Abstract:

With the development of emerging implicit social cognition research, it is suggested that the researches of social cognition should be re-discussed from two different aspects (i.e. explicit and implicit) in order to provide richer and more comprehensive explanation for understanding human behavior. Previous studies showed that personal involvement is an important variable when individuals process and understand information. The subjects were divided into low personal involvement and high personal involvement in the present study. Based on the dual-process model, the study aims to examine the psychological mechanism by which new brand impressions are formed and changed in groups with two different levels of personal involvement. A 2 (valence of learned impression: positive, negative) × 2 (level of reinforcement: 100%, 75%) × 3 (counter impression condition: control, 20CI, 100CI) between subjects design was implemented in the study 1 (low involvement) and study 2 (high involvement). The subjects were Chinese university students. They were selected by convenience sampling and assigned randomly to 12 subgroups to participate in the study 1 and study 2. The sample excluded subjects who omitted items in the explicit brand impression and had an error rate of IAT equal to or higher than 20%. All analysis reported here involve the remaining 216 participants in study 1 and 202 participants in study 2. The results show that explicit brand impressions are independent from implicit ones; Following rule-based procession, the forming and change of explicit brand impression are developed by fast-learning memory system; Whereas implicit brand impression forming and change follow association procession and are developed by slow-learning memory system; In information processing individual difference in brand involvement has much to offer dual-process accounts of brand impression formation and change. The study suggests that managers of enterprises should show the positive information involving the brand to the consumers through multimedia and multiple perspectives so as to establish a positive impression of the brand quickly. Apart from that, the managers can also improve the personal involvement of the brand by interacting with consumers. For example, they can let consumers participate in brand co-creating.

Key words: dual process model, explicit brand impression, implicit brand impression, involvement