Consumers’ Product Knowledge and Involvement Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin Chapter 4

4-3 Consumers use different levels of product knowledge to interpret new information and make purchase choices How consumers form levels of knowledge No one level of knowledge captures all the possible meanings of an object, event, or behavior Levels of Product Knowledge

4-4 Four levels of product knowledge –Product class –Product form –Brand –Model/features Levels of Product Knowledge cont.

4-5 Levels of Product Knowledge cont.

4-6 Consumers’ Product Knowledge Three types of product knowledge

4-7 Consumers’ Product Knowledge cont. Products as bundles of attributes –Attributes –Concrete attributes –Abstract attributes Products as bundles of benefits –Consequences Functional Psychosocial

4-8 Consumers’ Product Knowledge cont. –Benefits Bundles of benefits Benefit segmentation –Perceived risks Physical Financial Functional Psychosocial

4-9 Consumers’ Product Knowledge cont. Perceived risk influenced by –Degree of unpleasantness of negative consequences –Likelihood that negative consequences will occur –Products as value satisfiers Values –Instrumental –Terminal –Core

4-10 Means-End Chains of Product Knowledge Links consumers’ knowledge about product attributes with their knowledge about consequences and values

4-11 Means-End Chains of Product Knowledge

4-12 Means-End Chains of Product Knowledge cont. Four levels of means-end chain –Attributes –Functional consequences –Psychosocial consequences –Values

4-13 Means-End Chains of Product Knowledge cont. Examples of means-end chains

4-14 Means-End Chains of Product Knowledge cont. Identifying consumers’ means-end chains –One-on-one personal interviews Two basic steps involved Marketing implications

4-15 Digging for Deeper Consumer Understanding Focus groups The ZMET approach to consumer knowledge The ZMET interview Marketing implications

4-16 Involvement Consumers’ perceptions of importance or personal relevance for an object, event, or activity –A motivational state that energizes and directs consumers’ cognitive and affective processes and behaviors as decisions are made –Felt involvement

4-17 Involvement cont. Focus of involvement –Products and brands –Physical objects –People –Activities or behaviors

4-18 Involvement cont. The means-end basis for involvement –A consumers’ level of involvement or self- relevance depends on two aspects of the means-end chains that are activated Importance of self-relevance of the ends Strength of connections between the product knowledge level and the self-knowledge level –Factors influencing involvement

4-19 Involvement cont.

4-20 Involvement cont. –Person’s level of involvement influenced by two sources of self-relevance Intrinsic Situational –What marketers need to understand Focus of consumers’ involvement Sources that create it

4-21 Marketing Implications Understanding the key reasons for purchases Understanding the consumer-product relationship

4-22 Marketing Implications cont. –Four market segments with different levels of intrinsic self-relevance for a product category and brand Brand loyalists Routine brand buyers Information seekers Brand switchers

4-23 Marketing Implications cont. –Influencing intrinsic self-relevance –Influencing situational self-relevance

4-24 Summary Discussed the fact that consumers don’t buy products to get attributes Learned that consumers think about products in terms of their desirable and undesirable consequences, benefits, and perceived risks Described how consumers form knowledge structures called means-end chains

4-25 Summary cont. Learned that consumers’ feelings of involvement are determined by intrinsic self- relevance – the means-end knowledge stored in memory Discussed situational factors in the environment and how they influence the content of activated means-end chains and thereby affect the involvement consumers experience when choosing which products and brands to buy