Brand Names and Transitive Implicit Associations

Consumer research addressing information processing occurring at implicit levels has been aided by new methods for assessing the strength of specific implicit associations. One such method, the IAT, is used to test the possibility of an implicit association transitivity property produced trough conceptual (Study 1) and perceptual (Study 2) fluency. In Study 1, the tested name represents both the brand name of a “party”-related product and the mascot of a major university. After incidental exposure to the brand name and logo, subsequent implicit associations of the university with the “party” concept emerged among subjects familiar with the university and product category. In Study 2, a brand name was chosen along with perceptually similar concepts that could trigger different valence connotations depending on context. After incidental exposure to these concepts under different priming valence, subsequent implicit associations of the brand name and the valence suggested by prime (“good” or “bad”) emerged among subjects familiar with the brand.

Citation:

Claudiu Dimofte, Richard Yalch, and Anthony Greenwald (2005) ,"Brand Names and Transitive Implicit Associations", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 7, eds. Karin M. Ekstrom and Helene Brembeck, Goteborg, Sweden : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 225-226.