본 연구는 암묵적 기억성과와 상표친숙도가 변화되는 추세를 비교함으로써 상표친숙도가 형성되는 과정을 탐색하였다. 암묵적 기억성과는 소비자의 지식구조를 반영하고 있고, 상표친숙도는 상표에 대한 지식수준에 의해 영향을 받는다는 선행연구결과를 바탕으로 본 연구는 이 두 가지 변수들이 서로 연관되어 있을 것으로 제안하였고, 이를 탐색하기 위해 두 가지 연구과제를 제시하였다. 보다 구체적으로 본 연구는 암묵적 기억성과로 나타나는 점화효과가 상표이름에 대한 인지수준에 따라 다르게 나타날 수 있는가와 암묵적 기억성과가 상표친숙도의 지표가 될 수 있는가를 실증적인 자료를 가지고 검증하고자 한다. 이를 위해 본 연구는 상표정보에 대한 노출횟수와 정보처리방식에 따라 암묵적 기억성과와 상표친숙도가 변화되는 추세와 관련된 자료를 수집하였다. 이러한 연구과제를 검증하기 위해 본 연구는 상표에 대한 정보를 처리하는 유형(의미적 및 비의미적 정보처리)과 정보에 노출되는 횟수(0회, 1회, 2회 및 3회)를 개체간 변수로, 상표에 대한 인지수준을 개체내 변수로 조작한 실험설계를 진행했다. 또한, 본 연구는 실험대상 상표를 선정하고 학습시간을 정하기 위한 두 가지의 사전조사를 진행하여 실험의 타당성을 높였다. 먼저 조작점검으로 정보처리유형별 학습효과를 비교해 본 결과 실험조작이 성공적으로 이루어졌음이 확인된 후, 연구과제에 대한 분석결과가 제시되었다. 첫째, 상표정보에 노출됨에 따라 나타나는 점화효과는 상표이름에 대한 인지수준에 따라 다르게 나타났다. 기존상표의 경우 상표정보에 대한 1회의 노출로도 점화효과가 나타날 수 있지만, 새로운 상표의 경우 3회 정도 수준의 반복노출이 있어야만 점화효과가 나타났다. 둘째, 암묵적 기억성과는 상표친숙도의 적절한 지표가 될 수 있는 가능성이 확인되었다. 인지도가 낮은 기존상표의 경우 암묵적 기억성과는 현재의 상표친숙도 수준을 나타내는 지표가 될 수 있고, 시장에 새로이 소개된 상표의 경우 암묵적 기억성과는 상표친숙도의 선행지표가 될 수 있음이 확인되었다. 마지막으로 본 연구는 연구결과를 요약하였고, 상표 관리자에게 유용한 관리적 시사점들을 논의하였다. 또한, 본 연구는 연구의 한계점을 언급하면서 이를 극복하면서도 초기의 상표친숙도 형성과정에 대한 기존 지식을 확장해 줄 수 있는 후속연구방향을 제안하였다.
Prior studies have reported that brand familiarity is one of the key factors to build brand equity. Brand familiarity influences various types of consumer behaviors such as decision making process, advertising information processing, price perception, brand evaluations and brand loyalty. Brand familiarity derives from the number of brand-related experiences that have been accumulated by the consumer, including exposure to advertisements for the brand, exposure to a brand in a store, and purchase and/or usage of brand and so on. Depending on the types of experiences, consumers may process the informations about the brand consciously or unconsciously. However, most studies about brand familiarity has analyzed the effects of consumers` conscious processing about brand informations and selected the well-known brands as stimuli. Therefore, we still do not know much about how brand familiarity is formed through consumers` unconscious information processing after the brand was introduced for the first time in the market. On the other hand, prior studies about implicit memory has analyzed the effects of unconscious information processing on consumers knowledge development and memory performance. Considering brand familiarity is closely related with knowledge structure about the brand, those studies provide foundations to understand brand familiarity formation process in the introductory stage in the market. Applying the theory of implicit memory to brand familiarity formation, we suggest that implicit memory performance can be an appropriate index for brand familiarity under certain contexts. Thus, we raised two important research issues in this study. First, we attempt to extend the knowledge about implicit memory by analyzing priming effects across information processing types. We recognized that prior studies have focused on priming effects under non-cognitive information processing condition. Second, we attempt to test the feasibility of implicit memory performance as a brand familiarity index by analyzing the changing trends of those variables with more exposures to brand informations. For this purpose, we developed experimental designs to measure implicit memory performance and brand familiarity by information processing types and exposure frequencies. The dependent variables for this experiment were implicit memory performance, brand familiarity and brand attitude. We manipulated the information processing types(cognitive vs. non-cognitive) and number of exposures to brand slogans(one exposure, two times exposures, three times exposures) as between-subjects factors and brand recognition level(existing brands with high recognition, existing brands with low recognition and new brands) as within-subjects factors. In addition, one control group with no exposures to brand slogans was included in the experimental design for comparisons. Two hundred twenty two students who took introductory marketing classes participated in this experiment and went through practice, learning to brand slogans, distracter test and performance measurement stages in order, depending on experimental conditions. We provided exercise samples to the participants to give some idea about tasks requested in the following learning period. In learning period, we showed target brand slogans in the screen and asked participants to read the slogans carefully or to count the number of consonants in the brand slogans, depending on the conditions of information processing types. Preliminary analyses were conducted to check if manipulations about information processing were successful. Ratios of correct answers at counting tests indicated low probability to process brand slogans semantically under non-cognitive information processing condition, and ratios of correct answers at brand name recognition tests showed higher memory performances under cognitive information processing conditions than under non-cognitive information processing condition, indicating the manipulations were successful. Hypotheses relating to the dependent variables were examined by ANOVAs followed by contrast between treatment groups. First, we found higher memory performances from exposures to the well known brands and no significant differences in the magnitude of memory performances by information processing types, confirming prior study results about implicit memory. On the other hand, we did not find higher memory performances from exposures to new brands under non-cognitive information conditions, indicating that exposure to brand information is not a sufficient condition for the priming effects. Second, we found similar change patterns of implicit memory performance and brand familiarity scores according to number of exposures. More specifically, participants showed better implicit memory performances and higher brand familiarities simultaneously with more exposures to lowly recognized brands. Brand familiarity significantly increased only after implicit memory performances became higher with enough exposures to the new brands. On the other hand, no consistent change patterns were found in case of well known existing brands. These results indicate that implicit memory performance can be an index of current brand familiarity level for the lowly recognized brands and an index of later brand familiarity level for the new brands that were introduced in the market. Lastly, we summarized the study results and discussed managerial implications for brand managers. We also indicated the limitations of this study and future research directions to overcome those limitations and extend the findings of this study.