Patterns of Attitudes and Behaviour in Fragmented Markets

Francesca Dall'Olmo Riley, Lucy Rink, Patricia Harris (1999)


Abstract

The strong correlation between consumer attitudes towards brands and the brands’ market shares or usage levels is well known. This attitudinal evidence, however, mainly relates to sectors where there are large, well established brands. This raises the question of what happens in fragmented markets where there is a proliferation of small, mostly not very well known brands. This paper investigates possible sub-patterns in a fragmented market such as wine. Neither the peculiarities of fragmented markets nor the type of measures employed seem to affect the occurrence of the known patterns. The interpretation of the findings and the managerial implications are discussed. Specifically, we suggest that knowledge of these patterns can be useful to managers for the interpretation of attitudinal statements concerning their brands compared with the competition. The results also imply that strategies aimed at raising attitudinal scores may be pointless, unless trial and usage are increased first.

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