Brand credibility, brand consideration, and choice

We examine the role of brand credibility (trustworthiness and expertise) on brand choice and consideration across multiple product categories that vary in regard to potential uncertainty about attributes and associated information acquisition costs and perceived risks of consumption. We find that brand credibility increases probability of inclusion of a brand in the consideration set, as well as brand choice conditional on consideration. We also find that although credibility impacts brand choice and consideration set formation more and through more constructs in contexts with high uncertainty and sensitivity to such uncertainty, credibility effects are present in all categories. Finally, our results indicate that trustworthiness, rather than expertise, affects consumer choices and brand consideration more.