Imagination, Social Interactions and the Consumer Decision Process

This research has practical implications for developing marketing communications strategies. Given the importance of mental imagery in influencing both the social interaction variables and Purchasing Intentions, marketers can help consumers to create their own mental pictures by creating memorable Vivid imagery through their marketing communications. The results also demonstrate that there are links between the social interaction variables, and that these help consumers to process social information for use in matching products to their identity. This implies that marketers can influence purchasing intentions by showing both the social influence of products to consumers, as well as by helping the consumer feel that the product "is them".