THE IMPORTANCE OF BRAND AWARENESS IN CONSUMERS’ BUYING DECISION AND PERCEIVED RISK ASSESSMENT

Abstract

Brand awareness, as one of the fundamental dimensions of brand equity, isoften considered to be a prerequisite of consumers’ buying decision, as itrepresents the main factor for including a brand in the consideration set.Brand awareness can also influence consumers’ perceived risk assessmentand their confidence in the purchase decision, due to familiarity with thebrand and its characteristics. On the other hand, brand awareness can bedepicted into at least two facets – unaided (brand recall) and aided (brandrecognition) – each of the two facets having its more or less effectiveinfluence on buying decision and perceived risk assessment. This paper triesto reveal, on one hand, the importance of unaided brand awareness when itcomes to consumers’ buying decision and, on the other hand, the importanceof aided brand awareness when assessing the perceived risk associated withthe purchase. The analysis is conducted in a comparative manner,considering the case of durable versus non-durable products, and with focuson urban Romanian consumers.

Keywords

• brand aided and unaided awareness
• brand choice
• perceived risk