Abstract
The Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm was used to investigate consumer confusion between original and look-alike brands. The results showed that look-alike brands were falsely recognized at a higher rate than original brands and that modality (audio, visual, and audiovisual) had no effect on false recognition rates. The results suggest that the DRM paradigm provides a useful tool for analyzing consumer confusion, brand substitution, and trademark infringement.
Highlights
Marketing analysis shows that only about 3 % of products in the marketplace do not need packaging (Sudol et al 2000)
The occurrence of false memory effects for brands was investigated within the procedure similar to the DRM paradigm and demonstrated two phenomena: first, the asymmetry in recognizing brands was obtained, i.e., look-alike products were falsely recognized at a higher rate than the original products
The modality did not affect false memory, showing similar pattern in three different modalities of encoding and retrieving brand information: pictorial, auditory, and double modality. This experiment adopted the DRM paradigm for generating reliable false memory errors for brands; the use of five associated brand names and their packaging showed practical applications for the DRM paradigm that has been of interest to investigators since the beginning of the 1990s
Summary
Marketing analysis shows that only about 3 % of products in the marketplace do not need packaging (Sudol et al 2000). Companies consciously try to imitate market leaders using similar colors, shapes, style of lettering, or design of logo to mislead the consumer that such a product has the same quality as the original brand (AIM 2004; for a review see Zaichowsky 2006). The use of look-alikes raises objections from companies that own the original products and who had invested money to create distinguishable packaging that lets them achieve a leading market position as well as from consumers who may be misled and unwillingly buy the wrong product. The last two decades have given rise to many lawsuits initiated by the manufacturers of branded goods who claim that the look-alikes confuse customers and, in consequence, make them purchase the wrong products (Balabanis and Craven 1997).
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