OVERCOMING THE EARLY ENTRANT ADVANTAGE - THE ROLE OF ALIGNABLE AND NONALIGNABLE DIFFERENCES

Prior research has focused On early entrant advantage rather than on t heories that explain and predict how late entrants can surpass the ear ly entrant's performance. In this research, the authors propose that l earning about new brands is influenced by the way the attributes of la ter entrants compare with attributes of the first. In three experiment s, the authors show that attributes that differentiate later entrants from the first entrant are better remembered and listed more often in judgment formation protocols if the attributes are comparable along so me common aspect (i.e., they are alignable differences) than if they d o not correspond to any attributes of the first entrant (i.e., they ar e nonalignable differences). The impact of greater memorability of ali gnable over nonalignable differences is that later entrants whose attr ibutes are superior to those of the first entrant can come to be prefe rred over the first entrant when the attributes are alignable differen ces but not when they are nonalignable differences. These findings hav e important implications for product entry, differentiation, and posit ioning strategies.