Search results

A phenomenon which characterised the late 1970s was the proclivity of technology oriented companies to enter consumer markets. For example, in the past five years the traditional boundaries between industrial and consumer markets have been diffused, as many electronic component manufacturers attempted to extend their technical and manufacturing strengths to design and market electronic consumer durables such as watches, calculators and video games. Oak Industries, the housing and appliance switches and control manufacturer, made a strong commitment to enter the pay‐TV market, the potentially lucrative business of selling television viewers a special package of programmes beamed over the air rather than transmitted through a cable.

States that the level of consumer involvement in a product category is a major variable relevant to advertising strategy. Suggests product category is often segmented by the level of consumer involvement; however, consumers are rarely segmented. Points out that different involvement clusters have different responses to advertising effectiveness for the same product. Presents a case study segmenting a market using the consumer involvement degree, exploring the characteristics in order to determine the relationship between advertising effectiveness and the level of consumer involvement. Shows results suggesting that a high degree of consumer involvement directed a high advertising effect and is therefore an important indication for advertising strategy.

The study addresses the effect of product usage, satisfaction derived out of the same and the brand switching behaviour in several product categories while looking at the product involvement level in the Indian marketplace. A fair amount of work has been done in the area of customer satisfaction and loyalty and many customer satisfaction indexes are available in the market using different variables and characteristics. The study attempts to understand the brand switching behaviour of the customers and its relation not with just satisfaction derived out of the product but also connects to the usage pattern of the customers and product involvement. Five categories (vehicles, television, soap, hair oil, and ice cream), involving varying levels of involvement were chosen. Cluster analysis was used to understand the grouping of the characteristics across the categories and their effect on brand switching behaviour in correlation with satisfaction and involvement level. It was observed that product usage and related level of satisfaction fail to explain the brand switching behaviour. Product involvement was found to have moderate impact on readiness to switch. The study emphasises that marketers will have to keep a constant eye to understand the usage pattern associated with their products and the satisfaction derived out of it and also at how customers involve themselves with the product to lessen the brand switching behaviour among their customers.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

This paper proposes a framework for connecting the involvement construct’s antecedents of Internet marketing, measured involvement degree, related constructs and consequences of consumer behavior. The research first determined the factors that influence the degree of Internet marketing involvement then established the different involvement degree clusters by measured involvement. Finally, the relationship among influence factors, Internet marketing involvement degree, and consequences of consumer behavior was analyzed. Based on the research findings, this paper discusses the possible Internet marketing strategies for a variety involvement degree clusters.

Although some researchers have assumed a positive relationship between consumers' involvement in products and their commitment to brands, there are times when just the opposite occurs. In some instances, involvement with a product can be high while commitment to brands is low, or product involvement can be low when commitment to a brand is high.

A high level of product involvement is typically assumed to accompany higher information search, a fewer number of acceptable alternatives, and a higher number of choice criteria than does low level of product involvement. Inferring the level of product involvement from these behavioral or evaluative characteristics is, however, potentially misleading. Two factors are identified as mediating the relationship between the high level of involvement and these characteristics: (1) product trial, and (2) the consumer learning stage. The results of the present study support this view. Even for high involving products, considerable variations exist in these characteristics, depending on product trialability and consumer learning stage. Several strategic marketing implications stemming from these results are offered.

Product enthusiasts, increasingly prevalent in American society, represent significant marketplace forces because of their high levels of information seeking, opinion leadership, and innovativeness. For marketers to best serve these consumers, many commonly used marketing strategies must be altered or adapted. In this article, marketing mix elements serve as a framework to discuss strategic issues relevant to this category of consumer.