ABSTRACT
Risk is often an important factor in shaping the types of relationship consumers look for with brands. Whenever the consumer is not easily able to evaluate the performance of the product up front, or when product failure could have serious consequences – material or otherwise – the consumer has to make a risk assessment. The role of the brand in this situation should be to relieve that anxiety and provide reassurance. In both of the desirable relationships, consumers emphasized how important it was for the brand to be ethical and well-intentioned. In the securities world, the less risk-tolerant consumer is a conservative investor who looks for a brand that appears to share this conservatism. In the 1980s Prudential-Bache, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Prudential Insurance Company of America, was packaging small investors' investments to create partnerships which bought oil wells, real estate, and aircraft.
