4. What types of goals do consumers have? Motivation reflects an inner state of arousal that directs the consumer to engage in goal-relevant behaviors, effortful information processing, and detailed decision making. Motivated consumers often experience affective or cognitive involvement.

In some cases, this involvement may be enduring; in other cases, it may be situational, lasting only until the goal has been achieved. Consumers experience greater motivation when they regard a goal or object as personally relevant—meaning that it relates to their self-concepts, values, needs, goals, and self-control;

when it entails considerable risk; or when it is moderately inconsistent with their prior attitudes.

Even when motivation is high, consumers may not achieve their goals if their ability or opportunity to do so is low. Similarly, if consumers lack the financial, cognitive, emotional, physical, or social and cultural resources, they may not have the ability to make a decision. Age and education also affect ability.

In addition, consumers may not achieve the goal if they are attending to information that is incompatible with their processing styles. Highly motivated consumers may also fail to achieve goals if lack of time, distractions, complex or large amounts of information, or lack of control over information flow limit the opportunity to make decisions.