Historically, brand salience has been considered synonymous with the brand being
‘top of mind’ (mentioned first) when the product category is
used to cue retrieval from memory. In this article we argue that this
conceptualization (and associated measure) is too narrow. We show that there is
value in distinguishing salience from the concepts of awareness and attitude by
conceptualizing brand salience as the brand’s propensity to be noticed
or come to mind in buying situations. Brand salience reflects the quantity and
quality of the network of memory structures buyers’ hold about the
brands. This article offers guidelines to facilitate research on the role of
brand salience in brand choice and buyer behaviour that are an important
progression from the evaluation (attitude) focus of contemporary marketing theory.
Ailawadi, K.L.
,
Lehmann, D.R.
and
Scott A.N.
(2003)
‘Revenue Premium as an Outcome Measure of Brand Equity’
, Journal of Marketing67:
1-17
.
2.
Ajzen, I.
and
Fishbein, M.
(1980) Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social
Behaviour.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
.
3.
Alba, J.W.
and
Chattopadhyay, A.
(1985)
‘Effects of Context and Part-Category Cues on Recall of Competing Brands’
, Journal of Marketing Research22(August):
340-349
.
4.
Alba, J.W.
and
Chattopadhyay, A.
(1986)
‘Salience Effects in Brand Recall’
, Journal of Marketing Research23(November):
363-369
.
5.
Anderson, J.R.
and
Bower, G.H.
(1979) Human Associative Memory.
Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
.
6.
Axelrod, J.N.
(1968)
‘Attitude Measures That Predict Purchase’
, Journal of Advertising Research8(1):
3-17
.
7.
Barwise, T.P.
and
Ehrenberg, A.S.C.
(1985)
‘Consumer Beliefs and Brand Usage’
, Journal of the Market Research Society27(2):
81-93
.
8.
Bullmore, J.
(1999)
‘Advertising and Its Audience: A Game of Two Halves’
, International Journal of Advertising18(3):
275-290
.
9.
Castleberry, S.B.
,
Barnard, N.R.
,
Barwise, T.P.
,
Ehrenberg, A.S.C.
and
Dall’Olmo Riley, F.
(1994)
‘Individual Attitude Variations over Time’
, Journal of Marketing Management10(1-3):
153-162
.
10.
Chandon, P.
and
Wansink, B.
(2002)
‘When Are Stockpiled Products Consumed Faster? A
Convenience-Salience Framework of Postpurchase Consumption Incidence and Quantity’
, Journal of Marketing Research34(August):
321-335
.
11.
Clancy, K.J.
and
Garsen, R.
(1970)
‘Why Some Scales Predict Better’
, Journal of Advertising Research10(5):
33-38
.
12.
Cohen, L.
(1966)
‘The Level of Consciousness: A Dynamic Approach to the Recall Technique’
, Journal of Marketing Research3(May):
142-148
.
13.
Collins, A.M.
and
Loftus, E.F.
(1975)
‘A Spreading Activation Theory of Semantic Processing’
, Psychological Review82(6):
407-428
.
14.
Craik, F.I.M.
and
Tulving, E.
(1975)
‘Depth of Processing and the Retention of Words in Episodic Memory’
, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General104(3):
268-294
.
15.
Dall’Olmo Riley, F. (1995) ‘Changing Consumer Attitudes
in Steady Markets’, Unpublished thesis, Department of Philosophy,
University of London.
16.
Dall’Olmo Riley, F.
,
Ehrenberg, A.S.C.
,
Castleberry, S.B.
,
Barwise, T.P.
and
Barnard, N.R.
(1997)
‘The Variability of Attitudinal Repeat-Rates’
, International Journal of Research in Marketing14(5):
437-450
.
17.
Dall’Olmo Riley, F.
,
Rink, L.
and
Harris, P.
(1999)
‘Patterns of Attitudes and Behaviour in Fragmented Markets’
, Journal of Empirical Generalisations in Marketing Science4:
62-91
(Available at: http://www.EmpGens.com).
18.
Dickson, P.R.
and
Sawyer, A.G.
(1990)
‘The Price Knowledge and Search of Supermarket Shoppers’
, Journal of Marketing54(July):
42-53
.
19.
Ehrenberg, A.S.C.
,
Barnard, N.
and
Scriven, J.
(1997)
‘Differentiation or Salience’
, Journal of Advertising Research37(November-December):
7-14
.
20.
Ehrenberg, A.S.C.
,
Barnard, N.
,
Kennedy, R.
and
Bloom, H.
(2000a)
‘Brand Advertising as Creative Publicity’
, Journal of Advertising Research42(July/August):
7-18
.
21.
Ehrenberg, A.S.C.
,
Barnard, N.R.
and
Sharp, B.
(2000b)
‘Decision Models or Descriptive Models?’
, International Journal of Research in Marketing17(2-3):
147-158
.
22.
