Impact of Pre-Purchase Emotional State on Information Search and Evaluation: An Empirical Study on Automobile Consumers in India.

In marketing domain, emotion is an important research topic as it unveils the hidden aspects of consumer psychology that shape consumer behavior. The paper aims to find out whether emotional state of buyers in the pre-purchase stage has influence over the information search process and investigate the predictive power of emotional state over the selection of the evaluation procedures by automobile buyers. It is found that pre-purchase emotional state of automobile consumers has a significant impact on the information search process, and positive pre-purchase emotional state motivates consumers to focus on favorable information (positive review, appealing ads) received during the search process and engage in Heuristic Processing, whereas negative pre-purchase emotional state drives consumers' attention towards unfavorable information (negative reviews, bad experiences of others) and dive into systematic processing. The study will be of help to car marketers in devising marketing communication strategies so as to create an appealing image in the minds of potential consumers and to stand out amidst competition. In addition, it also provides insight into the emotional dimension of consumers' mind, which will aid car marketers in taking well-thought-out marketing decisions to influence consumers' way of processing information while they make final purchase decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]