消费者评价品牌延伸的信息和动机影响学位论文.docx

消费者评价品牌延伸的信息和动机影响学位论文.docx

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消费者评价品牌延伸的信息和动机影响学位论文

标题：

informationalandmotivationalinfluencesonconsumerevaluationsoflineandbrandextensions

原文：

theoreticalbackground

Line/brandextensionsare,bydefinition,productsthatareextendedfromtheparentbrand.Totheextentthatconsumersrecognizearelationshipbetweenanextensionandtheoriginalbrand,theywillmaketheirevaluationoftheextensioninrelationtothecategorythattheoriginalbrandisclassifiedinto（originalbrandcategory,hereafter）.Thus,theirknowledgeandexpectationsabouttheoriginalbrandcategorycanhaveasubstantialinfluenceoncognitiveprocessesunderlyingtheirevaluationsofextensions.Theseprocessesareidentifiedanddescribedinthesectionsthatfollow.

Category-basedversusPiecemealProcesses

Asmentionedearlier,previousresearchhasindicatedthatconsumersengageinacategorizationprocesswhenevaluatingline/brandextensions.However,thecategorizationprocessdoesnotseemtobetheonlyprocessunderlyingevaluationsofextensions.Accordingtocategorizationliterature（Cohen&Basu,1987;Fiske&Neuberg,1990;Fiske&Pavelchak,1986;Smith&Medin,1981）,peopledevelopanumberofcategoriesofobjectsinanefforttoorganizeandunderstandthem.Specifically,withrespecttoaparticularcategory,peopledevelopnotonlytheirknowledgeofcategorymembersbutalsotheirexpectationsabouttheattributesofatypicalcategorymember,calledcategoryknowledgeorschema,andaffectivereactiontothecategory,termedcategoryaffect（Fiske&Neuberg,1990;Fiske&Pavelchak,1986;Mandler&Parker,1976）.Ithasbeensuggestedthatwhenpeoplemakeanevaluativejudgmentofanobject,theygothrougheitheroneoftwoprocesses:

sometimestheysimplycategorizetheobjectandmaketheirjudgmentonthebasisofthecategoryaffect;othertimestheypiecetogethertheirjudgmentonthebasisoftheirevaluationsoftheindividualattributesoftheobject.Thesetwoprocessesofevaluationhaveformedthebasisoftwoseparatestreamsofresearchinsocialandcognitivepsychology.Thefirsttypeofprocess,knownasacategory-basedprocess,waspositedbythecategorizationresearchers（Burnstein&Schul,1982,1983;Fazio,1986;Fazio,Powell,&Herr,1983;Lingle&Ostrom,1981）,whereasthesecondtype,knownasapiecemealprocess,wasassumedbythemultiattributetheorists（Anderson,1974;Fishbein&Ajzen,1975）.Recently,intheconsumerresearcharea,agrowingamountofevidenceindicatesthatthesealternativemodesofinformationprocessingalsomediateproductevaluationsbyconsumers（Herr,1989;Meyers-Levy&Tybout,1989;Sujan,1985;Sujan&Bettman,1989）.Then,whendopeopleuseacategory-based,andwhendotheyuseapiecemealprocess?

Inregardstothisquestion,theexistingliteraturecanbelargelyplacedintotwogroups:

onegrouparguingforinformationconsistencywithcategoryknowledgeasaprimarydeterminantofthetwotypesofprocessing（Fiske,1982;Fiske&Neuberg,1990;Fiske&Pavelchak,1986;Sujan,1985）,andtheotheradvocatingtheperceiver'smotivationlevelsasadeterminant（Borgida&Howard-Pitney,1983;Brewer,1988;Howard-Pitney,Borgida,&Omoto,1986;Omoto&Borgida,1988）.Thefirstgrouparguesanddemonstratesthatperceivedcharacteristicsofatargetstimulus（i.e.,availabilityofafittingschema）triggerdifferentmodesofprocessing;category-basedprocessingoccurswhenthestimulusinformationisdescriptivelyconsistentwithacategoryschemathataperceiverbringstotheevaluationsituation,whereaspiecemealprocessingisusedwhentheinformationisinconsistentwithit.Thesecondgroup,ontheotherhand,positsthataperceiver'slevelofmotivationtoprocesstheinformationisthesoledeterminantofdifferenttypesofprocessing;category-basedprocessingoccursunderlowmotivationsituations,whereaspiecemealprocessingtakesplaceunderhighmotivationsituations.

Thesetwogroupsplaceanunevenemphasisoneitheroneofinformationalandmotivationalfactorsasthedeterminantofthealternativetypesofprocessing.Thus,inthisstudy,bothofthesefactorsareexamined.Itisbelievedthatbothwouldoperateondifferentphasesoftheevaluationprocesses.Asanexample,categorizationfailureduetothelackofafittingcategorymightnotautomaticallyleadtoapiecemealintegration,unlessacertainlevelofmotivationissatisfied.

