The Reduced and Enhanced Impact of Shared Features on Individual Brand Evaluations

In 3 studies, consumers received information about products that had either positive or negativefeatures in common. When they evaluated the products shortly afterward, the common featureshad little influence on their evaluations, and this was true regardless of whether they had made apreference rating, a similarity rating, or no rating at all before reporting these evaluations. In allcases, consumers apparently used one of the brands spontaneously as a standard of comparisonfor the other and, in doing so, discounted their common features. When their evaluation was de-layed, however, shared features had greater impact. Two factors appear to be operating in thelatter conditions. First, the alternative brand is less accessible and, therefore, is less likely to beused as a standard of comparison. Second, shared features are easier to recall than unique fea-tures, so they have a disproportional influence for this reason.