ajsr_40_01

American Journal of Scientific Research

ISSN 1450-223X Issue 40(2011), pp. 5-15

© EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2011

http://www.eurojournals.com/ajsr.htm

Investigation of the Relationship between Product

Involvement and Brand Commitment

Fatemeh Nikfar

Master Marketing Management, Qazvin Branch

Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran

E-mail: [email protected]

Tel: +98-912-2125067

Amin Asadollahi

Corresponding Author, Department of Business Management

Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

Tel: +98-912-6766815

Farshad Bastani Allahabadi

Bachelor, Islamic Azad University, South Tehran, Tehran, Iran

E-mail: [email protected]

Tel: +98-9121457752

Abstract

The goal of marketing is supplying the needs of customers. The scope of behavior

of consumer deals with selection style, purchase, usage and consume of goods, services,

ideas, and experiences by individuals, groups, and organizations to supply their needs and

desires. Understanding behavior of consumer and recognizing customers is not a simple

job. Customers may express their requests in one manner and act in another one. They may

not be aware of their internal deep motivations or may react toward the effective factors at

last. However, marketers should examine requests of their customers, their mental

understanding, and their purchase behavior. This paper studies the relation between mental

engagement that a product produces and suggests the effective factors in 7 hypotheses:

According to statistical results, hypothesis 1, 3, 4, and 7 are accepted and

hypothesis 2, 5, and 6 are rejected. The method of this study is descriptive-traversal and is

from correlation type, because the relations between variables are investigated and a

questionnaire is used to gather data. Statistical society of this study is the professors of

Islamic Azad University, South Tehran, Central Tehran, North Tehran, and Sciences and

Researches Branches. The questionnaires were distributed during one month in autumn

2011 in the society.

Keywords: Product Involvement, Brand Commitment, Product Specifications, Product

Orientation, Information Resources.

Investigation of the Relationship between Product Involvement and Brand Commitment 6

1. Introduction

Brand is one of the most important issues in marketing management which is presented in 1990 and is

accounted as an important aspect in world industry. Powerful brands provide financial and nonfinancial

benefits for the companies. These benefits includes increase in customer loyalty, more flexibility in

facing with environmental crisis, more profit margin, developments chances, and extension of brands.

Research purposes indicated that consumer perceptions is a kind of analyzing their reaction toward a

brand and compare it with other brands (Traylor, 1981).

Brand commitment begins with those customers with low commitment. These consumers select

a brand based on its cost and then purchase it. In second stages, permanent consumers are those who

prefer a special brand, but based on competitors activities in sales, move towards them. In the next

stage, we have those purchasers who have brand commitment. There is considerable difference

between brand preferences and brand commitment. When consumers of a brand don’t purchase the

products of other brands with higher quality, they have brand commitment. Increase in considering

brand commitment is an impellent factor in success of industries (Crosby & Taylor, 1983, 420).

Product involvement is among those variables which affects on consumer perceptions and brand

commitments. This research investigates the relationship between product involvement and brand

commitment.

Product involvement and brand commitment are important matters in expanding and

implementing marketing strategies which have effective role in providing and preserving market

shares. Involvement in marketing subject had been an important subject in advertising and consumer

behavior. Today’s, involvement of consumer in product class, is a basic and important variable which

is related to advertising strategies. On the other hand, product involvement is a factor which effects on

consumer perception and finally brand commitments.

Considering researchers achievements and importance of brand commitment in different

industries including cloth industry (suit product), some issues such as information resources, cost, and

applied traits toward the brand commitment shall be considered. Then we can express the matter: How

much involvement exists between product involvement and brand commitment?

2. Literature Review In Persian resources, there is not a research which considers the role of product involvement and brand

commitment. But foreign researches related to model, statistical community, and research variables

presented here:

This research has done by Warrington and Shim in 2000, with the title of investigating the

relationship between product involvement and brand commitment. The sample of this research is

students. In this article, the relationship between 5 variables (tendency toward product, product traits,

information resources, product involvement, and product commitment is investigated.

2.1. Involvement

It seems that involvement is a fuzzy concept, because it includes all the other meanings and things.

(Solomon, 2002, 113) and when it is complicated, use as an umbrella concept. (Huang, 2006, 384). It

applied in different usage. For example in psychology, involvement is used in theories and its changes

and it claimed that people involved more with social issues. In this course, involvement stimulates two

important aspects which consists importance and personal relevance. But in marketing, consumers are

considered as the people who involved in different advertisements and media, products and purchase

decisions. Although in marketing course, there is not an exact definition of involvement, but there is a

common idea that involvement is a personal and internal variable which present to show importance

and personal relevance of purposes and events. (Barki & Hartwick 1989).

