Modeling the Role of Brand Alliances in the Assimilation of Product Evaluations

A model of context effects in product evaluations is tested in which brand alliances play a key role. This three-part study examined the extent to which evaluations of two restaurants are assimilated by virtue of their dual-branding strategic linkage. Key factors in the assimilation process are thought to be the ambiguity of the target restaurant's description and the degree of linkage between the target and the context as operationally defined by varying the shared features of the dual brands. Results support a model in which inferences about the qualities of an incompletely described target product arise from the assumed similarity between target and context, which is directly related to the degree of linkage between the two brands. These inferences include both specific attribute values and global evaluations of quality.