Mental representation of brands: a schema-based approach to consumers’ organization of market knowledge

Emerald - Tập 24 Số 5 - Trang 438-448 - 2015
Georgios Halkias1
1Department of International Marketing, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Tóm tắt

Purpose – This paper aims to review the notion of schemata in consumer behavior, placing particular emphasis on the conceptualization of brand knowledge, and illustrate how schema theory may act as a unifying conceptual framework to study what consumers know about products and brands. Extant research on how consumers conceptualize brands lacks a single, coherent theoretical framework. The literature is fragmented into different approaches that may prevent comparisons across studies and make it difficult to draw conclusive results. Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses the central tenets of schema theory and then presents the structure of schematic knowledge and the main typology of consumer schemata. It focuses on the brand schema, delineating its internal properties and drawing analogies with other approaches used to describe consumers’ mental representation of brands. Findings – Schema theory can provide a comprehensive framework to analyze how consumers perceive brand information. A cognitive schema specifies the parameters of knowledge content, discriminates between different types of information and indicates how various pieces of information relate to one another. Importantly, the internal structure of schemata remains stable across conceptual domains, allowing to investigate brand-specific knowledge in different contexts and in conjunction with superordinate and subordinate knowledge structures. Originality/value – This is the first systematic review of the notion of schemata in consumer behavior. It thoroughly describes how schema theory from psychology has been applied in marketing research to describe the organization of market knowledge and illustrates how it may function as an analytical tool.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Aaker, D.A. (1991), Managing Brand Equity: Capitalizing on the Value of a Brand Name , The Free Press, New York, NY.

Aaker, D.A. and Keller, K.L. (1990), “Consumer evaluations of brand extensions”, Journal of Marketing , Vol. 54 No. 1, pp. 27-41.

Aaker, J.L. (1997), “Dimensions of brand personality”, Journal of Marketing Research , Vol. 34 No. 3, pp. 347-356.

Alden, D.L. , Mukherjee, A. and Hoyer, W.D. (2000), “The effects of incongruity, surprise and positive moderators on perceived humor in television advertising”, Journal of Advertising , Vol. 29 No. 2, pp. 1-15.

Avis, M. , Aitken, R. and Ferguson, S. (2012), “Brand relationship and personality theory: metaphor or consumer perceptual reality?”, Marketing Theory , Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 311-331.

Batra, R. , Lenk, P. and Wedel, M. (2010), “Brand extension strategy planning: empirical estimation of brand-category personality fit and a typicality”, Journal of Marketing Research , Vol. 47 No. 2, pp. 335-347.

Bellman, S. and Rossiter, J.R. (2004), “The website schema”, Journal of Interactive Advertising , Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 38-48.

Blanchard, S.J. , DeSarbo, W.S. , Atalay, A.S. and Harmancioglu, N. (2012), “Identifying consumer heterogeneity in unobserved categories”, Marketing Letters , Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 177-194.

Boush, D.M. and Loken, B. (1991), “A process -tracing study of brand extension evaluation”, Journal of Marketing Research , Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 16-28.

Brannon, L.A. and Brock, T.C. (2006), “Measuring the prototypicality of product categories and exemplars: implications of schema correspondence theory”, in Kahle, L.R. and Kim, C.H. (Eds), Creating Images and the Psychology of Marketing Communication , Lawrence Erlbraum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, pp. 31-47.

Buchanan, L. , Simmons, C.J. and Bickart, B.A. (1999), “Brand equity dilution: retailer display and context brand effects”, Journal of Marketing Research , Vol. 36 No. 3, pp. 345-355.

Callister, M.A. and Stern, L.A. (2008), “Inspecting the unexpected: schema and the processing of visual deviations”, in McQuarrie, E.F. and Phillips, B.J. (Eds), Go Figure! New Directions in Advertising Rhetoric , M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, New York, NY, pp. 137-156.

Crocker, J. (1984), “A schematic approach to changing consumers’ beliefs”, Advances in Consumer Research , Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 472-477.

Crockett, W.H. (1988), “Schemas, affect, and communication”, in Donohew, L. , Sypher, H.E. and Higgins, E.T. (Eds), Communication, Social Cognition, and Affect , Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 33-52.

Dahlén, M. and Lange, F. (2004), “To challenge or not to challenge: ad-brand incongruency and brand familiarity”, Journal of Marketing Theory & Practice , Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 20-35.

Dahlén, M. , Lange, F. , Sjödin, H. and Törn, F. (2005), “Effects of ad-brand incongruency”, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising , Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 1-12.

