AN INVESTIGATION OF PERSUASION AND ITS EFFECT ON CONSUMER INVOLVEMENT IN THE CHOICE OF DAILY NEWSPAPERS BY READERS IN KENYA.

Abstract

It would be useful for marketers, academicians, policy formulators and those in the advertising industry to better understand why a consumer makes a particular purchase. When persuasive communications are received by a consumer, decision making process may be made less demanding reducing the time and effort spent in selecting a product/ service (consumer involvement). Also the level of involvement a consumer places on a particular purchase has a bearing on the actual selection (consumer choice) that will be made. To better understand this concept the Consumer Involvement Theory (CIT) and Elaborate Likelihood Model (ELM) were used to evaluate persuasion and its relationship with consumer choice. A multi stage sampling technique was employed to get a sample of 384 respondents from 13 counties in Kenya, who completed close ended questionnaires. Finally, hypothesis tests were done and the implications associated with the persuasion and choice by newspaper readers, are discussed.