Mental representation of brands: a schema-based approach to consumers’ organization of market knowledge

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to review the notion of schemata in consumer behavior, placing particular emphasis on the conceptualization of brand knowledge, and illustrate how schema theory may act as a unifying conceptual framework to study what consumers know about products and brands. Extant research on how consumers conceptualize brands lacks a single, coherent theoretical framework. The literature is fragmented into different approaches that may prevent comparisons across studies and make it difficult to draw conclusive results. Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses the central tenets of schema theory and then presents the structure of schematic knowledge and the main typology of consumer schemata. It focuses on the brand schema, delineating its internal properties and drawing analogies with other approaches used to describe consumers’ mental representation of brands. Findings – Schema theory can provide a comprehensive framework to analyze how consumers perceive brand information. A cognitive schema specifies the parameters of knowledge content, discriminates between different types of information and indicates how various pieces of information relate to one another. Importantly, the internal structure of schemata remains stable across conceptual domains, allowing to investigate brand-specific knowledge in different contexts and in conjunction with superordinate and subordinate knowledge structures. Originality/value – This is the first systematic review of the notion of schemata in consumer behavior. It thoroughly describes how schema theory from psychology has been applied in marketing research to describe the organization of market knowledge and illustrates how it may function as an analytical tool.

How Product Category Shapes Preferences toward Global and Local Brands: A Schema Theory Perspective

“…At the basic level, a product category is usually organized around brands, while brands are usually organized around product attributes; thus brand schemata are constituents of the product category schema and product attributes are constituents of the brand schemata (Halkias 2015;Hoyer and MacInnis 2008). Product category schemata are organized in a hierarchical way.…”

“…Product category schemata are organized in a hierarchical way. Thus, the most dominant brands in the category shape more strongly the product category schema due to their category salience and/or prototypicality (Halkias 2015;Loken and Ward 1990). For example, category knowledge for smartphones is expected to organize firstly around brands (e.g.…”

“…a consumer's reference groups), and (c) ultimately converge to consensual norms in a way that generates collectively-shared expectations for the behavior of the self and that of others (Fiske 1982;Halkias 2015). Although schemata are defined as subjective knowledge structures which differ among individuals, research on schema theory suggests that schemata (a) are usually shared by more than one individuals, (b) are often unanimous within a given population (e.g.…”

Assessing the predictive validity of perceived globalness and country of origin of foreign brands in quality judgments among consumers in emerging markets

“…Country-of-origin images can be conceptualized as schemata (see Diamantopoulos, 2009 andHalkias, 2015 for further discussion on the construct of country image). Consumers have preconceived thoughts on products from the country and their attributes.…”

“…These theories have received increasing attention in recent research with respect to the conceptualizations of country image and brand globalness and localness as well. Specifically, Halkias (2015) and Davvetas and Diamantopoulos (2016) applied schema theory in international brand research. In addition, Davvetas and Halkias (2018) used categorization theory in consumer categorizations of products triggered by brand globalness and localness.…”