The Best of the Worst or The Worst of the Best

This research examines whether a low-status member in a high-status category (e.g., a low-end Audi) or a high-status member in a low-status category (e.g., a high-end Volkswagen) is favored when they are evaluated separately, holding the objective value of these items constant. Based on the research on brand equity, one might expect that an option introduced under a higher quality brand would generally dominate an option introduced under a lower quality brand. However, in a series of experiments, we show that the ranking of an item within a category (e.g., within a brand) often has a major influence in the evaluation of the good. Consequently, in many cases, a high quality model of a low quality brand is evaluated more favorably than a low quality model of a high quality brand challenging the common belief that a member of a higher quality brand should always be rated more favorably than the member of a lower quality brand. A theoretical account for the findings is also provided.