The consumer decision process begins with the recognition of need; that is, the consumer must recognize the need to purchase a product. Only then does he go through the process to choose the product. A display or any other promotion may remind the consumer that he/she needs the product, or may awaken the latent demand for the brand or product category. Because of the sales promotional communications, need or problem recognition may get triggered in both high involvement as well as low involvement consumers. If the purchase situation happens to be one of high involvement, triggered by an attractive exchange offer, or interest-free installments for consumer durable products such as refrigerators, oven, washing machine, colour television set, etc., it is more likely to result in extensive problem solving effort rather than immediate purchase. The sales effect in case of low involvement situation is likely to be immediate because of unplanned or impulse buying or because of familiarity or top-op-mind recall of the brand. The consumer may think it is not worth devoting time and effort to the purchase situation in question. The low-involvement consumer may have visited the retail store with the intention of purchasing a certain product but an in-store display attracted his/her attention and led to brand switching or impulse buying. According to some researchers, this type of behaviour is an attempt towards reducing the amount of mental exercise by using simple decision rule in making a purchase decision. Some experts believe that price-cut and in-store displays are more effective for low-involvement than high-involvement consumers.
In a severely competitive market where brands are considered as having no real differences, consumers learn that many brands will meet the requirements. Naturally, the purchase behaviour is likely to become one of low-involvement and the brand on promotion has more chances of being purchased.
4 Comments