THE EFFECT OF MEASURING INTENT ON BRAND-LEVEL PURCHASE BEHAVIOR

Previous research has demonstrated that merely asking consumers purcha se intent questions has a significant impact on their actual purchase incidence in the category. Our article extends this research to explor e the impact of the ''mere-measurement'' effect at the brand level. We hypothesize that there are predictable patterns of brand-level purcha se effects that depend on whether a consumer has previously made a pur chase in the product category. The results demonstrate that current ow ners of cars are more likely to repurchase the brands they currently o wn when they are asked intent questions. In addition, the purchase beh avior of current car owners is more consistent with their brand attitu des when they are asked intent questions. First-time car buyers, on th e other hand, are more likely to purchase brands that have large marke t shares when asked intent questions. Finally, we discuss both the imp lications of these results and opportunities for future research.