Between Two Brands: A Goal Fluency Account of Brand Evaluation

Abstract

The authors present the results of two studies showing that consumers' evaluation of an advertised brand can be influenced by prior advertising of products from related categories. When the regulatory goal of the target brand matches (conflicts with) the regulatory goal of the related product, participants indicated high (lower) purchase intent (exp. 1) and evaluation of the target brand (exp. 2). These effects are not accounted for by differences in participants' involvement or affective state across the conditions. Mediation analyses show that participants' ease of processing the target ad underlies the effects of goal compatibility and conflict on brand evaluation.

Keywords: Advertising, Brand Management, Attitude, Persuasion, Ease of Processing, Metacognition, Fluency

JEL Classification: M3, M31, M37