Category structure, brand recall, and choice

Most marketing discussions of product-markets and competitive positioning implicitly assume that consumers are aware of product category structures. In the present research, we examine this assumption and show how the provision of structure can improve the quality of consumer decisions. The results of the first study suggest that provision of structure increases brand recall and decreases inhibitory effects of part-set cues. In a second study, we show that these positive effects on recall carry over to brand choice, in a memory-based decision. Consumers are able to make choices that are consistent with their preferences when they use an existing category structure to retrieve product information. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.