The influence of product variety on brand perception and choice.

We propose that the variety a brand offers often serves as a quality cue and thus influences which brand consumers choose. Specifically, brands that offer a greater variety of options that appear compatible and require similar skills tend to be perceived as having greater category expertise or core competency in the category, which, in turn, enhances their perceived quality and purchase likelihood. Six studies support this proposition and demonstrate that compared to brands which offer fewer products, (a) brands which offer increased compatible variety are perceived as having higher quality; (b) this effect is mediated by product variety's impact on perceived expertise; (c) the higher perceived quality produces a greater choice share of the higher variety brand, even among consumers who select options that multiple brands offer and (d) product variety also impacts post-experience perceptions of taste. The findings suggest that in addition to directly affecting brand choice share through influencing the fit with consumer preferences, product line length can also indirectly affect brand choice through influencing perceived brand quality.

Key words: variety; consumer choice; quality cues; product line length History: This paper was received November 9, 2005, and was with the authors 4 months for 2 revisions; processed by Ravi Dhar.

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A basic assumption concerning the depth of a brand's product assortment is that offering consumers more options is superior to offering fewer options, for the simple reason that a greater variety of options can cater to a wider range of tastes (e.g., Lancaster 1990). This basic assumption has been challenged by recent research that has raised doubts about the wisdom of offering consumers many options to choose from (e.g., Iyengar and Lepper 2000, Schwartz 2004). For example, Iyengar and Lepper demonstrated that consumers who were presented with a set of 24 jams were significantly less likely to purchase one of these options compared to consumers presented with just 6 jams. Other researchers (e.g., Dhar 1996, 1997; Greenleaf and Lehmann 1995; Tversky and Shafir 1992) have shown that offering more options can generate decision conflict and preference uncertainty, leading to decision deferral.

Although these studies have provided important insights, we propose that the variety a brand offers also often serves as a quality cue and thus influences which brand consumers choose. In particular, we suggest that a brand offering greater variety of compatible options, that is, options that require similar skills, is perceived as having greater category expertise and, consequently, is more likely to be selected. Furthermore, because true quality is often ambiguous, an initial belief that brands offering more options are associated with higher quality will influence subsequent (perceived) experience with the chosen product. If these propositions are found to be true, it would suggest that when determining optimal product line length, marketers should consider both the direct and indirect ways in which additional variety can influence brand choice.

We begin with a discussion of prior research on the effect of the number of considered options on choice, followed by an analysis of the role of variety in brand evaluation and purchase. We then describe six studies that were designed to test our predictions and the conditions under which greater product variety is expected to enhance brand perceptions. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of this research.

The Impact of Brand Product Variety on Brand Evaluation and Choice