Low Involvement Brands: is the Brand Manager to Blame

Marketing

1997

This study argues that contrary to the belief of many marketing practitioners, branding activity such as advertising and sales promotion does not increase consumer involvement with their brands. For many categories, and especially fast moving consumer goods, consumers are rather unthinking and uncaring about the brands they purchase. This is not the fault of poor brand management, but rather the fact that consumer involvement is determined at category and not brand level. Using a database developed by FCB in the US, based on 1,800 responses and covering 254 diverse consumer products and services, the author shows that brand buyers within the same category share much the same involvement perceptions, and their motivations for buying a brand within that category are similar to those of other brand buyers. It is beyond the scope of brand management to alter these involvement perceptions, unless they are able to create new categories or sub-categories for their brands. Using cluster analysis, she demonstrates how this effect occurs. It is argued that the real challenge of branding lies in the innovative creation of such sub-categories, forcing the consumer to re-evaluate the category and its brands.

96-301

No