Ehrenberg, A.S.C.
,
Uncles, M.D.
and
Goodhardt, G.G.
(2004)
‘Understanding Brand Performance Measures: Using Dirichlet Benchmarks’
, Journal of Business Research (forthcoming).
23.
Fazio, R.H.
(1990) ‘A Practical Guide to the Use of Response
Latency in Social Psychological Research’, in
C. Hendrick
and
M.S. Clark
(eds) Research Methods in Personality and Social Psychology, pp.
75-97.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
.
24.
Fazio, R.H.
and
Williams, C.J.
(1986)
‘Attitude Accessibility as Moderator of the Attitude-Perception
and Attitude-Behavior Relations: An Investigation of the 1984 Presidential Election’
, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology51(3):
505-514
.
25.
Fishbein, M.
and
Ajzen, I.
(1975) Belief, Attitude, Intention and Behaviour: An
Introduction to Theory and Research.
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley
.
26.
Foxall, G.
(2002)
‘Marketing’s Attitude Problem- and How to Solve It’
, Journal of Consumer Behaviour11(1):
19-48
.
27.
Goodhardt, G.J.
,
Ehrenberg, A.S.C.
and
Chatfield, C.
(1984)
‘The Dirichlet: A Comprehensive Model of Buying Behaviour’
, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society147(5):
621-655
.
28.
Guido, G.
(1998)
‘The Dichotic Theory of Salience: A Framework for Assessing
Attention and Memory’
, European Advances in Consumer Research3(3):
114-119
.
29.
Harrison, A.A.
(1968)
‘Response Competition, Frequency, Exploratory, Behavior, and Liking’
, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology9(4):
363-368
.
30.
Hasher, L.
and
Zacks, R.T.
(1984)
‘Automatic Processing of Fundamental Information: The Case of
Frequency of Occurance’
, American Psychologist39(December):
1372-1388
.
31.
Hauser, J.R.
and
Wernerfelt, B.
(1990)
‘An Evaluation Cost Model of Consideration Sets’
, Journal of Consumer Research16(4):
393-408
.
Holden, S.J.S.
(1993) ‘Understanding Brand Awareness: Let Me
Give You a C(L)Ue’, in
L. McAlister
and
M. Rothschild
(eds) Advances in Consumer Research, pp.
383-388.
Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research
.
34.
Holden, S.J.S.
and
Lutz, R.J.
(1992) ‘Ask Not What the Brand Can Evoke; Ask
What Can Evoke the Brand?’, in
J. Sherry
and
B. Sternthal
(eds) Advances in Consumer Research,
pp.101-107.
Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research
.
35.
Howard, J.A.
and
Sheth, J.N.
(1969) The Theory of Buyer Behaviour.
New York: Wiley
.
36.
Johnson, R.D.
and
Levin, I.P.
(1985)
‘More Than Meets the Eye: The Effect of Missing Information on
Purchase Evaluations’
, Journal of Consumer Research12(September):
169-177
.
37.
Johnson, M.D.
and
Puto, C.P.
(1987)
‘A Review of Consumer Judgment and Choice’
, Review of Marketing:
236-292
.
38.
Keller, K.L.
(1987)
‘Memory Factors in Advertising: The Effect of Advertising
Retrieval Cues on Brand Evaluations’
, Journal of Consumer Research14(December):
316-333
.
39.
Keller, K.L.
(1993)
‘Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Managing Customer-Based Brand Equity’
, Journal of Marketing57(January):
1-22
.
40.
Keller, K.L.
(2003)
‘Brand Synthesis: The Multidimentionality of Brand Knowledge’
, Journal of Consumer Research29(March):
595-601
.
41.
Keller, K.L.
and
Davey, K.K.
(2001)
‘Building Customer-Based Brand Equity’
, paper presented at Advertising Research Foundation
workshop, New York.
42.
Kraus, S.J.
(1995)
‘Attitudes and the Prediction of Behavior: A Meta-Analysis of the
Empirical Literature’
, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin21(1):
58-75
.
43.
Krech, D.
and
Crutchfield, R.S.
(1948) Theory and Problems of Social Psychology.
New York: McGraw-Hill
.
44.
Laurent, G.
,
Kapferer, J.-N.
and
Roussel, F.
(1995)
‘The Underlying Structure of Brand Awareness Scores’
, Marketing Science14(3:2):
G170-G179
.
45.
Lynch, J.G., Jr
and
Srull, T.K.
(1982)
‘Memory and Attentional Factors in Consumer Choice: Concepts and
Research Methods’
, Journal of Consumer Research9(June):
18-37
.
46.
Macdonald, E.
and
Sharp, B.
(2000)
‘Brand Awareness Effects on Consumer Decision Making for a
Common, Repeat Purchase Product: A Replication’
, Journal of Business Research48(1):
5-15
.
47.
Macdonald, E.
and
Sharp, B.
