Consumer information seeking for social products

M.A. (Communication)The study firstly proposed that marketing communication be approached within a social-psychological framework, where market related information is subject to both internal (cognitive) and external or social influences, specifically reference groups. The concept of information seeking within this framework implies that the consumer is actively involved in the interchange of market-related information, and that he actively seeks information relevant to his goals in the purchase situation. A broad spectrum of literature on information seeking was subsequently reviewed, which was then systemized according to the nature and sources of information seeking. It was established that normative social influence (which implies that the self concept determines information seeking) is found to operate only for informal personal sources and formal non-personal sources. Further, it was stated that where social influence is normative, it will impact only on consumer information seeking for social products. Based on this model, a number of propositions regarding the nature and sources of consumer information seeking for social products were formulated. These propositions formed the basis of the empirical part of the study. Items drawing on the propositions were incorporated into a Likert-type questionnaire which was handed to a stratified random sample of student consumers