Understanding Consumer Decision Making: The Means-End Approach to Marketing and Advertising Strategy

Abstract

Understanding Consumer Decision Making: The Means-End Approach to Marketing and Advertising Strategy, edited by Thomas J. Reynolds and Jerry C. Olson, is reviewed.

Understanding Consumer Decision Making: The Means-End Approach to Marketing and Advertising Strategy edited by Thomas J. Reynolds and Jerry C. Olson. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001, 447 pp., $99.95, paper [ISBN: 0-8058-1731-X].

This compendium, edited by Thomas Reynolds and Jerry Olsen, contains a diverse and comprehensive set of literature regarding the means-end approach to understanding consumer decision-making processes. Although this approach has been successfully implemented in academic and business settings, the editors indicate that many individuals who may benefit from using it are unfamiliar with means-end concepts and applications. As such, the text is intended to help business managers and academic researchers understand the means-end perspective, and to demonstrate how individuals can use this particular approach to develop better business, marketing, and advertising strategies. Further, the editors explain that means-end theory has yet to be fully or formally explicated. The book is supposed to move us toward such a theory.

Briefly stated, the "means-end approach" refers to a set of techniques for interviewing individuals about the reasons behind their choices and interpreting individuals' interview responses. The approach assumes that people think at different levels of abstraction. That is, when making choices, consumers think about how the physical attributes of the products they purchase (the means) create consequences that help them to achieve certain values they consider important in life (the ends). Indeed, it is assumed that consumers place a great deal of importance on achieving end-level goals when making even seemingly mundane purchase decisions.

The book is divided into five sections. Section One provides an introduction to the means-end approach by defining it, instructing the reader on criteria for framing consumer decision-making, discussing the approach's conceptual foundations, and providing business-oriented applications.

In Section Two, various authors discuss the laddering interview, which is by far the most prevalent method of identifying means-end chains. Specifically, this section provides information on a variety of issues pertaining to laddering. For instance, the first chapter in the section instructs potential interviewers on methods for eliciting high-quality responses during laddering interviews, selecting key distinctions to ladder, and overcoming roadblocks that arise during interviews. Grunert, Beckmann, and Sorensen provide a chapter discussing theoretical flaws associated with the means-end approach and discuss unresolved issues pertaining to collection and analysis of laddering data. Newer techniques for conducting laddering interviews are presented next. Finally, the last chapter in the section provides the interested reader with tips concerning analysis of laddering data.

Because advertising issues and problems constitute the most common application of the means-end approach, Section Three discusses how to use means-end chains for development and assessment of advertising strategy. These chapters explain and demonstrate various uses of the MECCAs model (Means-End Conceptualization of the Components of Advertising strategy), which utilizes the means-end approach's framework to create and strengthen brand images with advertising. A chapter written by Rossiter and Percy introduces a rival model to the means-end chain. This proposed model uses an attribute-belief-emotion chain as an alternative tool for developing advertising strategy.

In Section Four, specific case studies for using the means-end approach are discussed. In one chapter, the authors use a study conducted for Mary Kay cosmetics in order to demonstrate the versatility of the approach, Here, it is salesperson-not consumer-motivations that are uncovered and analyzed using meansend tools. Examples in other chapters reveal how the approach may be used in business-to-business contexts, as a tool to segment markets, and as a means to understand philanthropic behavior.

The fifth and final section provides theoretical perspectives on means-end research. This section presumably is placed at the end of the volume because the approach lacks a conceptual foundation. These chapters are used to explore future directions in means-end research and establish paths for generating theory.

As I mentioned previously, one of the book's stated objectives is to help business practitioners learn more about means-end chains. For market researchers working with advertising copywriters, the laddering approach of generating meansend chains is a potentially powerful tool for generating effective promotional themes. Understanding Consumer Decision Making provides fine descriptions of various techniques for eliciting high quality interviews and for analyzing the interview data. Further, the text provides useful examples of laddering used as a means of uncovering motivations pertaining to non-consumption-oriented decision-making situations, such as the employment decisions faced by Mary Kay employees.

There is some discrepancy regarding the origins of the means-end approach. In the foreward, the approach is stated to be 30-40 years old. In the preface, however, the number is stated as 20 years. This exemplifies the somewhat unstructured, nebulous nature of the concept. Unfortunately, the book itself possesses similar qualities.

Understanding Consumer Decision Making is a rather unstructured collection of disparate ideas all pertaining to a common theme. As such, a wide variety of topics and viewpoints is covered, but the autonomy and lack of coordination among authors also means that much redundancy exists between chapters. For instance, several chapters begins with an explanation of the basic "attribute-consequence-value" premise behind means-end chains, as if the reader were exposed to the concept for the first time.

This redundancy and lack of coordination also means that patience is a required virtue among readers who want to use the book as a practical guide for conducting laddering interviews and constructing means-end chains. For example, the first chapter describes four fundamental issues that managers need to address in order to properly frame their research problem prior to conducting laddering interviews. Three of these four issues are conceptually abstract and beg to be elaborated upon, but that elaboration is not provided until the reader advances to the book's fourth chapter. With better coordination, "See chapter four for more details" may have been usefully inserted in the Chapter One discussion.

For academicians, who are perhaps accustomed to wading through large quantities of gratuitous information, the editorial style is perhaps more palatable. However, the volume would prove more satisfying to its academic audience if an articulate theoretical conceptualization of the means-end approach were presented here. A cohesive statement explaining the theory behind means-end chains would provide a measure of confidence to researchers wishing to use means-end data in order to publish in peer-reviewed academic journals. The lack of such a statement, combined with the book's repetitive, loosely structured nature, may contribute to a lack of broad-based appeal among either of its intended audiences.