The genesis of brand awareness

Abstract

813 pupils distributed throughout grades 3-11, in grade schools and one high school chosen to be representative of economic groups, were administered a multiple-choice test to measure brand awareness for 80 names capable of being classified in 16 product categories. Brand names were used which were well known and representative of the products studied. The test was pre-tested and revised. Repeat reliability coefficients for 67 subjects tested three days apart were found to be .90, .83, and .92 for right, wrong, and "don't know" answers. Brand awareness was measured for products rather than for brand names; the criterion selected for brand awareness was 4 out of 5 brands correctly chosen for a given product. The results obtained indicated: (1) Awareness of brand names increased with age. (2) Awareness of brands for different products began and reached a maximum at different ages. (3) The lowest economic group was less familiar with brand names than were the top three groups. (4) Children with low IQ's were less familiar with brand names than children with higher IQ's. (5) With one exception, brand awareness was not related to number of siblings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)