Advertising Message Involvement: The Role of Enduring and Situational Factors

Abstract

Abstract Advertising message involvement (AMI) has long been a topic of interest in the advertising literature. Its effects on consumers' responses to advertising have been shown to be numerous and significant. This study investigates a theoretical and methodological issue regarding predispositional factors and the impact they have on experimenter-generated manipulations of advertising message involvement. Results of an empirical investigation indicate that subjects' pre-existing levels of product involvement and product knowledge are important determinants of advertising message involvement, even when there is an attempt to experimentally manipulate levels of the construct. Although the involvement manipulations used in this study were successful in creating significantly different high- and low-involvement groups, results show that the effects of enduring product class involvement and product knowledge on advertising message involvement could not be erased. These results, and others reported in the study, support prior research in the marketing literature that has conceptualized advertising involvement as a function of both enduring traits and situational states.