Know the name, forget the exposure: Brand familiarity versus memory of exposure context

International audienceThis research shows that a single auditory exposure to fictitious brand names may create the impression, one day later, that these brand names actually exist. It appears that the judgment that the brands are known is based on brand familiarity coupled with a failure to remember the exposure context. This demonstration, inspired by the false fame effect, is interpreted as the product of an implicit memory process. The result implies that measurement of explicit memory of an ad or other marketing communication may misrepresent (in this case, understate) the influence of that communication. However, the effect was obtained only when attention to the fictitious brand names was deliberate (as opposed to incidental). This suggests that there are lower attentional limits to the influence of one exposure to a brand name on creating familiarity without memory of the exposure context. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc