Brand Awareness
Whether a name and look are known to a buyer. In a controlled experiment on a common, repeat-purchase product, Wayne Hoyer and Steven Brown found that brand awareness acted as a dominant heuristic in consumer choice (Journal of Consumer Research, 1990). In that experiment, participants without awareness of a brand sampled more brands and more often chose the higher-quality ones; the authors suggest building awareness is a viable advertising strategy.
What it is
Whether a name and look are known to a buyer. In a controlled experiment on a common, repeat-purchase product, Wayne Hoyer and Steven Brown found that brand awareness acted as a dominant heuristic in consumer choice (Journal of Consumer Research, 1990).
It sits close to Brand Identity, Brand Image and Positioning and Mere Exposure Effect in the wider body of research, and is best taken as one idea among several rather than a stand-alone rule.
In effect
In that experiment, participants without awareness of a brand sampled more brands and more often chose the higher-quality ones; the authors suggest building awareness is a viable advertising strategy.
What it does not say
The finding comes from the studies named on this page and describes a pattern in those samples. It does not show that the pattern holds for every person, product or market, and it does not tell a brand what to do on its own. It is one input to a decision, to be weighed with other evidence.
Sources
- Hoyer and Brown, Journal of Consumer Research 17(2), 1990. https://doi.org/10.1086/208544