Davcik, N.S. , Da Silva, R.V. and Hair, J.F. (2015), “Towards a unified theory of brand equity: conceptualizations, taxonomy and avenues for future research”, Journal of Product and Brand Management , Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 3-17.

Dimofte, C.V. , Forehand, M.R. and Deshpandé, R. (2004), “Ad schema incongruity as elicitor of ethnic self-awareness and differential advertising response”, Journal of Advertising , Vol. 32 No. 4, pp. 7-17.

Eisend, M. and Stokburger-Sauer, N.E. (2013), “Brand personality: a meta-analytic review of antecedents and consequences”, Marketing Letters , Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 205-216.

Fiske, S.T. (1982), “Schema-triggered affect: applications to social perception”, in Clark, M.S. and Fiske, S.T. (Eds), Affect and Cognition: The Seventeenth Annual Carnegie Symposium on Cognition , Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 55-78.

Fiske, S.T. and Pavelchak, M.A. (1986), “Category-based versus piecemeal-based affective responses: developments in schema-triggered affect”, in Sorrentino, R.M. and Higgins, E.T. (Eds), Handbook of Motivation and Cognition: Foundations of Social Behavior , Guilford Press, New York, NY, pp. 167-203.

Fiske, S.T. and Taylor, S.E. (1991), Social Cognition , McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.

Forceville, C. (1996), Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising , Routledge, London.

Fournier, S. (1998), “Consumers and their brands: developing relationship theory in consumer research”, Journal of Consumer Research , Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 343-373.

Goodstein, R.C. (1993), “Category-based applications and extensions in advertising: motivating more extensive ad processing”, Journal of Consumer Research , Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 87-99.

Guido, G. (2001), The Salience of Marketing Stimuli: An Incongruity-Salience Hypothesis on Consumer Awareness , Kluwer Academic Publishing, Springer, Massachussets.

Halkias, G. and Kokkinaki, F. (2013), “Increasing advertising effectiveness through incongruity-based tactics: the moderating role of consumer involvement”, Journal of Marketing Communications , Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 182-197.

Halkias, G. and Kokkinaki, F. (2014), “The degree of ad – brand incongruity and the distinction between schema-driven and stimulus-driven attitudes”, Journal of Advertising , Vol. 43 No. 4, pp. 397-409.

Heit, E. (2006), “Schemas in psychology”, in Nadel, L. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science , John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, NJ.

Hoyer, W.D. and MacInnis, D.J. (2008), Consumer Behavior , Cengage Learning, Mason, OH.

Jaworski, B.J. (2011), “On managerial relevance”, Journal of Marketing , Vol. 75 No. 4, pp. 211-224.

Keller, K.L. (1993), “Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity”, Journal of Marketing , Vol. 57 No. 1, pp. 1-22.

Keller, K.L. (2003), Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity , Pearson Education, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Keller, K.L. (2009), “Building strong brands in a modern marketing communications environment”, Journal of Marketing Communications , Vol. 15 Nos 2/3, pp. 139-155.

Kim, W.S. , Boush, D.M. , Marquardt, A. and Kahle, L.R. (2006), “Values, brands, and image”, in Kahle, L.R. and Kim, C.H. (Eds), Creating Images and the Psychology of Marketing Communication , Lawrence Erlbraum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, pp. 279-291.

Lajos, J. , Katona, Z. , Chattopadhyay, A. and Sarvary, M. (2009), “Category activation model: a spreading activation network model of subcategory positioning when categorization uncertainty is high”, Journal of Consumer Research , Vol. 31 No. 6, pp. 122-136.

Lange, F. and Dahlén, M. (2003), “Let’s be strange: brand familiarity and ad-brand incongruency”, Journal of Product and Brand Management , Vol. 12 No. 7, pp. 449-461.

Lee, E.J. and Schumann, D. (2004), “Explaining the special case of incongruity in advertising: combining classic theoretical approaches”, Marketing Theory , Vol. 4 Nos 1/2, pp. 59-90.

Leo Burnett (1990), Marlboro Brand Image Research , Philip Morris International, New York, NY, 15 March.

Low, G.S. and Lamb, C.W.Jr (2000), “The measurement and dimensionality of brand associations”, Journal of Product and Brand Management , Vol. 9 No. 6, pp. 350-370.

McVee, M.B. , Dunsmore, K. and Gavelek, J.R. (2005), “Schema theory revisited”, Review of Educational Research , Vol. 75 No. 4, pp. 531-566.

