Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

52 BRAND RELEVANCE
drive toward consistency that would explain why people deemphasize
differences and assume similarities when considering
members of categories. Thus, it may take extraordinary efforts to
get a customer to recategorize a brand.
Categorization can also affect attitudes. If a brand is believed
to be in a category or subcategory, even if objective analysis
would show it is not, than attitudes toward that category or subcategory
will dominate attitudes toward the object or brand. In
a classic experiment, Mita Sujan showed people who were not
camera experts two alternative cameras, one labeled a 35 mm
and the other a disposable 110 model. 2 Even when the specifi -
cations were reversed, the subjects still preferred the one with
the subcategory label they knew to be superior. Their analysis
was subcategory based. This fi nding is similar to research in psychology
that shows that initial attitudes toward people depend
in part on the category into which those people are classifi ed.
A person will be perceived differently if assigned to a stuck - up,
sophisticated category, for example, rather than an outdoorsy,
energetic category.
Overlapping Sets of Categories
Eleanor Rosch, the pioneer of categorization, asserted that
object categories are organized in a hierarchical fashion. 3 A
basic categorization, such as fast - food hamburger places, could
have a supercategory of fast - food restaurants and a subcategory
of fast - food hamburger places with good salads available.
The schema could involve multiple supercategories and
the category structure that prevails will affect the customer ’s
perception. Febreze, the P & G fabric refresher that removes
odors from fabrics, could be linked to laundry detergents because
it works on fabric and to air fresheners because it eliminates
odor. The relevance and credibility of the brand will
depend on which supercategory a consumer comes to believe
is applicable.