In this part, some definitions by other researchers are presented. Krugman (1965, 1966 and

1967) define involvement as connecting experiences of people between context of persuading stimulus

7 Fatemeh Nikfar, Amin Asadollahi and Farshad Bastani Allahabadi

and context of their life. (Shaffer & Sherrill, 1997, 256). Based on pioneer’s ideas (Zichkowsky 1985,

Celsi and Olson 1998) about consumer behavior, involvement is the relation of personal decision with

purposes, basic values, and self concept.

Zichkowsky is a famous theorist which defines involvement as a person relevancy to an object

based on basic needs, values and affections. In this define, the word object used as a common concepts

and pointed to a brand, an advertisement and purchase condition. (Zaichkowsky, 1985, 342)

Gordon et al., (1998), said, product involvement including a consistent commitment of

consumers which originated from thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses to a product class. (Quester

& lim, 2003, 24).

These definitions indicated that relevancy concept is personal and there is a common idea that

involvement of a consumer determine through importance and relevancy of persons. (Michaelido &

Dibb, 2006, 443).

2.2. Brand Commitment

Brand commitment defines as a psychological relevancy and behavioral loyalty (Kiesler, 1971). It is

expected that commitment stimulate persons to support (Eagly and Chaiken) and motivation for

support cause process of information and these information can separate those aspects which relates to

person prospect. (Chaiken et al., 1989).

Customer commitment to a brand is a new conception and it is reasoning that, since expected

results in customer points of view are similar to results of purchasing a product, feeling of identity for a

brand effects on brand. Morman et al., (1992) said, commitment is a kind of constant tendency to a

company or a brand, customer relevancy to an organization or a brand or related products, which

improve their relationship with organization.

Commitment to brand is constant experiences, feeling commitments, and efforts for

identification of brand. Then, customer commitment is more that purchase repeat of a company. As

Aaker (1991), stated: a powerful brand with high quality, cause increase in the number of customers

and as a result increase in interactions and relations and it is the final priority of customers. Customer’s

beliefs shape their personality. Thus, customer commitment is the hope of all customers to keep a

valuable relationship with a brand or an organization which directly or indirectly affects on interactions

massages (Moorman et al., 1992, Morgan and Hunt, 1994).

3. Theoretical Research In different studies the relations between product involvement and product commitment indicated that

four interesting parts exists in the researches. Conception model of the current research includes

vertical model, horizontal model, product involvement, and product commitment. In this model,

customers classified into four groups:

• Low product involvement, weak brand commitment (LP/ WB)

• High product involvement, strong brand commitment (HP/ SB)

• High product involvement, weak brand commitment (HP/ WB)

• Low product involvement, strong brand commitment (LP/ SB)

Based on Cushing and Douglas (1985), these four groups are different in the ratio of

involvement and their commitment to product. Also, this model indicates customer different behaviors

based on tendency toward product, search of information, and products characteristics.

The goal of H1 to H7 hypotheses is to prove that the four customers group will show different

consumer behavior and attitudes for a particular product category.

The first group in Cushing and Douglas (1985) model is called uninvolved brand switchers

consumers, which include those who show less interest in products with replaced brands. Evidently,

this type of group will be satisfied with low efficiency level, it seems that they consider the price as a

key indicator in term of their decision. This group of consumers has no interest in collecting


information about a product or brand name and also they pay no attention to advertisement. Therefore,

it is expected that this consumers give more value to price than other groups. In addition, this group of

consumers shows little interest to get information.

Consumers in second group have high tended to involvement and class of product, and also

express a strong and non-changeable commitment to brand name. These consumers strongly feel that

they have to buy the best brand name and show very little interest in replaced brands. They claim that

according to their partial knowledge about the product, they consider few cases at time of purchase.

Consumers, who show high involvement/strong commitment to brand names (HP/SB), are expected to

be highly involved in product and have a preferred and non-changeable brand name in product’s group.

Some believes that the high interest of this group in a product or a brand name, motivated by

their need that based on their preferred brand name which is a ideal choice in product’s group, rather

than motivation by their interest in switching brand names. It is clear that the brand name is the only

and most important selection criteria for this group of consumers and the price is not important enough.

The third group in Cushing and Douglas (1985) model is involved information seekers who

generally shows high interest in product class, but has no commitment to a specific brand name. This

group has more tend than other groups to consider the quality of work.

