The Influence of Consumers’ Logical and Affective Brand Evaluation Inclinations on Consideration Set Composition

Abstract

This paper explores how consumers’ brand evaluation inclinations influence the degree of brand convergence in their consideration sets. We treated consumers’ brand evaluation inclinations two-dimensionally (logical and affective) and divided consumers into the following four groups: (I) strong logical and affective brand evaluation inclination, (II) weak logical and strong affective brand evaluation inclination, (III) weak logical and affective brand evaluation inclination, and (IV) strong logical and weak affective brand evaluation inclination. We hypothesized that the degree of convergence would differ among the four groups and assumed, more concretely, that it would be highest in Group IV, moderate in Group I and Group III, and lowest in Group II. A series of experiments based on data gathered via questionnaires showed differences in the degrees of brand convergence among the four groups, which supports this study’s primary hypothesis. However, the observed magnitude of the relationships differed from this study’s supposition. The empirical results showed that the degrees of convergence for consumers in Group II and Group III were higher than those for consumers in Group I and Group IV.