Information hunt: the impact of product type and time pressure on choice of information source for purchase decisions

The question of how consumers hunt for information when making choices has been raising curiosity of psychologists and marketing experts for a long time. Over sixty different determinants that affect the external information search were discussed. In this paper, we focus on the product characteristics, rather than consumer ones. More specifically, we focus on how the type of good (product or service) affects the information search. Goods are divided into utilitarian, used for their practicality (eg, a screwdriver or PC), and hedonic goods, used for their pleasure value (eg, chocolate or vacation). For the purposes of this paper empirical study was conducted on a sample of 61 students. Respondents were given the task to simulate purchase decision making process for utilitarian good (laptop) and hedonic good (vacation) during which they have recorded all encountered information sources. The results revealed that consumers who buy hedonic goods use the same number of information sources, regardless of time pressure. When they have more available time they devote more time but only to selected sources. They mostly use marketing-dominant sources. On the other hand, in case of utilitarian products, consumers use the same amount of time, regardless of time pressure, but are seeking information from more sources