Toward a better understanding of negation and brand recall memory

Abstract

Consumers rely heavily on their memories during decision-making. Consequently, the ability of consumers to recall brand-related information plays a vital role in their purchasing decisions. In this context, our research focuses on how negation (vs. affirmation) impacts brand recall memory through two essays, using an experiment-based methodology. In Essay 1, seven experiments document that an entirely objective and extraneous negation-evoking (vs. affirmation-evoking) context is powerful enough to impair brand recall memory. In Essay 2, seven lab experiments and one field experiment document that signifying the absence of an attribute in a brand by negating that attribute, blocks accessibility of the brand in a later brand recall memory task. For both essays, convergent evidence of the proposed underlying mechanism leading to impaired brand recall memory is presented. It is theorized and shown that negation (vs. affirmation) triggers a behavioral mindset that induces a mental state making people regard any unrelated discrete consumer issue, as less important. That is, negation (vs. affirmation) induces lower (vs. higher) judgment of importance, respectively toward discrete consumer issues, in other unrelated domains (e.g., food, money). Consequently, the reduced judgment of importance triggered by the negation-induced behavioral mindset spills over to the brand preventing proper encoding of the brand, and thereby blocking subsequent accessibility of the brand from memory in a later brand recall memory task. Essay 1 demonstrates that, the findings are robust, and hold even when extraneous affirmation/negation is primed through cognitive embodiment, specifically nodding/shaking of the head. Furthermore, this effect also holds when people use concepts semantically related to affirmation and negation, rather than explicit affirmation and negation. Consequently the role of spreading semantic activation is explored. Additionally, Essay 2 explores the implications for any brand employing brand attribute-negation as a competitive advertising strategy, and also rules out an alternative explanation for the phenomenon of negation-induced forgetting. The effect of negation on impaired brand recall memory is eliminated when consumers are motivated to remember the brands. Taken together, the results have implications for working memory, negation-induced semantic activation, consumer judgments, context effects on brand placements, and brand communications.