How does a consumer make a purchase decision when comparing two similar products from separate, competing brands? We have to assume that the products were not released simultaneously, resulting in an early entrant and a follower brand. The early adopter has clear advantages because consumers more intensively process the attributes of the early entrant, which leads to more retrievable memory of the attributes and their association with the brand and product (Carpenter 1989). This also can lead to preference for the early entrant over any late entrants.

The late entrant, however, has a few advantages of their own. Late entrants have the opportunity to overcome the early entrant advantage by offering common attributes plus a unique, high-value attribute (it should be noted that offering an increase in a common attribute will typically not result in a late entrant advantage due to the strength of the memory association of common attributes to early entrants). Research shows that consumers develop a stronger association between the late entrant and its unique attribute than between the early entrant and its unique attribute. The association is only useful, however, if the unique attribute is of high value (Kruschke 2001).

This directly applies to the decorative outdoor lighting product category. For the purpose of the current topic, strongly variable aesthetic attributes should not be considered. Each attribute discussed could also be broken down and treated as a product category itself. At that level, however, brand and product considerations become extremely skewed toward an aesthetic attribute preference. The focus here is strictly on technology advantages of the attributes.

The category has several competing brands, but nearly every brand shares at least one common attribute: switch-control. Because switch control is a ubiquitous attribute across many lighting product categories, we can safely assume that no single brand has the early entrant advantage through this attribute.

Another relatively established attribute is daylight control. Referred to as “dusk-to-dawn” control in the industry, it uses the occurrence of dusk and dawn to control when the light is on or off. This attribute is certainly not a standard feature in the decorative outdoor lighting category, and it is the first step away from switch-controlled lighting. Because switch-control is not ‘owned’ by any particular brand, the dusk-to-dawn attribute is typically the first encounter a consumer has with a unique attribute (see above: retrievable memory association). In this case, the dusk-to-dawn attribute is the early entrant advantage.

The ‘late’ entrant then needs a value-added unique attribute to compete (again, separating aesthetic preference from consideration). This unique attribute is typically motion control, or motion-activated lighting. In most cases, this entails that the light remains off until the motion sensor detects movement. The fixture then remains on for a set time until movement is no longer detected. Based on the research presented above, the first experience a consumer has with motion-activated outdoor decorative lighting is that brand’s unique attribute association.

In order to be successful, the next late entrant brand requires a product that shares one of the previously established attributes as a common attribute, while providing the consumer with a value-added unique attribute. This attribute could be a new technology, or some combination of the attributes listed above. Regardless of the specific feature, this unique attribute will be the defining attribute of the product and its brand. The common attributes (dusk-to-dawn, motion activation, switch-control) of the late entrant will be compared to the early entrants where the latter have the strongest advantage.

The implications of asymmetric brand associations like these is that the early entrant’s advantage lies in the value of their common attributes, where the late entrant can only gain advantage by offering a unique attribute that eclipses the value of the common attributes (Cunha Jr. and Laran 2008).

Tags: association, asymmetric, attributes, brand, decorative, lighting, outdoor, unique, value

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 11:42 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.