· Understand how a person’s level of motivation and degree of involvement affects their behavior.
· Understand how a person’s values and attitudes affect their behavior.
· Consider how marketers can exploit this knowledge.
Involvement
Involvement is defined as ‘a person’s perceived relevance of the object based on their inherent needs, values and interests’. The word object is used in the generic sense and refers to a product or a brand, an advertisement, or a purchase situation. (Solomon et al.)
This section of the class on ‘Involvement’ linked in with last week’s class which was based on involvement in gift giving thus; we can refer back to the previous blog for the diagram which outlines the stages in consumer decision-making.
Looking at this diagram and taking into consideration gift giving, we can see that it is the level of personal importance evoked by a stimulus which leads to the motivation to process information. For example, if we are shopping for a pair of shoes for a wedding then the level of personal importance will be extremely high as we want to look our best, however, if we were buying a Christmas gift for an aunt who we very rarely see, the level of personal importance will be a lot lower. In addition to this, there can also be a lack of interest in a particular product (inertia), or, on the other hand there can be an obsession with it (passion), for example beer, soccer or water skiing.
As felt involvement with a product increases, the consumer devotes more attention to ad’s related to the product, exerts more cognitive effort to understand these ads, and focuses more attention on the product related information in them. However, this kind of ‘rational’ involvement may be the exception rather than the rule, even for such products as stereos, TVs and DVD players, as a company executive from Philips once argued.
Solomon et al states that ‘When consumers are truly involved with a product, an ad or a website, they enter what is been called a flow state. This is the Holy Grail of web designers who want to create sites that are so entrancing that the surfer loses all track of time as he or she becomes engrossed in the site’s contents (and hopefully buys things in the process!).
Flow is an optimal experience characterized by:
· A sense of playfulness;
· A feeling on being in control;
· Concentration and highly focused attention;
· Mental enjoyment of the activity for its own sake;
· A distorted sense of time;
· A match between the challenge at hand and one’s skills.’
The Swiss Potato Board is currently trying to increase involvement with its product. The Ad below is used alongside the slogan ‘Recipes against boredom!’.
Values
“Values, (sociology). The ideals, customs, institutions, etc., of a society towards which the people of the group have affectionate regard. These values may be positive, as cleanliness, freedom or education, or negative such as cruelty, crime or blasphemy. (dictionary.com)
“If we believe our overall values drive our behavior, then we should be concentrating on the important, underlying motives that drive consumers to make product or service choices rather than simply product attributes”(Ries & Trout 1982)
“Values are out ideas about what is desirable” (Wilkie)
The question we were asked was “Do we always act according to our value system?” This question proved very difficult to answer so we decided it would be a good idea to take a list of values and prioritise how much these values drive your lifestyle.
Kahle’s list of values (1983)
1. Self respect
2. Excitement
3. Being well respected
4. Self fulfillment
5. Sense of accomplishment
6. Warm relationship with others
7. Security
8. Fun and enjoyment
9. Sense of belonging
The order in which each of us arranged these differed significantly. Some people found self respect was most the most important value in their life however, others believed fun and enjoyment was most significant. In our multi-cultural class, we found that different cultures were more concerned with different values. For example, Frankie, who currently lives in Abu Dhabi, explained that self respect is the most important value in her life, however, Sean who lives in England, believes that fun and enjoyment is the most important value in his life. Many people in fact seem to have adopted the attitude “Here for a good time not a long time”. It is obvious from out short discussion that values differ significantly from culture to culture and I found this extremely interesting. In this future this is something I would like to carry out further research about.
In addition to this, we tried to identify products which we may purchase in order to achieve these end states. Examples of these products included clothing, car, football merchandise and using social networking sites. We also discussed what a sense of accomplishment is and it seems that each of us get a sense of accomplishment from different things. I for example, will get a great sense of accomplishment when I graduate (with a 1:1 or course!) and if we relate this to marketing/advertising, an advertisement incorporating this would capture my attention.
Our values can also be affected and changed by significant events in our lives. Many people will be affected by 9/11 and princess Diana’s death, however we can also be affected by personal events such as a death of a loved one or a memorable family holiday.
As part of this week’s class we also had to take one of the tests on the Harvard Project Implicit website (https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/)
The data from the test I took suggest a strong automatic preference for Local compared to Foreign. Although these tests can, in some cases, be extremely accurate, I am not sure how much I agree with this. If I had taken this test before I came to University I think my test results would have stated a strong preference for Local compared to Foreign, however I believe this is not as strong now. I enjoy living away from home and have met many people from different countries and cultures and I expect this to continue as I complete my next two years at University. Also, as I begin to travel more and more I expect to have a stronger preference for foreign compared to local.
FOREIGN?
LOCAL? (Portadown High Street)
You may be wondering why this test is relative to our module ‘Understanding the Customer’ but it is a key part of marketing and advertising. It is very important for a marketer to define their key audience and position their strategy. If an advertisement is being aimed a person around my age (19-20) and everyone in this age group has a strong preference for local over foreign, then it would may be considered pointless to use an exotic scene in an advert. Things which can be considered ‘closer to home’ will have more of an impact.
Another test called ‘VALS 2’ combines detailed demographic data with AIO statements such as attitudes, interests and opinions. ‘VALS™ is a marketing and consulting tool that helps businesses worldwide develop and execute more effective strategies. The system identifies current and future opportunities by segmenting the consumer marketplace on the basis of the personality traits that drive consumer behavior. VALS applies in all phases of the marketing process, from new-product development and entry-stage targeting to communications strategy and advertising.’ (Vals website). My results from the survey stated that my primary VALS type is Innovator which represents my dominant approach to life. My secondary classification is experience which represents the particular emphasis I give to my dominant approach.
The link to the VALS survey is http://www.sric-bi.com/VALS/presurvey.shtml
The survey only takes a few minutes to complete!
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