. The findings suggest that this approach offers advertising managemement a feasible technique by which the strategic implications associated with certain consumer information processing research might be implemented. Specifically, this communication effort was successful in encouraging individuals to focus upon specific attributes and to employ cutoff levels with respect to those attributes. These results suggest that communication messages can be designed to raise the salience of those attributes of an advocated product that are superior to competition or, conversely, to reduce the salience of attributes of a product that are inferior. Similarly, these findings suggest that an effort can be made to create cutoff levels in consumers' minds, such that the advocated product is the sole product surpassing these minimum standards.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Marketing

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