Brand Relevance (Risk Reduction Function)

What it measures

A four-item scale measuring the degree to which a consumer uses brand name as a signal to reduce perceived purchase risk. Items capture risk-avoidance motivation for brand purchasing across quality assurance, disappointment prevention, and value-for-money judgments. Theorised as one of two determinants of brand relevance in a category, this subscale reflects the consumer's reliance on the brand as a dependability cue — a heuristic for reducing the uncertainty inherent in product quality evaluation.

Representative items

• I purchase mainly brand name products because that reduces the risk of aggravation later.
• I choose brand name products to avoid disappointments.

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.