The role of involvement in information processing

PosterThe advertising literature endorses the view that involvement moderates the link between advertising exposure, information processing, and the attitude formation process. Essentially, involvement affects the attention and processing efforts of consumers differently depending on their level of involvement. The aim was to examine the role and nature of involvement and its risk and pleasure antecedents in information processing of print advertisements. Recent developments within neuroscience suggest that consumer decision-making is foremost driven by affect (feelings) with little rational involvement except for post-rationalisation. The research has used popular involvement scales and advertising models that are based on, or include, both affective and cognitive dimensions to examine their relative impact on the decoding process. Information processing of advertising messages was examined by: • Selecting three product categories that were of medium to high involvement: chocolate bar, credit card, mobile telephone. • Developing advertisements with a risk and pleasure appeal for each category. • Conducting 2x3 factorial experiments with control using advertising portfolios and questionnaires. • Analysing the data within SPSS and creating AMOS path diagrams for each product category and advertising treatment to determine underlying decoding processes. Whilst the involvement construct was found to be relatively stable, the pleasure antecedents had greater influence on the decoding process and its outcomes. It was also revealed that advertising situations are specific and predominantly determined by affective processing. These findings highlight the need to re-examine popular involvement scales and advertising models that are based on, or include, cognitive dimensions of involvement. There are also implications for advertising strategies and executions as the results confirm a strong association between affective advertising stimuli and the decoding process, recall, and attitude to the advertisement