Are Brands Re-Evaluated When Consumers Learn about Brand Origin Misperceptions? Outcomes, Processes, and Contingent Effects

This study develops and empirically tests an integrative model of what happens when consumers learn about brand origin misperceptions (BOM). The proposed model suggests that learning about the true origin of a previously misclassified brand influences consumers’ purchase intentions through cognitive and affective brand re-evaluations and that these effects are subject to certain boundary conditions. An empirical study conducted in the United States involving multiple product categories and brands provides empirical evidence for the hypothesized moderated mediation model. The findings indicate that consumers adjust both their cognitive and affective brand evaluations to true brand origin information, but for affective brand evaluations, this is only the case if the true origin has a worse country image than the initially assumed (incorrect) origin. In addition, while several consumer- and brand-related factors moderate the cognitive consequences of becoming aware of BOM, only consumers’ confidence in brand origin moderates its affective consequences.