Hence, the involved information seekers are highly motivated by seeking information from

multiple sources in order to make informed decision. Notwithstanding that loyalists who involved in

brand name (group one) shows strong commitment to a brand and it is so unlikely they choose a

different brand, the involved information seekers only give importance to choose the best brand in

product level and will be satisfied when only try different brand name and also if they find a better

brand, they consider switching brands.

The last group in mentioned model is called Routine brand buyers. These consumers give low

importance to product but tend to have committed to a particular brand name. Thus, they are in

common with the involved brand loyalists in characteristic which they do not like to try different brand

names. In addition, this group almost has no knowledge about the product that they buy and they do

not actively search for information regarding to the product or brand names. Cushing and Douglas

(1958) suggested that brand preferences for this group are functional to their familiarity with brand

names. And it is unlikely that these consumers change their brand names influenced by factors such as

price or other factors.

4. Research Hypothesis H 1: Tendency toward a product has a direct effect on product involvement.

H 2: Specifications of a product has a direct effect on product involvement.

H 3: Information sources haves a direct effect on product involvement.

H 4: Tendency toward a product has a direct effect on brand commitment.

H 5: specifications of a product have a direct effect on brand commitment.

H 6: Information sources have a direct effect on brand commitment.

H 7: Product involvement has a direct effect on brand commitment.


Figure 1: Conceptual Model

Tendency

Information

Source

Specifications

Commitment

Brand

Product

Involvement

H1

H2

H3

H4

H5

H6

H7

Source: (Warrington & Shim, 2000, 774).

5. Methodology This research based on applied goals and collecting information is a correlation research. In this

research, statistical description and descriptive subject were used. This research has done in 4 level of

Islamic Azad university of Tehran and professors were used as samples. Questionnaire was used to

collect information.

5.1. Sampling and Sample Size

Statistical population – according to many researchers– including all real or presumptive members that

we are interested in extent their research findings (Delaware, 2006, 120); collection of individuals is

called Society which they have one or more traits in common and this trait or traits is researchers

favorite.

The statistical population listed in this research contains faculty of Azad university –Tehran’s

branches and number of them in four branch of North Tehran, South Tehran, Central Tehran and

science & research branch are identified and we show volume number of the faculties of the North

Tehran branch with N1,volume number of the South Tehran branch’s faculties with N2, volume

number of the Central Tehran branch’s faculties with N3 and volume number of the Science &

research branch’s faculties with N4. (N = N1+N2+N3+N4).

The statistical population can be finite or infinite. In both cases, study of one by one persons of

population, due to high cost and short time or lake of adequate facilities, is often impossible. Therefore

we consider a part of society instead of all part of it. This part of society which has been selected

according to certain and acceptable criteria, and study of it is possible instead of whole society, is

called an Example of the society. Sampling in this study is stratified random sampling. According to

the fact that the statistical population in this research is faculties of Azad university- Tehran branch and

volume number of them in four North Tehran, South Tehran, Central Tehran and science & research

branch is identified and we use the Kerjsy and Morgan table to determine volume of the samples.

According to this table, number of samples in this study is 330 persons.


5.2. Data Collection Tolls

In this research, questionnaire used to collect information and questionnaires is the same for all the

respondents. This questionnaire includes six sections that 7 questions are used to determine mental

conflict, 2 questions are about commitment to brand names, 20 questions evaluate tendencies of

product, 10 sections of it, are relevant to information sources and 9 sections are about the product’s

features that the Scale of Likert’s 5 points is used to measure them and finally 5 statistical questions

which are separately regarding to the studied society’s features.

Table 1: Variables and Questions in Research

Variables Number of Questions Questions

Product Involvement 7 1-2-3-4-5-6-7

Brand Commitment 2 8-9

Tendency toward a Product 20 10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-

21-22-23-24-25-26-27-28-29

Specifications of a Product 9 30-31-32-33-34-35-36-37-38

Information Sources 10 39-40-41-42-43-44-45-46-47-48

In the present research, in order to investigate that what extent any of research’s structures are

aligned with selected indicators for measuring them, Measurement model or confirmatory factor

analysis separated by studied dimensions, has been used and the results are as below :

Table 2: Chi-Square value’s differences, in determination of effectiveness of the structural model reform.

Fitness Model χχχχ2222 x ∆

2 df RMSEA

2x Decrease

Meaningful

First Model 77/2851 ---- 1125 131/0 -----

Second Model 79/2842 98/8 1121 114/0 1%

Third Model 04/2837 75/5 1118 102/0 1%

Fourth Model 74/2830 30/6 1114 097/0 1%

Fifth Model 47/2825 27/5 1112 092/0 1%

Sixth Model 78/2819 12/5 1009 085/0 1%

Seventh Model 33/2815 45/4 1004 078/0 1%

Eighth Model 08/2810 25/5 1002 074/0 1%

Ninth Model 14/2809 94/0 1000 074/0 Not Meaningful


Figure 2: LISREL structural model after modifying stages.


