| How Advertising Works |
| Home |
A Diamond Is Forever
I have already stated my belief that the more relevant an individual feels a message is to them on a personal level, the more they will relate to it. It is not difficult to then say that messages which involve an individual are also more easily learned than messages that do not "draw them in". What is it, then, that determines what messages an individual perceives as relevant at any given time? The answer to this question lies in levels of involvement.
Most academics categorize brands/products into one of two groups pertaining to involvement levels, high-involvement and low-involvement. High-involvement products are characterized most often by the deliberative process that goes into selection of brands. Consumers operating within high-involvement categories perceive significant differences between brands and feel pressure to choose the brand that best suits their needs. These brands are often consumed conspicuously and are sometimes, but not always, high priced. Commonly cited examples of high involvement products include perfume, jewelry and vehicles.
Low-involvement products, on the other hand, are often considered to be more routinized categories of products that do not necessitate significant amounts of pre-purchase contemplation. Consumers either do not perceive differences among brands or simply do not exert significant effort to distinguish and choose brands based upon these differences. Frequently used examples of low-involvement products include household cleaning products and many grocery items.
Advertisements gain greater attention and information processing when the products they promote are salient to the consumer's existence. |
Though I understand the need among both theorists and practitioners to develop categories for the classification of consumer involvement levels, it is dangerous to place individual product categories into these classifications. Not all consumers related to cosmetics on a high-involvement level, just as not all consumers relate to beer on a low-involvement level. By using such sweeping generalizations in the development of a strategy and message, an advertiser could be approaching a significant share of its market in a less than effective way. When elements of "thinking" and "feeling" are later added to the mix, as in the FCB Grid, products are put into even more restrictive niches. An understanding of the consumer takes into account that every brand has its enthusiasts, for whom the brand and/or category carries extremely high levels of importance. Merely dismissing what makes these consumers "loyalists" simply because your product is technically categorized as one of low-involvement is tantamount to shooting yourself in the foot.
Individuals perceive products as either high- or
low-involvement based upon transient elements in life. An awkward teenage boy who's
concerned about dating might consider mouthwash a high-involvement product. That may not
be the case as the boy ages. Fine jewelry was not likely a high-involvement for this young
man in the past, but now that he finds himself in a relationship, he suddenly starts to
notice jewelry ads. One of the ads 
he notices (from deBeers) tells him that "A
Diamond Is Forever", in a conscious effort on the part of the diamond broker to
enhance its brand's high-involvement attributes. The product categories of
high-involvement in this example (mouthwash and jewelry) would not both necessarily be
considered high-involvement in the sense of many product models, but due to the importance
placed on them by the young man, they become high-involvement products. Advertisements for
these categories receive greater attention and information processing when they are
salient to his existence than when they are not.