Brand switching behavior of consumers has been theoretically and empirically examined in studies of brand loyalty and variety seeking. Currently, the studies of brand loyalty and variety seeking have a limitation because they implicitly assume that consumers are highly involved in the products they purchase. We hypothesize that the process of choice will differ depending on the level of product involvement. Especially we suggest that the level of product involvement will mediate the effect of determinants of brand switching.
We conceptualize that the real variety seekers and the real brand loyal buyers are highly involved in the product and they are different from the random switchers and habitual buyers who are lowly involved in the product.
We hypothesize that the four types of consumers will show difference in the personality dimensions such as affiliation, intolerance of ambiguity, rigidity, and dogmatism and internal motive dimension such as novelty seeking.
These and more hypotheses are empirically tested using housewives as subjects for 8 subsistent goods. The statistical analysis used in this study are correlation analysis, t-test, ANOVA, model comparison test, and stepwise regression analysis.
The main results of this study are as follows;
1) The relationships between the personal traits (personality) and brand switching are dependent on the consumers' level of product involvement
2) Novelty seeking has a positive effect on brand switching. The strength of their effect is positively correlated with the absolute level of product involvement.
3) The situation variables have a positive effect on brand switching regardless of the level of product involvement of consumers.
Also the study suggests that the characteristic of the product itself may be an important determinant of brand switching.
