Attitude Toward Brands in a Product Class

What it measures

A three-item scale measuring the overall favourability of a consumer's attitude toward the brands within a product category, rather than toward any individual brand. Items capture affective responses (liking, pleasantness, goodness) directed at the general set of brands available in the category. This category-level attitude measure is useful in contexts where the strength of branding at the category level — rather than specific brand loyalty — is the phenomenon of interest, such as cross-category comparisons or market structure research.

Response format

7-point (mixed semantic differential and Likert)

Scale items

• Most brands in this category: I don't really like / I like very much
• My feelings about most of the brands in the category in question are very: unpleasant / pleasant
• My feelings about most of the brands in the category in question are very: bad / good

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Single reliability estimate: α = .879 — Fischer, Völckner & Sattler (2010). VALIDITY: Scale was used alongside other measures to examine discriminant validity of a separate focal scale; the results supported adequate discriminant separation. NOTE: Items use a mixed format — item 1 is presented as a Likert-type preference statement, while items 2 and 3 are bipolar adjective pairs. Researchers should ensure consistent presentation in survey design. Data were collected across five countries through a professional research firm, and the English-language version shown here is likely one of multiple translated versions; cross-cultural equivalence has not been explicitly reported.

Citation

Fischer, Marc, Franziska Völckner, and Henrik Sattler (2010). How important are brands? A cross-category, cross-country study. Journal of Marketing Research, 47(5), 823–839.

Keywords