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Blissful Insularity: When Brands are Judged in Isolation from Competitors

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  • Steven Posavac
  • Frank Kardes
  • David Sanbonmatsu
  • Gavan Fitzsimons

Abstract

The need to evaluate a single brand in isolation, without explicit comparisons to competitors, is ubiquitous in consumer judgment because competitors are often not readily apparent. Although consumers routinely make such judgments, in this paper we show that when a brand is judged in isolation, the judgment is often overly favorable. Moreover, we explore when and why this tendency occurs. Data from 259 participants across 3 experiments that considered very different product categories, and that were conducted with student and adult consumer samples, converge to show that; (1) isolated brand evaluations on average are characterized by a favorableness bias, (2) this bias results from consumers' selective processing of information about the focal brand, (3) favorableness bias is attenuated if context leads consumers to consider alternatives to a salient focal brand, and (4) the isolated brand judgments of experts are much better calibrated than are those of novices. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2005

Suggested Citation

  • Steven Posavac & Frank Kardes & David Sanbonmatsu & Gavan Fitzsimons, 2005. "Blissful Insularity: When Brands are Judged in Isolation from Competitors," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 87-97, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:16:y:2005:i:2:p:87-97
    DOI: 10.1007/s11002-005-1433-2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Meyvis, Tom & Janiszewski, Chris, 2002. "Consumers' Beliefs about Product Benefits: The Effect of Obviously Irrelevant Product Information," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 28(4), pages 618-635, March.
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    4. Menon, Geeta & Block, Lauren G & Ramanathan, Suresh, 2002. "We're at As Much Risk As We Are Led to Believe: Effects of Message Cues on Judgments of Health Risk," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 28(4), pages 533-549, March.
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    Cited by:

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    2. B. Saju & K. Harikrishnan & S. Joseph Jeya Anand, 2018. "Modeling brand immunity: the moderating role of generational cohort membership," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(2), pages 133-146, March.
    3. Kapoor, Harish & Heslop, Louise A., 2009. "Brand positivity and competitive effects on the evaluation of brand extensions," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 228-237.
    4. Posavac, Steven S. & Kardes, Frank R. & Josko Brakus, J., 2010. "Focus induced tunnel vision in managerial judgment and decision making: The peril and the antidote," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 113(2), pages 102-111, November.

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