AssimilationversusContrastEvaluationProcesses

Ithasbeenwell-documentedinsocialpsychologyandconsumerbehaviorthatthecontextinwhichastimulusisembeddedhassignificanteffectsonpeople'sevaluationofthatstimulus.Thatis,inthepresentresearchcontext,evaluationsofextensionsareaffectednotonlybytheirowncharacteristicsbutalsobythecharacteristicsoftheoriginalbrandcategoryretrievedfrommemory（Biernat,Manis,&Nelson,1991;Kahneman&Miller,1986）.Twoprocessesthatdescribehowpeoplemaketheirevaluationsasinfluencedbythecontextareassimilationandcontrast（Sherif&Hovland,1961;Sherif,Sherif,&Nebergall,1965）.Assimilationoccurswhenatargetstimulusisintegratedintothepresentcategoryandtheevaluationismadeonthebasisofthecategoryaffect.Consequently,assimilationbringsaboutthesomeevaluativeoutcomethatacategory-basedprocesswould.Ontheotherhand,contrastoccurswhenatargetstimulusiscontrastedwiththecategoryandtheevaluationismadeintheoppositedirectionfromthecategoryaffect.

Thesetwoprocessescanbeusedinevaluationsofline/brandextensions;withthepresentcategory（ortheoriginalbrandcategory）servingasastandardofcomparison,evaluationscanbemadeinthesamedirectionofthecategoryaffect（assimilated）orintheoppositedirectionfromit（contrasted）.Intheirassimilation/contrasttheory,SherifandHovland（1961）arguethatmessagesareassimilatedtowardtheperceiver'spositionwhentheyareacceptabletobeginwith（i.e.,whentheyfallwithinthelatitudeofacceptance）,whereastheyarecontrastedawaywhentheyaredistantandunacceptabletobeginwith（i.e.,whentheyfallwithinthelatitudeofrejection）.Inrelationtothepresentresearchcontext,itisinferredthatabrandisassimilatedtothecurrentcategorywhenperceivedtobesimilartothecategory,whereasitiscontrastedwhendescribedtobedifferentfromthecategory.Todate,however,fewstudiesinconsumerbehaviorhaveexaminedthesimultaneouseffectsoftwofactors,i.e.,similarityofatargetstimulustothecategoryschemaandinvolvement.Furthermore,theassimilation-contrasttheorydoesnottakeintoconsiderationthepossibleoccurrenceofpiecemealprocesses.

Insummary,basedontheexistingliteraturediscussedthusfar,itisconceptualizedthatthereareatleastthreetypesofprocessconsumerscanuseinevaluatingabrand:

（a）category-based（orassimilation）,（b）contrast,and（c）piecemealprocess.Itisexpectedthatthesealternativetypesofprocessaredeterminedbythetwofactors:

（a）consistencyofbrandinformationwiththecategoryschemaand（b）levelofmotivationtoprocesstheinformation.Morespecificpredictionsconcerningconsumerreactionstooriginalbrandsandtheirextensionsaredevelopedinthenextsection.

Researchhypotheses

Asetofhypothesesisdevelopedandtestedinthisstudyinordertounderstanddifferentinformationprocessingstrategiesconsumersusewhenevaluatingline/brandextensionsandtopredictfinalevaluations.Thesehypothesesarebuiltuponthesamebasicpremisesthatpasttheoreticalmodelsarebasedupon（seeBrewer,1988;Fiske&Neuberg,1990;Fiske&Pavelchak,1986）.Thatis,itisassumedthat（a）unlesstheincomingbrandinformationsatisfiestheminimumlevelofinterestandrelevancetotheconsumerswhohaveanevaluationgoal,nofurtherprocessingoccurs,and（b）aspontaneousattempttocategorizethetargetbrandcomesfirst.

Supposeconsumersfindthebrandinformationsufficientlyinterestingandrelevanttotheirgoal.Underthiscondition,thecasewheretheyobtainbrandinformationwithoutanycategoryexpectationsisconsideredextremelyrare（Wilson,Lisle,Kraft,&Wetzel,1989）.Evenwhenencounteringanovelbrand,theymusthaveatleastrudimentaryexpectationsabouttheproductcategorytowhichthebrandwouldbelong.Thus,uponobtainingthebrandinformation,theywillfirsttrytocategorizethebrandfromaglanceattheinformationtomakesenseofit.

EvaluationsofOriginalBrands

ConsiderthefollowinginformationofaT.V.set:

aSonystereocolorT.V.setwithsomeuniquefeatures（e.g.,on-screengraphicdisplay,multi-functionalremotecontrol,4-speakersystem,andautomaticshutoff）.Inthiscase,thebrandnamewillimmediatelybringtotheconsumers'mindacategorylabelofSonystereocolorT.V.setwithitstypicalattributesaswellasexpectedperformancelevelsoftheseattributes.Theconsumersarenowinapositiontotestthehypothesisthatthisbrandreallybelongstothatcategory,byconsideringdescriptiveimplicationsoftherestoftheinformation.

Totheextentthattheattributeinformationisagoodfitwiththecurrentcategory,regardlessofthemotivationlevel,theaffectassociatedwiththecategorylabelwillbeautomaticallyactivatedandusedasabasisfortheoveralljudgment（Fiske&Pavelchak,1986;Fiske&480Neuberg,1990;Srull&Wyer,1989）.Fromacognitiveeconomyperspective,itisbelievedthatthiskindofcategory-basedprocessismuchmoreefficientthananyothertypesofprocesses（Fiske&Neuberg,1990;Fiske&Taylor,1984）.Thatis,evenifconsumersarehighlymotivatedtoprocessbrandinformation,unlesstheyfindanythingdifferentaboutthebrand,theywouldnotfeeltheneedtore-elaborateo