The role of taxonomic and goal-derived product categorization in, within, and across category judgments

Consumers can face two types of judgment and choice situations: They may be considering products that are classified in a single product category, or products that may belong to several different product categories. This arti cle compares these within- and across-category judgments on the basis of th e distinction between taxonomic and goal-derived categorization. The first study examines how products that belong to taxonomic and goal-derived categ ories are represented in memory. The findings support the view that taxonom ic categories differ from goal-derived categories in terms of the ease with which the features shared between members of the category are accessible a nd the type of features that are used to represent the members. In turn, th ese differences influence consumer beliefs, judgments, and choice sets when consumers make within- and across-category product comparisons. A second s tudy examines how consumers' familiarity with consumption situations influe nces the construction of choice sets. Results indicate that as familiarity with consumption situations increases, consumers construct more narrowly de fined, within-category choice sets, whereas in less-familiar situations con sumers construct broader, across-category choice sets. The implication of t hese findings on marketing action is discussed. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.