Figure 3: T value for investigation of significant of the coefficients in structural model.


Table 3: Indices of Model Fitness

Indices Standard Amount Reported Amount

RMR Near to Zero 0/16 SRMR 0›SRMR‹1 0/09

GFI 0/9 up 0/94

NFI 0/85 up 0/97

NNFI 0/80 up 0/97

IFI 0/9 up 0/98

CFI 0/9 up 0/98

RMSEA 0/08 down 0/074

Table 4: Path coefficients and significant structures depend on the model structure

Hypothesis Path Path Index T Standard Error

H1 Tendency Product Involvement 0/77 6/51 0/11

H2 Specification Product Involvement 0/08 1/24 0/064

H3 Information Source Product Involvement 0/12 2/05 0/058

H4 Tendency Brand Commitment 0/91 12/0 0/075

H5 Specification Brand Commitment -0/07 0/83 0/084

H6 Information Source Brand Commitment 0/03 0/40 0/075

H7 Product Involvement Brand Commitment 0/73 7/73 0/094

6. Conclusion In this part, we judge research hypothesis and analyze its results.

H1: Desire Toward a Product Has a Direct Effect on Product Involvement

Based on the mentioned results in table 4, effects of relevancy of product is 0.77 and by parameters

meaningful investigation in equations, calculated t is more than 1.96. Thus, hypothesis is accepted. It

means that by increasing in tendency toward product, product involvement increase considerably.

H2: Specifications of a Product Have a Direct Effect on Product Involvement

Based on the mentioned results in table 4, effects of relevancy of product on product involvement is

0.08 and by parameters meaningful investigation in equations, calculated t is less than 1.96. Thus,

hypothesis is rejected. In other words, product involvement has not meaningful effects on product

characteristics.

H3: Information Sources Have a Direct Effect on Product Involvement

Based on the mentioned results in table 4, effects of information resources in product involvement is

0.12 and by parameters meaningful investigation in equations, calculated t is more than 1.96. Thus,

hypothesis is accepted. In other words, quality of information resources increases product involvement.

H4: Tendency Toward a Product Has a Direct Effect on Brand Commitment

Based on the mentioned results in table 4, effects of tendency toward product on brand commitment is

0.91 and by parameters meaningful investigation in equations, calculated t is more than 1.96. Thus,

hypothesis is accepted. In other words, commitment to a product is depended to tendency toward

product.


H5: Specifications of a Product Have a Direct Effect on Brand Commitment

Based on the mentioned results in table 4, effects of product specification on brand commitment is -


hypothesis is rejected. In other words, product commitment has not any effects on specifications of

product.

H6: Information Sources Have a Direct Effect on Brand Commitment

Based on the mentioned results in table 4, effects of information resources on product commitment is


hypothesis is rejected. In other words, product involvement has direct effects on brand commitment.

H7: Product Involvement Has a Direct Effect on Brand Commitment

Based on the mentioned results in table 4, effects of product involvement on product commitment of

product is 0.73 and by parameters meaningful investigation in equations, calculated t is more than 1.96.

Thus, hypothesis is accepted. In other words, product commitment is dependents on product

involvement.

7. Research Limitations Some limitations in this research include not using different types of product because of increasing in

the number of questionnaire. Since lack of enough time and budget, only professor of Islamic Azad

Universities were used as sample. It is clear that by increasing statistical community, strong results will

be achieved.

8. Research Implications The results of this research indicated that marketing manager shall avoid involvement in a range of low

product involvement and high product involvement. It does not mean that there is not such a spectrum,

but it means there is a multidimensional concept in this respects. Marketers shall have more knowledge

about affection needs of customers in order to increase brand power and used their experiences in

creating new things. Marketing manager shall investigate product symbolic values and their positions

to increase their knowledge in this respect.

9. Future Research 1. With referring to similar researches in relation to the subject of this research, it is suggested that

similar researches shall be done about products with low involvements to provide a basis to

compare results and achieving more accurate results.

2. According to the other researches about relations between product involvement and loyalty, it is

suggested that some researches shall be done in the field of brand commitment.

3. In this research, the effects of involvement on brand commitment were investigated. But since

this is not the only factor and there are some important factors in this respect, it is suggested

that some additional research shall be done in this field.

4. According to current research about the relationship between product involvement and brand

commitment, it is suggested that some researches shall be done about increasing market shares

and benefits.


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