Question

Compare and contrast the different types of involvement. Define cognitive appraisal theory and name and describe the four types of cognitive appraisals relevant for consumer behavior.

Answer 1

Consumer involment

It is the state of mind that motivates a consumer to make a purchase, or the importance a consumer places on a product or service.

Types of involvement

1. Ego involvement:
It is intended to satisfy one’s ego.
eg. All the members of the family involve themselves in purchasing a product for a single member belonging to that family. Husband involves herself in the purchase of garments for his wife and wife involves himself in the purchase of cosmetics for her husband.

2. Commitment: Commitment
It is another important form of involvement. When a member of the family falls sick, the other family members are committed to arrange medical treatment for the suffering members. Similarly, functions like marriages entail the commitment of the entire family.

3. Communication in involvement:
It is signifies sharing the available information with others in the family or organization. If one member has some information on the subject matter of decision, he should communicate it with the other members before arriving at a decision.

4. Purchase importance:
This Involvement of individuals depends upon the degree of importance of purchase. Suppose e flat costing lakhs of rupees is purchased, then the purchase decision assumes a great deal of importance in respect of location and area of the flat. The title deeds should be free from encumbrance.

5. Extent of information:
It is Once the consumer recognizes the need, he then engages in a search process. Search means acquisition of information from the environment. The extent of information search is part of purchase importance. When the purchase is important, information is sought from all possible sources. But in the case of routine purchase of products and services, information search will be rather minimum.

Cognitive appraisal theory

A cognitive appraisal is an assessment of an emotional situation wherein a person evaluates how the event will affect them, interprets the various aspects of the event, and arrives at a response based on that interpretation.

Types of cognitive appraisals relevant for consumer behavior

There are four types of cognitive appraisals that have direct applications to understanding consumer behavior:

1. Outcomes Appraisal : It means that, Did the event meet our desired outcome or goal?. Every consumers need is to saftisfy their wants. So they have to know the result or outcome.
2. Anticipation Appraisal : It is used to look at a future event and assign it a feling based on our anticipation. They anticipate the result of the product. If they safisfying or not
3. Agency Appraisal : It is our perception of the event is influenced by who caused. It's usually seen more in a negative connotation. When something bad happens, we look to assign blame. The theory is that when something goes wrong, we're more likely to search for an explanation than when something goes right.
4. Equity Appraisal : Equity appraisal takes into account how we feel about an event based on our perception of fairness. Some say that equity appraisal is tied closely to agency appraisal, since our moral outrage can be based on a perception of the agent's intent.