Alternative Approaches to Understanding the Determinants of Typicality

Data were collected for eight sets of product- and brand-level categories to better understand the determinants of typicality and the relationship between typicality and attitude for each category level. Measures of both feature similarity (family resemblance) and goal achievement (ideals, attribute structure) predicted typicality. However, the latter measures were more likely to moderate the typicality-attitude relationship. Frequency of instantiation was superior to a general familiarity mea-sure in predicting typicality. Attitudes and attribute structure better predicted typi-cality for subordinate (e.g., fast-food restaurants) than superordinate (e.g., restau-rants) categories. Implications for the nature and structure of product and brand categories are discussed. H OW do consumers decide whether a granola bar coated with chocolate yogurt is a type of candy or a health food? If they perceive it as a type of candy, then what type of candy will they compare it with and how typical of such candies will it seem? In general, what determines whether a product is perceived to be more or less a member of any particular category? Prior research suggests that peoples judgments of how typical an item is of a category may be influenced by such factors as the degree to which it shares attri-butes with other members, its frequency of instantia-tion, and its evaluation. However, there is by no means a consensus on what actually determines prod-uct typicality, either at the superordinate (product type) or subordinate (brand) category level. The fac-tors that determine typicality in product categories, their relative strength in superordinate and subordi-nate product categories, and explanations for why such relationships exist are important issues for con-sumer researchers to consider for at least two reasons. First, a variety of issues about typicality and its de-terminants have not been adequately explored in past studies. A few studies suggest that a relationship be-tween typicality and preference should exist in prod-