SITUATIONAL EFFECTS ON BRAND PREFERENCES FOR IMAGE PRODUCTS

The purpose of the study was to provide evidence for the influence of situational variables on consumer preferences toward the image product of men's fragrances, and to illustrate how these situational variable s can be used to create positioning strategies. In a 3 x 3 experimenta l design, male and female subjects provided purchasing preference rati ngs for, and rated each cologne on, a number of scales related to pric e, brand image and packaging, scent, and inferred characteristics of t he typical consumer. ANOVAs and a constrained unfolding analysis using GENFOLD2 were used to analyze the data. The analyses revealed that su bjects' preferences were influenced by the purchasing target (self or others), and suggested that people's preferences may be mediated by pe rson prototypes and situation prototypes. (C) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.