Controlled categorisation processing in brand extension evaluation by Indo-European language speakers. An ERP study

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Marketing Psychology
• Psycholinguistics

Background:

• Brand extension evaluation is crucial for marketing success.
• Understanding the cognitive underpinnings of brand extension is essential.
• Event-related potentials (ERPs) offer insights into rapid cognitive processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate event-related potentials (ERPs) during brand extension evaluation.
• To examine the automaticity of categorization in brand extension for Indo-European language speakers.
• To compare ERPs in response and no-response conditions during brand evaluation tasks.

Main Methods:

• Sequential presentation of brand names and product names (beverages vs. clothing).
• Participants performed tasks in a response condition (RC) and a no-response condition (NRC).
• Electrophysiological data (ERPs) were recorded and analyzed, focusing on specific components (N270, P300, N400, P1, P2).

Main Results:

• In the RC, ERP components (N270, P300, N400) reflected incongruence between brand and product categories.
• In the NRC, only early ERP components (P1, P2) showed differences related to stimulus presentation.
• ERP patterns suggest that categorization during brand extension evaluation requires active cognitive engagement.

Conclusions:

• The categorization process in brand extension evaluation is not fully automatic for speakers of Indo-European languages.
• Cognitive effort is involved in processing incongruent brand extensions.
• ERPs provide valuable temporal information about the cognitive mechanisms underlying marketing-related judgments.