Patterns of Reinforcement and the Essential Value of Brands: II. Evaluation of a Model of Consumer Choice

We employ a behavioral-economic equation put forward by Hursh and Silberberg (2008) to explain human consumption behavior among substitutable food brands, applying a consumer-choice model—the behavioral perspective model (BPM; Foxall, 1990/2004, 2005). In this study, we apply the behavioral-economic equation to human economic consumption data. We attempt to find the variation pattern of essential value across brand groups differing in utilitarian reinforcement and informational reinforcement. The BPM denotes that consumers show less price responsiveness in closed settings and more price responsiveness in open settings. We also examine whether consumers are more sensitive to price changes in an open setting, where many alternatives are available, and vice versa. We find that (a) essential value varies across different brand groups within the same products; (b) brands with higher levels of utilitarian reinforcement showed larger essential value; (c) brands with higher levels of informational reinforcement showed larger essential value; and (d) the essential value of brands varies inversely with the degree of openness of consumer settings.