Note Familiarity for Adjacency Effects

The shopper’s judgments of the quality and price of an item depend on what surrounds the item on the shelf. Researchers at University of North Carolina, University of Pennsylvania, and Duke University explored the results of consumers being exposed to multiple brands in situations where the selection of an item did not hold high importance for the consumer. Such a purchase might be laundry detergent rather than perfume, for example.
     In these situations, the person was most likely to select an item if the surrounding brands had different brand personalities from the item selected.
     The most commonly accepted classification of brand personality was devised by researchers at UCLA:

• Sincere. Down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, cheerful 
• Exciting. Daring, spirited, imaginative, up-to-date 
• Competent. Reliable, intelligent, successful 
• Sophisticated. Upper class, charming 
• Rugged. Outdoorsy, tough 

     Therefore, if it would fulfill both customers’ and your objectives to have a particular brand selected, aim to have the personality of that brand stand out from the personalities of the others. Surround the sincere, competent brand with exciting, sophisticated brands, for instance.
     The effectiveness of this does depend on shoppers being familiar enough with the brands to have formed personality associations. In another set of studies, the degree of familiarity played a part in pricing perceptions.
     Researchers at Singapore Management University and Korea University showed consumers pictures of car models. Then each participant was asked to estimate for one of the car models the relative expense. “How expensive is this car compared to the prices of all car models a person could buy?”

• When the model was previously completely unknown to the participant, the product adjacencies had an assimilation effect. That is, if the adjacent set consisted of expensive cars, the participant’s guess was that the previously unknown model was expensive. And if the surrounding set consisted of inexpensive cars, the participant’s estimate was a relatively low figure. 
• When the car model was familiar to the subject, but the participant considered himself a novice regarding cars, there was a contrast effect. That is, if the overall set was of expensive cars, the price estimate for the familiar car got lower. When the overall set was of inexpensive cars, the price estimate for the familiar car got higher. 
• Participants who were familiar with both cars in general and with the specific model shown to them were not influenced much by the price images of the adjacent cars. 

Click below for more: 
Practice Personality 
Set Price Anchors with Price Adjacencies 
Assume Higher Anchors for Right-Side Items