ABSTRACT
One central tenet of branding is the importance of a consistent and cohesive brand image. A number of different factors affect brand homogeneity or consistency, including the different products associated with a brand, how they are made, and how they are branded. How does the perceived homogeneity or consistency of a brand’s products affect consumers’ actual experiences with those products? Building on entitativity theory from psychology, eight experiments reveal that consumers have more polarized judgments of actual product experiences when those products are perceived to belong to more homogeneous brands. Good products are judged better and bad products are judged worse for more homogeneous brands because the individual product inherits the brand-level quality of internal consistency. When a brand seems homogeneous (i.e., made up of homogeneous products), consumers are more likely to assume that each of the products is similarly made up of homogeneous ingredients or features. These biased perceptions of internal consistency polarize judgments of individual products and product experiences.
Robert Smith (Ohio State University), Kevin Lane Keller (Dartmouth)

Key Words: Branding, Homogeneity, Categorization, Entitativity, Product Judgment