Customer Perceptions among Product and Brand Alternatives: Analysis and Consolidation of Models of Brand Choice Behavior

Understanding how consumers evaluate product and brand alternatives and perceive their quality should be of paramount importance to marketing, product development and quality management. Several brand choice behavior models have been researched in literature, from utility maximization models in traditional economics, to attributebased sequential elimination or selection models and heuristics in behavioral economics, to two-stage models combining some of these principles. Previous attempts to provide an overview of these models have been incomplete. We provide an analysis and exhaustive, up to date, consolidation of brand choice behavior models, and conclude selected shortcomings and opportunities for improvement in current research literature. This consolidation is a one-stop shop for consumer behavior researchers, and marketing, product development and quality management professionals, who want to understand the different models, processes or steps adopted by consumers in evaluating brand and product alternatives and making their choice.