Marshall, S.P. (1995), Schemas In Problem Solving , Cambridge University Press, New York, NY.

Meyers-Levy, J. and Tybout, A.M. (1989), “Schema congruity as a basis for product evaluation”, Journal of Consumer Research , Vol. 16 No. 11, pp. 39-54.

Park, C.W. , Jaworski, B.J. and Maclnnis, D.J. (1986), “Strategic brand concept-image management”, Journal of Consumer Research , Vol. 50 No. 4, pp. 135-145.

Park, C.W. , Milberg, S. and Lawson, R. (1991), “Evaluation of brand extensions: the role of product feature similarity and brand concept consistency”, Journal of Consumer Research , Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 185-193.

Puligadda, S. , Ross, W.T. and Grewal, R. (2012), “Individual differences in brand schematicity”, Journal of Marketing Research , Vol. 49 No. 1, pp. 115-130.

Romaniuk, J. and Ehrenberg, A. (2012), “Do brands lack personality?”, Marketing Theory , Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 333-339.

Rosch, E. (1978), “Principles of categorization”, in Rosch, E. and Lloyd, B.B. (Eds), Cognition and Categorization , Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hiilsdale, NJ.

Rossiter, J.R. , Percy, L. and Donovan, R.J. (1991), “A better advertising planning grid”, Journal of Advertising Research , Vol. 31 No. 5, pp. 11-21.

Rumelhart, D.E. and Ortony, A. (1977), “The representation of knowledge in memory”, in Anderson, R.C. , Spiro, R.J. and Montague, W.E. (Eds), Schooling and the Acquisition of Knowledge , Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 99-135.

Schützwohl, A. (1998), “Surprise and schema strength”, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition , Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 1182-1199.

Sjödin, H. and Törn, F. (2006), “When communication challenges brand associations: a framework for understanding consumer responses to brand image incongruity”, Journal of Consumer Behaviour , Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 32-42.

Stayman, D.M. , Alden, D.L. and Smith, K.H. (1992), “Some effects of schematic processing on consumer expectations and disconfirmation judgments”, Journal of Consumer Research , Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 240-255.

Stoltman, J. (1991), “Advertising effectiveness: the role of advertising schemas”, in Childers, T.L. and MacKenzie, S.B. (Eds), Marketing Theory and Applications , American Marketing Association, Chicago, IL, pp. 317-318.

Su, J. and Tong, X. (2015), “Brand personality and brand equity: evidence from the sportswear industry”, Journal of Product and Brand Management , Vol. 24 No. 2, available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-01-2014-0482

Sujan, M. (1985), “Consumer knowledge: effects on evaluation strategies mediating consumer judgments”, Journal of Consumer Research , Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 31-46.

Sujan, M. and Bettman, J.R. (1989), “The effects of brand positioning strategies on consumers’ brand and category perceptions: some insights from schema research”, Journal of Marketing Research , Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 454-467.

Sujan, M. , Bettman, J.R. and Sujan, H. (1986), “Effects of consumer expectations on information processing in selling encounters”, Journal of Marketing Research , Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 346-353.

Sujan, M. and Dekleva, C. (1987), “Product categorization and inference making: some implications for comparative advertising”, Journal of Consumer Research , Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 372-378.

UPS (2002), “UPS launches biggest, ‘brownest’ ad campaign ever”, UPS Public Relations: Press Releases , 7 February, available at: http://goo.gl/NISH6h (accessed 20 February 2015).

Veloutsou, C. , Christodoulides, G. and de Chernatony, L. (2013), “A taxonomy of measures for consumer-based brand equity: drawing on the views of managers in Europe”, Journal of Product & Brand Management , Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 238-248.

Wansink, B. and Ray, M.L. (1996), “Advertising strategies to increase usage frequency”, Journal of Marketing , Vol. 60 No. 1, pp. 31-46.

Yoon, H.J. (2012), “Understanding schema incongruity as a process in advertising: review and future recommendations”, Journal of Marketing Communications , Vol. 19 No. 5, pp. 360-376.

MacInnis, D.J. , Moorman, C. and Jaworski, B.J. (1991), “Enhancing and measuring consumers’ motivation, opportunity, and ability to process brand information from ads”, Journal of Marketing , Vol. 55 No. 4, pp. 32-53.

Törn, F. and Dahlén, M. (2008), “Effects of brand incongruent advertising in competitive settings”, European Advances in Consumer Research , Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 234-239.

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Emerald

Tập 24 Số 5

438-448

Thông tin tác giả