The Influence of Product Variety on Brand Perception and Choice

Abstract

We propose that the variety a brand offers often serves as a quality cue and thus influences which brand consumers choose. Specifically, brands that offer a greater variety of options that appear compatible and require similar skills tend to be perceived as having greater category expertise or core competency in the category, which, in turn, enhances their perceived quality and purchase likelihood. Six studies support this proposition and demonstrate that compared to brands which offer fewer products, (a) brands which offer increased compatible variety are perceived as having higher quality; (b) this effect is mediated by product variety's impact on perceived expertise; (c) the higher perceived quality produces a greater choice share of the higher variety brand, even among consumers who select options that multiple brands offer and (d) product variety also impacts post-experience perceptions of taste. The findings suggest that in addition to directly affecting brand choice share through influencing the fit with consumer preferences, product line length can also indirectly affect brand choice through influencing perceived brand quality.variety, consumer choice, quality cues, product line length

Non-Profits are Seen as Warm and For-Profits as Competent: Firm Stereotypes Matter

“…For example, wearing a formal lab coat, as done in the (in)famous Milgram obedience experiments, enhances credibility and respect (Burger 2009). Further, work in marketing shows that credibility cues serve as an effective tool to improve perceptions of competence (Moscarani 2007) and in so doing can increase purchase likelihood (Berger, Draganska, and Simonson 2007) and choice (Erdem and Swait 2004). Thus, we hypothesize that a credibility cue will increase perceptions of competence, which should benefit perceptions of nonprofit companies in particular (as they would otherwise be predicted to be viewed as low in competence).…”

“…Extant research shows that sources vary on credibility, which has a significant impact on persuasion (e.g., Berger et al 2007;Sternthal, Dholakia, and Leavitt 1978 M p 22 male) at Stanford were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions comprising the 2 (organization type: for-profit vs. nonprofit) # 2 (endorsement credibility: high vs. low) between-subject design. Participants were first presented with three ecofriendly laptop bags sold by World of Good.…”

Can There Ever Be Too Many Options? A Meta-Analytic Review of Choice Overload

“…Yet, while researchers analyzing actual field data have reported some instances in which sales actually went up with fewer options, in many cases, reducing the number of different items apparently led to reduced sales or to no change (Boatwright and Nunes 2001;Borle et al 2005;Drèze, Hoch, and Purk 1994;Sloot, Fok, and Verhoef 2006). In line with this, in a series of experiments, Berger, Draganska, and Simonson (2007) showed that introducing finer distinctions within a product line increased perceptions of quality and that a brand offering high variety within a category has a competitive advantage.…”

Understanding the role of latent feature diversification on choice difficulty and satisfaction

“…They also allow customers to seek variety and maintain flexibility during the purchase process (Simonson 1990). Moreover, the variety of products offered by a specific brand is perceived as a cue for the quality of the brand (Berger et al 2007). In other words, larger item sets are often perceived to be more attractive.…”