A dual model of product involvement for effective virtual reality: The roles of imagination, co-creation, telepresence, and interactivity

Virtual reality (VR) is receiving increasing interest from marketers as this technology provides significant opportunities for enhancing consumer engagement and responses. However, to date, the field lacks a cohesive description of available VR technologies, especially in the marketing domain, and needs a framework for effective VR based on consumer product involvement. Therefore, we first outline a typology of VR by level of product involvement, delineating how brands might implement VR. Second, after a comprehensive literature review, we propose a dual model of product involvement for VR strategies. High product involvement strategies directly influence consumer responses through imagination, co-creation, and telepresence. Meanwhile, low-involvement strategies increase brand engagement and indirectly influence consumer responses through the less cognitively taxing process of interactivity. This work includes nine propositions for effective strategies in each route and offers several implications for theory and practice.