Elaboration Likelihood Model Case Study

This field work study and reaction paper is in relation to the Elaboration Likelihood Model concepts one exercises while making purchasing decisions. In the field work, I visited ‘Target’, my local grocery store and consciously thought about my purchase decisions as well as observed other shoppers’ purchasing behavior. Many factors and specifics influence a customer’s decision making process while making purchases. The customer’s gender, brand, price, type of product and promotions among others are some the factors influencing consumer purchasing patterns the first part of this paper examines. According to Booth-Butterfield, S. and Welbourne, J. (2002), the ELM posits that attitude change may occur through one of two different processing routes: central route or the peripheral route. When one is highly involved in an issue or has greater knowledge around it, one is likely to put his mind into it more so when there are no distractions. According to ELM (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986; Petty $ Wegeberm 1999, factors that influence elaboration likelihood may be either situationally induced or internal to the person processing the communication. Part two of this paper will examine the two processing routes and the factors that may influence Elaboration likelihood.

Part 1: Purchasing Behavior Patterns There are various

Customers tend to spend less time on item’s they buy every day or week unlike big ticket items like appliances. Customers spend a longer decision making process when spending a substantial amount of money as they compare features, quality, brands etc. During my observation, the customers were spending a substantial amount of time in the big ticket aisles and engaging the store service men and women before making the decision to purchase the item. Some of the customers I spoke to mentioned they visited other stores, researched and talked to family and friends