The use of specific attributes and overall evaluations in consumer choice behavior

Mona Gloria Makhijani, Purdue University

Abstract

This research examined the effects of consumer involvement and accessibility of product information on the use of specific product attributes, heuristic cues, and overall evaluations in purchase decision. Subjects were presented with a Brand X Attribute matrix describing six brands of cereals on six product attributes (e.g., fiber content, fat content) plus a heuristic cue (sales rankings of brands). A heuristic cue was defined as a stimulus that operates via a simple decision rule to affect persuasion, such as "the top selling brand must be the best". In order to examine whether involvement would affect brand selection, one brand of cereal was the most desirable brand according to its attributes, whereas a second brand was the best seller. After viewing all product information, high and low involvement subjects made a brand choice with either all product information accessible (stimulus-based context), partial product information accessible (mixed choice context), or no product information accessible (memory-based context). One study hypothesis stated that low involvement subjects, especially those in the memory-based condition, would rely on the heuristic cue and therefore select the best seller more often than high involvement subjects. Another hypothesis stated that high involvement subjects would engage in more elaborate multi-attribute processing of information and therefore select the overall best brand more often than low involvement subjects. Furthermore, it was predicted that the effect of involvement would vary with the specific choice context (i.e., whether product information was accessible at the point of choice). Findings of this study showed that, consistent with hypotheses, both choice context and involvement affected subjects' brand selection as well as their memory and judgment of product information. However, contrary to predictions, the effect of choice context was often found to be independent of consumer involvement. The implications of these results were then discussed.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Eagly, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Social psychology|Marketing

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