American Journal of Scientific Research ISSN 1450-223X Issue 40(2011), pp. 5-15 EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2011 http://www.eurojournals.com/ajsr.

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Investigation of the Relationship between Product Involvement and Brand Commitment

Fatemeh Nikfar Master Marketing Management, Qazvin Branch Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran E-mail: f.nickfar@yahoo.com Tel: +98-912-2125067 Amin Asadollahi Corresponding Author, Department of Business Management Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran E-mail: amin_asadollahee@yahoo.com; a.asadollahi@srbiau.ac.ir Tel: +98-912-6766815 Farshad Bastani Allahabadi Bachelor, Islamic Azad University, South Tehran, Tehran, Iran E-mail: farshadbastani@yahoo.com 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

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 dont 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. Todays, 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

Fatemeh Nikfar, Amin Asadollahi and Farshad Bastani Allahabadi

and context of their life. (Shaffer & Sherrill, 1997, 256). Based on pioneers 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. Customers 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

Investigation of the Relationship between Product Involvement and Brand Commitment

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 products 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 products 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.

Fatemeh Nikfar, Amin Asadollahi and Farshad Bastani Allahabadi

Figure 1: Conceptual Model
Tendency H1 H4 Product Involvement

Specifications

H2 H5

H7

Commitment Brand H3 Information Source Source: (Warrington & Shim, 2000, 774). H6

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 Tehrans 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 branchs faculties with N2, volume number of the Central Tehran branchs faculties with N3 and volume number of the Science & research branchs 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.

Investigation of the Relationship between Product Involvement and Brand Commitment 5.2. Data Collection Tolls

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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 products features that the Scale of Likerts 5 points is used to measure them and finally 5 statistical questions which are separately regarding to the studied societys features.
Table 1: Variables and Questions in Research
Number of Questions 7 2 20 9 10 Questions 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 8-9 10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-2021-22-23-24-25-26-27-28-29 30-31-32-33-34-35-36-37-38 39-40-41-42-43-44-45-46-47-48

Variables Product Involvement Brand Commitment Tendency toward a Product Specifications of a Product Information Sources

In the present research, in order to investigate that what extent any of researchs 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 values differences, in determination of effectiveness of the structural model reform.
2 77/2851 79/2842 04/2837 74/2830 47/2825 78/2819 33/2815 08/2810 14/2809

Fitness Model First Model Second Model Third Model Fourth Model Fifth Model Sixth Model Seventh Model Eighth Model Ninth Model

x2
---98/8 75/5 30/6 27/5 12/5 45/4 25/5 94/0

df 1125 1121 1118 1114 1112 1009 1004 1002 1000

RMSEA 131/0 114/0 102/0 097/0 092/0 085/0 078/0 074/0 074/0

x 2 Decrease
Meaningful ----1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% Not Meaningful

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Fatemeh Nikfar, Amin Asadollahi and Farshad Bastani Allahabadi

Figure 2: LISREL structural model after modifying stages.

Investigation of the Relationship between Product Involvement and Brand Commitment

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

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Table 3:
Indices RMR SRMR GFI NFI NNFI IFI CFI RMSEA

Fatemeh Nikfar, Amin Asadollahi and Farshad Bastani Allahabadi

Indices of Model Fitness
Standard Amount Near to Zero 0SRMR1 0/9 up 0/85 up 0/80 up 0/9 up 0/9 up 0/08 down Reported Amount 0/16 0/09 0/94 0/97 0/97 0/98 0/98 0/074

Table 4:
Hypothesis H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6 H7

Path coefficients and significant structures depend on the model structure

Path Tendency Product Involvement Specification Product Involvement Information Source Product Involvement Tendency Brand Commitment Specification Brand Commitment Information Source Brand Commitment Product Involvement Brand Commitment Path Index 0/77 0/08 0/12 0/91 -0/07 0/03 0/73 T 6/51 1/24 2/05 12/0 0/83 0/40 7/73 Standard Error 0/11 0/064 0/058 0/075 0/084 0/075 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.

Investigation of the Relationship between Product Involvement and Brand Commitment H5: Specifications of a Product Have a Direct Effect on Brand Commitment

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Based on the mentioned results in table 4, effects of product specification on brand commitment is 0.07 and by parameters meaningful investigation in equations, calculated t is less than 1.96. Thus, 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 0.03 and by parameters meaningful investigation in equations, calculated t is less than 1.96. Thus, 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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Fatemeh Nikfar, Amin Asadollahi and Farshad Bastani Allahabadi Aaker, D. (1991) Managing Brand Equity, New York: The Free Press. Barki, H. and J. Hartwick. (1989, March). Rethinking the Concept of Involvement. MIS Quarterly, 53-63. Celsi, R. L., & Olson, J. C. (1988). The role of involvement in attention and comprehension processes. Journal of Consumer Research, 15, 210224. Chaiken S, Liberman A, Eagly AH. Heuristic and systematic information processing within and beyond the persuasion context. In: Uleman JS, Bargh JA, editors. Unintended thought: limits of awareness, intention and control. New York: Guilford; 1989. p. 21252. Crosby, L.A., & Taylor, J.R. (1983). Psychological commitment and its effects on post-decision evaluations and preference stability among voters. Journal of Consumer Research, 9, 413-431. Cushing, P., & Douglas-Tate, M. (1985). The effect of people/product relationships on advertising processing. In L. Alwitt & A. P. Mitchell (Eds.), Psychological processes and advertising effects (pp. 241259). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Delaware, A. (2006) Research method in psychology, Virayesh Publication, Tehran Eagly AH. Chaiken S. In: Petty RE, Krosnick JA, editors, Attitude strength, attitude structure. And resistance to change. Attitude strength; Antecedents and consequences Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum; 1995. P. 413-32. Gordon T, Nadziejko C, Schlesinger R, Chen LC. 1998. Pulmonary and cardiovascular effects of acute exposure to concentrated ambient particulate matter in rats. Toxicol Lett 9697:285 288. Haung, Ming-Hui, (2006) Flow, Enduring and Situational Involvement in the web environment: A tripartite second-order examination Psychology & Marketing. Kiesler CA. The psychology of commitment: experiments linking behavior to belief. A Diego, CA: Academic press; 1971. Krugman, H. E. (1965). The impact of television advertising: Learning without involvement. Public Opinion Quarterly, 29, 349356. Krugman, H. E. (1966/1967). The measurement of advertising involvement. Public Opinion Quarterly, 30, 583596. Michaelidou, Nina & Dibb, Sally, (2006) Product involvement: an application in clothing Journal of Consumer Behavior. Moorman, C., zaltman, G., & Deshpande, R. (1992). Relationship between providers and users of market research: The dynamics of trust within and between organizations. Journal of Marketing Research, 29(3). 314-329. Morgan RM, Hunt SD.The commitment-trust theory of relationship management. J Mark 1994; 58:20-38(July). Quester, P, Lim, A.L., Product Involvement/Brand Loyalty: Is there a link? Journal of Product and Brand Management, Vol.12 No.1, 22-38, 2003. Shaffer, T., Sherrill, L.,Customer Satisfaction with Health-Care Services: the Influence of Involvement , Journal of Psychology and Marketing, Vol. 14, No.3, 261-85, 1997. Solomon, Michael R. (2002), Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being, 5th ed., New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Traylor, M.B. (1981). Product involvement and brand commitment. Journal of Advertising Research, 21, 51-56. Warrington, P., Shim, S., An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship between Product Involvement and Brand Commitment, Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 17(9): 761782, 2000. Zaichkowsky, Judith, (1985) Measuring the involvement construct in marketing journal of Consumer Research.

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