Evaluative Conditioning 2.0: Direct and Indirect Attachment of Affect to Brands

Evaluative conditioning – the increased liking towards a brand by repeated co-occurences with positive affective stimuli – can result from two processes. Affect can either become directly attached to the brand, or only indirectly, in which case intermediating memory links to the affective stimuli remain necessary. In three experiments we show that which process is active critically depends on the way brands and affective stimuli are presented together. Direct transfer of affect is more robust than indirect affect transfer. Also, only when affect transfer is direct, the brand becomes immune to the negative effects of affective stimuli (e.g., endorsers) losing their luster.

Citation:

Steven Sweldens, Stijn van Osselaer, and Chris Janiszewski (2009) ,"Evaluative Conditioning 2.0: Direct and Indirect Attachment of Affect to Brands", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 676-677.