Competitive Interference
The weakening of memory for one brand's advertising by exposure to advertising for similar products. Raymond Burke and Thomas Srull found that repetition improved recall only when few similar products competed (Journal of Consumer Research, 1988); Robert Kent and Chris Allen found familiar brands suffered less interference (Journal of Marketing, 1994). Used to explain why a brand repeating one coherent set of associations is easier for buyers to hold.
What it is
The weakening of memory for one brand's advertising by exposure to advertising for similar products. Raymond Burke and Thomas Srull found that repetition improved recall only when few similar products competed (Journal of Consumer Research, 1988); Robert Kent and Chris Allen found familiar brands suffered less interference (Journal of Marketing, 1994).
It sits close to Brand Strategy, Mental Availability and Interference in the wider body of research, and is best taken as one idea among several rather than a stand-alone rule.
In effect
Used to explain why a brand repeating one coherent set of associations is easier for buyers to hold.
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
- Burke and Srull, Journal of Consumer Research 15(1), 1988. https://doi.org/10.1086/209145
- Kent and Allen, Journal of Marketing 58(3), 1994. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299405800307