Consumer Search in High Technology Markets: Exploring the Use of Traditional Information Channels

Understanding the use of information channels during the purchase process for high technology durable goods is vital if marketing managers want to efficiently allocate their communication budgets. This article examines how the perceived quality of information, as well as demographic and other consumer characteristics, affects consumers’ information-channel-choice behavior. The results suggest that (a) information channels operate as substitutes as far as information quality is concerned; (b) during each segment of the search consumers tend to use multiple sources of information, and in that context information channels act as complements, which illustrates the synergistic effect of search between channels and the importance of jointly estimating consumers’ information channel choices; and (c) utility derived from information search changes as time passes, which indicates that empirical research should use panel data to capture the dynamics of the search process.