Consumer covariation judgments: theory or data driven?

Article Abstract:

We examined the issues of when, and how, consumers' prior beliefs or "theories" might bias their judgments of the association between price and quality using a task that involved taste testing orange juices. When the task was manipulated so that subjects had difficulty in comparing aand contrasting the taste quality of the juices, their covariation judgments tended to be theory driven: while these judgments were somewhat sensitive to the actual price-quality relationship in the "data," they were biased by individuals' prior beliefs about the covariation. Follow-up studies indicated that this effect was not due to an encoding bias in that subjects' prior beliefs about price and quality did not not significantly distort their taste perceptions per se. Instead, when subjects found it difficult to discriminate among the stimuli with regard to taste quality, they appeared to have formed their covariation judgments by making heuristic use of their prior beliefs. Implications are discussed for the covariation judgment process and consumer learning. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Usage, Analysis of covariance, Covariance analysis

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The effects of comparative advertising on attention, memory, and purchase intentions

Article Abstract:

There is discrepancy between practitioners' views of comparative advertising and null findings by academics. However, in most studies, subjects' attention to and memory of the comparative claims were inflated, which may have precluded effects on these variables and on purchase intentions. This study manipulated market share and type of comparative claim, used nonforced exposure, measured attention via a computerized magazine, and assessed memory and purchase intentions after a 24-hour delay. Some findings are that direct comparative claims attract attention and thereby enhance purchase intentions for low-share brands but detract from purchase intentions for established brands by increasing awareness of competitors and sponsor misidentifications. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Analysis

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The use of comparative advertising for brand positioning: association versus differentiation

Article Abstract:

Comparative advertising involves comparing the advertised brand with a named competitor and convincing the audience of the former's superiority on a given attribute over the latter. However, there are questions as to whether this kind of advertising really does differentiate between brands, or just causes them to become associated with one another. Two studies investigated this matter and found that both brand association and differentiation result from direct comparative advertisements. Both effects are influenced by how typical the featured attribute is, as well as how familiar the advertised brand is.

Reports, Product differentiation

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