Impact of symbolic product design on brand evaluations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of symbolic product information (symbolic product design) on consumers’ perceived brand evaluations. In an experimental setting, the authors consider as key factors the congruence between symbolic product design and product category, the level of product involvement as well as brand strength. Design/methodology/approach – In an experiment of 490 participants, consumers are confronted to different symbolic product designs connotations. Based on the cognitive process model “SARA” (selective activation, reconstruction and anchoring), the authors examined how symbolic product design associations are used as heuristics in the working memory when making brand judgement. Findings – The results show that product design associations are used in consumers’ information processing as anchor for brand evaluations. This effect is stronger if symbolic design associations are incongruent to the product category because of consumers’ deeper elaboration process. Furthermore, the impact of symbolic product design is higher for weak compared to strong brands. Research limitations/implications – This research supports the cognitive process model “SARA” being an appropriate foundation explaining the effects of symbolic product design. Further research should extend this experiment, using a field study in a more realistic setting and/or a choice situation between different alternative product designs at the point of sale. Furthermore, the consumers’ elaboration process should be manipulated differently, e.g. in a mental load condition. Practical implications – Symbolic product design is important to enhance brand association networks in the consumers’ mind, particularly if the brand is weak. Marketers should use incongruent symbolic product information to differentiate from competitors who use “stereotype” product designs. Originality/value – Research about product design in the marketing discipline is still limited. The authors analyse the impact of symbolic product design on brand evaluations in an experimental setting of 490 respondents in four product categories. The findings support that consumers use product design as heuristics to evaluate brands

Dimension-based versus relation-based brand name design: a test of different psycholinguistic theories

Conveying distinctive and coherent brand associations is a key concern of modem brand management. Brands with a concise, consumer-relevant, and unique brand image are preferred by consumers. This study considers the contribution brand names can provide to building customer based brand equity. Recent cognitive theories of conceptual combination fonn the theoretical basis for analyzing consumer reactions toward brand names. Following these theories, three techniques to integrate brand name and product are developed. Reaction time measurements and association tests show that the techniques presented are an effective and efficient means to convey a brand\u27s image

Portfolio Advertising as an Instrument to Strengthen the Corporate Brand in a Complex Brand Architecture

In recent years, the importance of the corporate brand has significantly grown and companies increasingly seek to strengthen their corporate brand. The corporate brand image can be strengthened through portfolio advertising as a technique of impression management. This mechanism works only if important variables are considered, such as the fit between product brands, the number of product brands as well as the processing depth of the consumers. Based on three experiments, the benefits of portfolio advertising for the corporate brand and its product brands are shown and practical implications are discussed