ADVERTISING REPETITION AS A SIGNAL OF QUALITY - IF ITS ADVERTISED SO MUCH, SOMETHING MUST BE WRONG

The author proposes that consumers infer brand quality from the level of advertising repetition for unfamiliar brands. Consumers are posited to associate high product quality with high levels of repetition beca use they see repetition as costly and think higher costs reflect the m anufacturer's commitment to the product. However, at very high levels of repetition, consumers may perceive the expenditures as excessive an d begin to doubt the manufacturer's confidence in product quality, whi ch would lead to art inverted-U relationship between advertising repet ition and product quality perceptions. The author demonstrates that th e relationship between repetition and perceived brand quality is media ted by perceptions of the manufacturer's effort and confidence in qual ity rather than by irritation or boredom. The hypotheses were tested i n an experiment in which the bevel of repetition and the color of the ad were varied.