(2003)
‘Management Perceptions of the Importance of Brand Awareness as
an Indicator of Advertising Effectiveness’
, Marketing Bulletin14: article 2.
48.
Miller, G.A.
(1956)
‘The Magic Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our
Capacity for Processing Information’
, The Psychological Review63(2):
81-97
.
49.
Miller, K.E.
and
Ginter, J.L.
(1979)
‘An Investigation of Situational Variation in Brand Choice
Behavior and Attitude’
, Journal of Marketing Research16(February):
111-123
.
50.
Miller, S.
and
Berry, L.
(1998)
‘Brand Salience Versus Brand Image: Two Theories of Advertising Effectiveness’
, Journal of Advertising Research38(5):
77-83
.
51.
Mills, P.
and
Nelson, E.H.
(1977)
‘Re-Interviewing in Attitude Surveys: An Experimental Study’
, paper presented at ESOMAR, London.
52.
Miniard, P.W.
,
Unnava, H.R.
and
Bhatla, S.
(1989) ‘Inhibiting Brand Name Recall: A Test of
the Salience Hypothesis’, in
T Srull
(ed.) Advances in Consumer Research, pp.
264-270.
Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research
.
53.
Mitra, A.
(1995)
‘Advertising and the Stability of Consideration Sets over
Multiple Purchase Occasions’
, International Journal of Research in Marketing12(1):
81-94
.
54.
Myers, J.H.
and
Alpert, M.I.
(1977) ‘Semantic Confusion in Attitude Research:
Salience Vs. Importance Vs. Determinance’, in
W. Perreault
(ed.) Advances in Consumer Research, pp.106-110.
55.
Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research
.
Narayana, C.L.
and
Markin, R.T.
(1975)
‘Consumer Behavior and Product Performance: An Alternative Conceptualization’
, Journal of Marketing39(October):
1-6
.
56.
Nedungadi, P.
(1990)
‘Recall and Consumer Consideration Sets: Influencing Choice
without Altering Brand Evaluations’
, Journal of Consumer Research17(December):
263-276
.
57.
Nedungadi, P.
and
Hutchinson, J.W.
(1985) ‘The Prototypicality of Brands:
Relationships with Brand Awareness, Preference and Usage’, in
E.C. Hirschman
and
M.B. Holbrook
(eds) Advances in Consumer Research, pp.
498-503.
Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research
.
58.
O’Brien, S.
and
Ford, R.
(1988)
‘Can We at Last Say Goodbye to Social Class’
, Journal of the Market Research Society30(3):
289-332
.
59.
Ratneshwar, S.
and
Shocker, A.D.
(1991)
‘Substitution in Use and the Role of Usage Context in Product
Category Structures’
, Journal of Marketing Research28(August):
281-295
.
60.
Romaniuk, J.
(2002)
‘Want to Make Your Brand Successful?’
, B&T Weekly11 October:
12
.
61.
Rossiter, J.R.
and
Percy, L.
(1987) Advertising and Promotion Management.
Singapore: McGraw-Hill
.
62.
Rossiter, J.R.
and
Percy, L.
(1997) Advertising Communications and Promotion
Management.
New York: McGraw-Hill
.
63.
Rungie, C.
and
Dall’Olmo Riley, F.
(1999) ‘Patterns of Repeat-Rates for Free Response
Attribute Questions’, working paper,
University of South Australia, Adelaide
.
64.
Schuman, H.
and
Presser, S.
(1981) Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys.
New York and London: Academic Press
.
65.
Sharp, A. (2002) ‘Searching for Boundary Conditions for an
Empirical Generalisation Concerning the Temporal Stability of Individual’s
Perceptual Responses’, Unpublished thesis, Department of Philosophy,
University of South Australia.
66.
Sharp, A.
and
Romaniuk, J.
(2002)
‘Brand to Attribute or Attribute to Brand - What is the Path to Stability’
, paper presented at European Marketing Academy
Conference, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
67.
Sharp, B.
,
Riebe, E.
,
Dawes, J.G.
and
Danenberg, N.
(2002)
‘A Marketing Economy of Scale - Big Brands Lose Less of Their
Customer Base Than Small Brands’
, Marketing Bulletin13: research note 1.
68.
Solomon, M.R.
(1992) Consumer Behaviour: Buying, Having, and Being.
Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon
.
69.
Tulving, E.
and
Pearlstone, Z.
(1966)
‘Availability Versus Accessibility of Information in Memory for Words’
, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior5(4):
381-391
.
70.
Wright, M.
and
Klÿn, B.
(1998)
‘Environmental Attitude - Behaviour Correlations in 21 Countries’
, Journal of Empirical Generalisations in Marketing Science3:
42-60
.
71.
Zajonc, R.B.
(1968)
‘Attitudinal Effects of Mere Exposure’
, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology - Monograph Supplement9(2:2):
1-27
.
