The acquisition phase

Hoyer and MacInnis (2004) refer to this phase as the process by which a

consumer gets to obtain a product or service. The acquisition phase involves

the analysis of factors influencing visitors’ service choices. Mowen and Minor

(1998) note that most of the research in consumer behaviour focuses on this

phase. It comprises of information search and decision making processes. One

important concept to note in this phase is the concept of involvement, which

has been widely cited in consumer behaviour research.

2.6.1.1 Involvement

Involvement as a concept is a crucial tool in explaining buying behaviour and

decision making. Hoyer and MacInnis (2004) describe involvement as the final

outcome of motivation that evokes a psychological state in a consumer. In the

literature involvement has been described and classified in a variety of ways

using terms such as high, low, emotional, situational, cognitive, enduring,

affective, ego and purchase (Engel et al., 1995; Beatty et al. 1988; Hoyer and

MacInnis, 2004).

According to Beatty et al. (1988) there are two types of involvement: ego

involvement and purchase involvement. Ego involvement depicts the

importance of the product to the individual and to the individual’s self-concept,

values and ego. On the other hand, purchase involvement may be defined as

the level of concern for, or interest in, the purchase process stimulated by the

need to consider a given purchase episode.

In another light, Hoyer and MacInnis (2004) offer a framework of involvement

based on five objects of influence namely media, advertisement, product

category, brands and purchase decision and behaviour. The advertising domain

depicts involvement as the personal relevance of the receiver to advertisements

in relation to being personally affected and consequently motivated to respond

to the advertisements. The product class domain sees involvement as focussing

on relevance of product to the needs and values of consumers hence their

interest in product information. The purchase decision domain lays emphasis

on the relevance of the decision and subsequent careful purchase decision by

the consumer.

In behavioural terms, Engel et al. (1995) advocate that involvement be measured with the time spent in product search, the energy spent on product

and information search, the number of alternatives examined and the extent of

the decision.It takes the form of a continuum ranging from low to high and can

best be conceived as a function of person, object and situation. Engel et al.

(1995) submit that the degree of involvement is the sole factor that determines

the type of decision-process behaviour that the consumer will exhibit. Going by

Engel et al. (1995) classification it can be said that the attraction product will

fall into the low involvement category. It can be, by rule of thumb, argued that

time and energy spent on information and product search will be minimal;

decision-process is also likely to be less complicated compared to decision-

process behaviour regarding a long-haul family annual holiday.

2.6.1.2 The decision making process

All products and services, including the attraction product, the visitor uses

would have been involved in a decision making process (Jansson-Boyd, 2010).

Decision making involves identifying and choosing alternatives based on the

values and preferences of the decision maker. Making a decision means that

there are alternative choices to be taken into consideration and not only that,

the decision maker has to identify as many alternatives as possible, but also has

to choose the one that has the highest probability of success or having the best

effectiveness. Another choice to make would be to determine which service

best fits the goals, desires, lifestyle and values of the decision maker.

2.6.1.3 The consumer choice process

The consumer choice process is one of the stages consumers go through in

their decision process. Mowen and Minor (1998) based their analysis of this

stage on alternative approaches to predicting choice. The major areas

highlighted in their work are: (1) High-involving choice comprising of

compensatory models and Phased models; (2) Low-involvement models which

include Conjunctive rule, Disconjunctive rule, Elimination by aspect,

Lexicographic rule and Frequency heuristic; (3) Experiential choice process

which comprises of Brand loyalty purchase, Affect-referral heuristic and

impulse purchase; (4) Noncomparable choice processes and (5) Store choice.

The salient point in the analysis is that brands, services, goods or even

establishments will be evaluated based on specific attributes. This is

comparable to the process of evaluation of product quality based on

identification of the product quality dimension (see Parasuraman, Zeithaml and

Berry, 1988; Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Frochot and Hughes, 2000). In Mowen

and Minor’s (1998) analysis the choice making will be greatly influenced by

the type of decision process consumers engage in and the decision process

could be viewed from high or low involvement or experiential perspective.

Consumers under high-involvement condition, for example buying an

expensive family annual holiday, act as if they are employing a compensatory

model where they analyse products based on their attributes and allow highly

rated attribute(s) to compensate for lowly rated one(s). Employing this model,

the sum of all information on a brand’s attribute forms the overall judgment;

consequently, a brand may not necessarily be rejected as a result of low rating

on a particular attribute. On the other hand, in a low involvement situation

consumers have been found to behave as if they adopt a noncompensatory

model of choice (Mowen and Minor, 1998). In this instance, high ratings will

not compensate for low ratings on any particular attribute; here a given

attribute is compared from one product to another and the one with the highest

rating is chosen.

Most of the theories underpinning this analysis help in explaining how

consumers make choices among alternative products or organisations that are

similar or dissimilar as the situation may be. However, the Compensatory

model, Conjunctive rule and Disconjunctive rule can help in explaining the

stages of quality evaluation.