The Role of Price/Quality Tiers on the Cluster Effect in Brand Choice

This paper examines the moderating role of price and quality tiers on the cluster effect, which postulates that the probability of choosing a brand from a cluster increases with the size of the cluster. Results from two experiments (four product categories in each experiment) show that the cluster effect operates for both high-quality and low-quality brands and that high-quality brands benefit more than low-quality brands.