Goal-derived categories and the antecedents of across-category consideration

The concept of goal-derived categories are employed to examine when and why consideration sets might include alternatives from different nominal product categories. An experiment in stimulus-based choice was conducted wherein subjects were given a large, heterogeneous set of alternatives and asked t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of consumer research Vol. 23; no. 3; p. 240
Main Authors Ratneshwar, S, Pechmann, Cornelia, Shocker, Allan D
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Oxford University Press 01.12.1996
Subjects
Consumer behavior
Effects
Objectives
Product choice
Statistical analysis
Studies
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Summary:The concept of goal-derived categories are employed to examine when and why consideration sets might include alternatives from different nominal product categories. An experiment in stimulus-based choice was conducted wherein subjects were given a large, heterogeneous set of alternatives and asked to form consideration sets. A key finding was that across-category consideration was high when there was either goal conflict (i.e., a single product category could not deliver on all salient goals) or goal ambiguity (i.e., a lack of salient goals). However, goal-conflict and goal-ambiguity subjects engaged in across-category consideration for different reasons. Goal-conflict subjects formed mixed consideration sets in the service of salient goals and postponed conflict resolution to the final choice stage. Goal-ambiguity subjects, on the other hand, considered alternatives from different categories because they were influenced by extrinsic cues (e.g., leading brand names). Implications are discussed for consideration set formation and product-market structure.
ISSN:0093-5301
1537-5277
DOI:10.1086/209480