Brand awareness effects on consumer decision making for a common, repeat purchase product: A replication

This article is a replication of a study of Hoyer and Brown that used a con trolled experiment to examine the role of brand awareness in the consumer c hoice process. Tnf replication used the same methods, bur with a different (bur similar) product category, a larger sample, and a sample group that in cluded experienced ns well as inexperienced consumers. Results support the original study's findings that brand awareness is a dominant choice tactic among awareness group subjects. Subjects choosing from a set of brands with marked awareness differentials showed an overwhelming preference for the h igh awareness brand, despite quality and price differentials. They also mad e their decisions faster than subjects in the nonawareness condition and sa mpled fewer brands. In a surprising finding, respondents use of the awarene ss choice heuristic did not seem to decline steadily over repeated choice t rials, bur rather showed something of a U-shaped pattern, with subjects ret urning to the high awareness brand in the latter choice trials. Little supp ort was found fore Hoyer and Brown's finding that subjects in the no brand awareness conditions chose the quality brand on the final trial more often that those in the awareness differential conditions. In summary, awareness differentials seem to be a powerful influence on brand choice in a repeat p urchase consumer product context. Consumers show a strong tendency to use a wareness as a heuristic and show a degree of inertia in changing from the h abit of using this heuristic. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All lights res erved.