Two essays on consumer inferences about products and brands : a new perspective of inference-making processes

Abstract

When making a consumption decision, consumers do not merely rely on information presented, but also draw conclusions about some missing properties or characteristics (e.g., subjective experiences, attributes, features) related to the target products or brands. This cognitive process, defined as consumer inference, is an intriguing topic in consumer research. Despite the abundant findings in this area, there are still some research gaps regarding how consumers make inferences. First, prior work has focused on the role of implicit theory or the associations between cues and targets. However, it is necessary to explore whether inference making can occur through other route. Second, previous literature mostly researched consumers’ inferences of a singular dimension of a product or brand (e.g., one missing attribute or an overall evaluation), while ignoring the case when consumers make inferences of multiple dimensions of a product or brand. This thesis presents two essays to fill in these two research gaps. Drawing on the perspective of embodied cognition, the first essay explores whether consumers’ inference can also rely on the bodily reactions. Across five lab experiments with student samples from Hong Kong, I find that activating the importance of a certain value leads consumers to judge a product they encounter as heavier, but only when the marketing claim of the product signals that value (i.e., a value-signaling situation). I suggest that this phenomenon occurs because in a value-signaling situation, activating psychological importance triggers bodily reactions that typically occur when carrying a heavy load, leading consumers to judge the product as heavier. To shed light on this embodied simulation mechanism, I further show that this importance-to-weight effect in a value-signaling situation diminishes when consumers estimate product weight without carrying it, and when they are directed to attribute the bodily reactions as from some contextual factors (e.g., a room setting). In this case, my research findings demonstrate another way consumer inference may occur. Moreover, these findings contribute to the embodied cognition literature by resolving mixed findings regarding whether the activation of psychological importance affects individuals’ judgment of product weight. Building on the literature of social judgments and brand perceptions, the second essay explores how partnership with a well-established brand changes consumers’ brand perception of a new company. Across six lab and online experiments with student samples from Hong Kong and non-student samples from the United States, the second essay shows that co-branding with a well-established brand can lead consumers to infer higher perceived communion but lower perceived agency of a new company. Therefore, whether co-branding with an established brand hurts or benefits the new company is contingent on which dimension of the new company consumers focus on. Moreover, my research findings show that this proposed effect can even spill over to other products independently developed by the new company. This essay reconciles the inconsistency surrounding the positive and negative sides of co-branding with an established brand, which provides marketing implications in terms of how a new company can benefit from such brand collaboration.