ABSTRACT
Brand managers commonly think about how brands compete within product categories. They strive to build the dominant brand in categories like “frozen foods,” “personal computers,” and “airlines.” Marketing academics have reflected this notion of categories in writing about competitive positioning (Carpenter & Nakamoto, 1989; Sujan & Bettman, 1989) as well as consumer perceptions of categories (Loken & Ward, 1987, 1990; Nedungadi & Hutchinson, 1985; Ratneshwar & Shocker, 1991; Ward & Loken, 1986). In this context, an important issue is which brand (such as Hershey's) is most typical of, or dominant in, a particular product category (such as “candy bars”). However, it is useful to think of brands and categories in another way, as well. A brand can represent a category that consists of the products it makes. In this new context, a brand name such as Hershey's is the label for a category of products that are sold under that name. The category “Hershey's products” includes chocolate bars, candy kisses, and chocolate milk.
