Consumer Behaviour –

Involvement Theory
Other names: Hemispheral Lateralization
: Split Brain Theory
The basic premise of split brain theory is that the
Right & Left hemispheres of the brain specialize in
the kinds of information they process.
The Left hemisphere is primarily responsible for
cognitive activities such as reading, speaking and
Attributional information processing. Individuals
exposed to verbal information cognitively analyze
the information through Left-brain processing and
form mental images.
The Right hemisphere of the brain is concerned with
Non-verbal, Timeless, Pictorial, and Holistic
information.
information
Put another way, the Left Side of the brain is
supposed to be Rational, Active, Realistic; the Right
Side of the brain is Emotional, Metaphoric, Impulsive
and Intuitive.
 Consumer Behaviour –
Involvement Theory
Low Involvement Media: Individuals passively
process and store Right Brain (I.e. Nonverbal,
Pictorial) information that is without active
Involvement. Since T.V. is primarily a Pictorial
medium, TV viewing is considered a Right-brain
activity and TV itself is a Low Involvement medium.
According to this theory, Passive learning occurs
through repeated exposures to a TV commercial and
produce a change in consumer behaviour (e.g. a
product purchase) prior to a change in the
consumer’s attitude towards the product.
High Involvement Media: To extend this line of
thought, print media are high Involvement Media
(Newspapers & Magazines) because cognitive
(Verbal) information is processed by the left-side of
the brain. According to this theory, Print Advertising
is processed in the complex sequence of cognitive
stages as follows:
 Consumer Behaviour –
Involvement Theory
 Tri-component Model:
COGNITIVE (the process of obtaining knowledge
through thought, experience, and the senses) 
AFFECTIVE (relating to moods, feelings, and
attitudes)  CONATIVE ( The Mental facility of
purpose, desire,or will to perform an action)
 Promotional Model:
Attention  Interest  Desire  Action
 Decision making Model:
Awareness  Knowledge  Evaluation  Purchase
 Post-purchase Evaluation
 Innovation Adoption Model:
Awareness  Interest  Evaluation  Trial  Adoption
 Innovation Decision Process:
Knowledge  Persuasion  Decision  Confirmation
 Involvement Theory:
Some Interesting Facts
 In situations of Passive Learning (generated by
Low-Involvement Media) Repetition is all that is
needed to produce purchase behaviour. This
behaviour, in turn, is likely to lead to a favourable
attitude toward the product.
 In Marketing terms, the theory suggests that TV
commercials are most effective when they are of
short duration and repeated frequently, thus
ensuring Brand familiarity without provoking
detailed evaluation of the message content.
 Further, Research evidence confirms the fact that
Pictorial cues (which activate Right-brain
processing) are more effective at generating recall
and familiarity with the product; whereas verbal
cues (which trigger Left-brain processing) generate
cognitive activity that encourages consumers to
evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the
product.
 Involvement Theory:
Consumer Relevance
As per involvement theory, there are High- and Low
Involvement consumers; accordingly there are High-
and Low Involvement purchases.
These two approaches are synthesized with the
notion that a consumer’s level of involvement
depends on the degree of Personal relevance that
the product holds. Under this definition:
High Involvement Purchases are those that are very
important to the consumer and therefore provoke
Extensive Problem Solving in terms of perceived
risk.
Low Involvement Purchases are those that are not
very important to the consumer, holds little
relevance and less perceived risk and therefore
provoke Limited Problem Solving.
 Involvement Theory:
Limitations
There are Limitations to the application of
split-brain theory to media strategy.
Research suggests that the Right & Left
hemispheres of the Brain do not operate
independently of each other, but work
together to process information.
One stream of research suggests that,
despite Hemispheral Specialization, both
sides of the Brain are capable of High- and
Low Involvement. The Left side of the Brain
is High- & Low Cognitive Processing; the
Right side in High- & Low Affective
Processing.
 Involvement Theory:
Routes to Persuasion
High Involvement: Central route to Persuasion – For
High Involvement purchases, Central route to
Persuasion – provoking considerable thought about
the product – is likely to be a highly effective
Marketing strategy. The theory suggests that there is
a strong likelihood that consumers will carefully
evaluate the merits and/or weaknesses of a product
when the purchase is of high relevance to them.
