Competitive interference effects in memory for advertising: are familiar brands exempt?

Abstract

Advertising must work through consumers' memories, but messages for competing brands may disrupt recall of advertisement information. Previous findings have shown that the prior familiarity of many advertised brands increases the recall of advertisement claims and reduces their vulnerability to competitive interference. The present research examines familiarity and interference effects in brand name and advertisement claim recall. The results demonstrate that prior brand familiarity increases the memorability of both brand names and advertisement claims. Although high levels of prior familiarity removed competitive interference in advertisement claim recall, competitive interference was noted in brand name recall for even well-known brands. These findings suggest that competitive advertising is a media planning, research and advertisement creative issue for mature and new brands. Implications for advertising practice and research are developed.