An influence of product and brand name on positive affect: Implicit and explicit measures

Results of two studies indicated that tasting a familiar product designed to be refreshing (iced tea), without knowledge of the brand, induced positive affect, as did the gift-of-candy (not consumed) induction, used in many previous studies. As compared to controls, these participants showed more positive affect as reflected by 5 implicit measures and 2 explicit ratings of the refreshingness and pleasingness of the product. They performed significantly better on items from the Remote Associates Test (a test of creativity), generated more unusual and more pleasant first associates to a randomly selected letter of the alphabet, and to neutral words (the implicit measures). Results also indicated that similar affect did not arise when participants tasted a less liked, unfamiliar, brand of iced tea, without knowledge of the brand. However, when the brand name (a known brand) of that tea was presented with the less liked product sample, people who tasted that same tea showed positive affect responses on the implicit measures of affect and also explicitly rated the tea as more refreshing and pleasing than the unbranded version of the same tea.