Low Involvement: Peripheral route to Persuasion –
For Low Involvement purchases, Peripheral route to
Persuasion is likely to be more effective. The
likelihood is great that consumers will engage in
very limited information search and evaluation when
the purchase holds little relevance or importance for
them.
In this instance, because the consumer is less
motivated to exert cognitive effort, learning is most
likely to occur through repetition, the passive
processing of visual cues and holistic perception.
 Involvement Theory:
Marketing Implications
The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) suggests
that a person’s level of Involvement during message
processing is a critical factor in determining which
route to persuasion is likely to be effective.
# For High Involvement purchases, marketers
should use arguments stressing the Strong, Solid,
High-quality Attributes of their products – therefore
utilising the central route to persuasion.
# For Low Involvement purchases, marketers should
focus on Method of Presentation rather than the
content of message e.g. through the use of celebrity
spoke-persons or Highly visual and Symbolic
advertisements.
 Involvement Theory:
Social Judgment Theory
The central premise of this theory is that an
Individual’s processing of information about an issue
is determined by his /her involvement with the issue.
# Individuals who are involved highly with an issue
and have a strong or definite opinion about IT will
accept very few alternative opinions i.e. they will
have a narrow latitude of acceptance and a wide
latitude of rejection.
Highly involved individuals will interpret a message
that is congruent with their POSITIONS as:
 More positive than it actually is the ASSIMILATION
Effect;
 and one that is not congruent, as More negative
than it actually is the CONTRAST Effect.
# Persons who are uninvolved with an issue will be
more receptive to arguments for and against – they
will have a wide latitude of acceptance; or will take
no position at all – a wide latitude of non-
commitment.
 Social Judgment Theory :
Marketing Implications
It suggests that highly involved consumers
find fewer Brands acceptable (they are
narrow categorizers) and are likely to
interpret messages about these Brands in a
manner congruent with their previous
experiences and opinions about the Product.
But the uninvolved consumer is likely to
be receptive to a greater number of
messages regarding the purchase and will
consider more brands (a wide categorizer).
This type of person is less likely to be Brand
Loyal and is a likely target for Brand
switching.
 Involvement Theory:
Evaluation/ Dimensions
There is no single, widely accepted meaning of
Involvement because the TERM cannot be defined or
conceptualized in only one dimension. For example
 One review identified FIVE types of Involvement:
Ego, Commitment, Communication, Purchase
importance, and Extent of information search.
 Another review identified involvement theory with
Advertising, with Products, and with Purchase
decisions.
 Some Researchers see the Person, Product and
situation as the Major components of Involvement.
 Others define Low Involvement as purchase
situations in which there is little information search
and no Attitude formation regarding the product
prior to purchase.
 Some studies have tried to differentiate between
Brand- and Product-Involvement.
 Another study suggests three dimensions in the
measurement of Involvement: Importance, Pleasure
and Risk.
 Involvement Theory:
Evaluation/ Dimensions
 One study concluded that since there really are
so many different kinds of consumer involvement,
researchers should measure an involvement profile
rather than a single involvement level.
The suggested profile would include Interest in the
Product, the rewarding nature (perceived pleasure)
of the product, its perceived ability to reflect the
purchaser’s personality and the perceived risk
associated with the purchase.
This view is consistent with the notion that
Involvement should be measured on a continuum,
rather than as a Dichotomy consisting of two
mutually exclusive categories of HIGH and LOW
Involvement.
 Involvement Theory:
Evaluation/ Dimensions
 Involvement theory has a number of Intuitively
useful applications for the marketer. For example the
left-brain (cognitive processing) / right-brain
(Passive processing) Paradigm seems to have strong
implications for the Content, Length and
Presentation of both Print & TV advertisements.
There is evidence that people process information
extensively when the purchase is of High personal
relevance; and engage in Limited Information
processing when the purchase is of Low personal
relevance. There are also indications that uninvolved
consumers are susceptible to different kinds of
persuasion than Highly involved consumers.
Before the degree of Involvement can be identified,
the researcher must define exactly what it is that
should be measured: Ego, Motivation, task
Involvement, Situation variables, or what.