How Consumers’ Use of Brand vs. Attribute Information

Prior research has identified that brands have a differential impact on consumer evaluations across various brand benefits. But no work has considered whether these effects are stable over time, or evolve in a consistent way. We address this question by decomposing consumer evaluations of brand benefits into overall brand and detailed attribute-specific sources in order to understand whether brand effects remain stable or evolve over time. With two unique datasets, the first containing cross-sectional data from Kodak across four different consumer goods categories, and another longitudinal dataset from the U.S. and Canada in the surface-cleaning category, covering seven brands over five years, we demonstrate a systematic evolution in brand effects: A general trend is that over time and with experience consumers rely more heavily on overall brand information to develop their evaluations. However, early in a brand’s life, or later when circumstances compel consumers to actively consider the attributes, ingredients or features of a brand, consumers may rely more heavily on detailed attribute-specific information to evaluate brand-benefits. Implications for brand management are discussed.