Price, brand name, and product composition characteristics as determinants of perceived quality.

Abstract

While price and brand image have both been found to be determiners of product quality perception, the potency of these two cues has never been directly compared. Moreover, those studies which found price to be a determiner of perceived quality manipulated only price information, without permitting actual composition characteristics to vary across brands. A 2X2X2X3 factorial experiment, using 136 adult male beer drinkers, and four test beers, examined the effects of price, composition differences, and brand image cues on the perception of beer quality. Price was found to serve an indicant of product quality when it was the only cue available but not when embedded in a multicue setting. Brand image had a stronger effect upon quality perception, particularly for brands with strong positive images. In addition, it was found that neither price nor brand name had significant effects on perceived quality except when product composition characteristics were allowed to vary between product samples. Last, in contrast to earlier findings, the data suggest that beer drinkers possess at least some ability to distinguish among different brands of beer on the basis of composition (i.e., taste and aroma) cues alone. As the literature on perceived risk (cf. Cox, 1967) clearly demonstrates, consumer purchase decisions are frequently made under conditions of varying uncertainty regarding the product and its attributes. To reduce such uncertainty, consumers seek and process information regarding the product and generally attempt to form accurate impressions of it. Given that products may be viewed as an array of cues, the consumer's task in evaluating a product is to use cues from the array the basis for making judgments about the product (Cox, 1962, p. 413). One impression usually of considerable importance to the consumer is the product's (or brand's) quality. Cues relevant to forming impressions of quality include (a) price; (b) product composition characteristics such taste, aroma, color, style, and size; (c) packaging; (d) brand, manufacturer (i.e., corporate), and store image; (e) advertising; (f) word-ofmouth reports; and (g) past purchase experi