Brand Categorization and Hedonic Transfer: Negative Evaluations of a Beverage Transfer to a Novel Beverage from the Same Brand
Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: Many studies have shown that brand cues affect not only qualitative product evaluation, but also hedonic evaluation of food and beverage products.Although most research has focused on familiar brands associated with cultural or affective values (e.g., Coke, McDonalds, and Starbucks), only a few studies have examined the categorical aspects of brands that lead consumers to associate one product with other products from the same brand.In the present study, we hypothesized that if palatability evaluations of a beverage transfer to those of a novel beverage from the same brand, hedonic transfer will occur.We designed two experiments to test this hypothesis.In Experiment 1, each participant tasted and evaluated two beverages sequentially.The first was a context (hedonically negative) beverage and the second was a target (hedonically neutral) beverage, with or without information indicating these two beverages were from the same brand.In Experiment 2, each participant tasted and evaluated a context (hedonically neutral) beverage and target (hedonically negative) beverage, with or without the information.The results from Experiment 1 showed that participants who were informed that the two beverages were the same brand evaluated the target beverage as less palatable than did those without brand information; in other words, negative hedonic transfer occurred.In contrast, Experiment 2 did not show any indication of positive hedonic transfer.The results indicate that even if the brand does not have cultural value or familiarity, brand cues affect the palatability of a beverage, based on brand categorization and hedonic transfer.
Authors: Takuya Onuma, Jun Fuchimoto, Nobuyuki Sakai
Language: English
Subfield: Food Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1831079439