Fount It! Brand Familiarity Improves Visual Search Performance
(R2020-85022)

AUTHORS

Ursa Bernardic, University of Geneva; Benjamin Scheibehenne, University of Geneva

KEYWORDS

brand familiarity; logo design; visual search task

ABSTRACT

One of the key elements of brand equity models is brand familiarity and a well-designed logo's. Because past research on the impact of brand familiarity and design has mainly advanced in parallel, little is known about their interaction. Our research helps fill this gap, by examining when and how logo familiarity can affect consumer search and visual attention. Evidence from 3 preregistered experiments using a search task shows that target familiarity, but not distractors familiarity, improves visual search efficiency, even when controlling for logo-design effects. These findings add to theories of visual attention and offer actionable insights to marketing practitioners.