How Does Motivation Moderate the Impact of Central and Peripheral Processing on Brand Attitudes and Intentions?

This study examined how motivation moderates the impact of central and peripheral processing on the formation of brand attitudes and purchase intentions in an advertising pretest setting. The results indicate that increasing motivation to evaluate an advertised brand through the manipulation of consumer processing goals (1) increases the impact of central brand processing on brand attitudes and decreases the impact of a peripheral cue on brand attitudes, primarily by influencing the strengths of the relations among these constructs rather than by influencing their mean levels, (2) has no effect on the impact of the peripheral cue on brand cognitions, and (3) increases the impact of brand attitudes on purchase intentions by strengthening the attitude-intention relation and by increasing brand attitudes directly. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright 1992 by the University of Chicago.