2. THEORIES
The Mere Exposure Effect (Babin & Harris, 2013, p.56) states that
consumers prefer objects to which they have been exposed, over
stimuli they have not seen before.
An exemplar is a concept in someone’s schema that is the single best
representation of some category (Babin & Harris, 2013, p.81).
The Prospect Theory suggests that people seek certainty in a gain domain
and uncertainty or risk in a loss domain (Babin & Harris, 2013, p.73).
Regulatory Focus Theory shows two different types of thinking, promotion
based and preventative based (Babin & Harris, 2013, p.86).
- This image from Wayne’s world exemplifies the mere exposure effect
through product placement and good use of an exemplar by showing
one of the most popular pizza companies.

3. PROCEDURE
Participants were asked to give their preference
response to types of food shown to them on a
PowerPoint presentation. Each slide showed
four food items, two generic and two name
brand. Position of products were randomized as
a control measure. Participants were asked to
rate each product on likeliness to purchase on a
scale of 1 to 5 (from least likely to most likely).
Data was gathered and generic vs name brand
scores were collected and compared.

4. HYPOTHESIS & RESULTS
It was hypothesized that generic food products would
be more popular than name brand food products.
Results from this study concluded that name brand
food products were more popular (M = 3.72, SD=
.62), compared with generic food items (M = 2.37,
SD= .33). A within subjects t-test was used to find
that t (10) = 5.97, p< .05. These results show that
there is a significant difference between popularity
of generic and name brand food items. Participants
showed a significant preference for name brand
food than generic food items.

5. IMPLICATIONS
These results are important for stores to know so that they can either produce less of the
unpopular products or make money by increasing advertising of popular generic
products.
If a company finds this information extremely pertinent then they may even cut the line of
products to avoid wasting money. By knowing which individual product types are
popular or unpopular this can change the strategies of companies, marketers and that
food business.
If peanut butter is popular to buy generically, name brand companies will have to increase
their marketing and sales strategies to compete. Overall popularity of name brand or
generic food products and alter the production and marketing of food altogether.
As far as the psychological community, this study showed the effect of exposure and
attention on perception. Generic brands are not exposed as widely as name brand
products. This causes for less attention given to the generic products and results in a
weak perception or lack thereof. The importance of exposure of perception is shown,
especially when buying food products.