Uniqueness and (False) Consensus: Two Important Facets of Brand Associations?

摘要

Adopting a cognitive brand equity perspective, brand strength results from what stakeholders know about the brand. Knowledge can be conceptualized in various ways (e.g., explicit vs. implicit, declarative vs. procedural), but the collection of consumer brand associations is the most popular way to learn about brand knowledge. Multiple facets of brand associations have been proposed as relevant conditions for brand strength, for example the number of associations, their valence, their overlap with management-desired brand meaning. This study investigates the role of two facets which have been mentioned in numerous conceptual brand management contributions, but lack thorough empirical examination. We examine whether an association's uniqueness (i.e. only one brand among a set of brands elicits this association) and an association's degree of consensus (i.e. a brand elicits an association from many consumers) are able to add explanatory power to variations in consumer brand response. We distinguish between two types of consensus: (a) the degree to which different people actually share the same knowledge regarding a brand and (b) the (potentially false) belief that others share one's brand knowledge.