The brand dependence scale: measuring consumers’ use of brand name to differentiate among product alternatives

The marketing literature provides substantial discussion of branding and brand equity, but reveals limited research on the use of brand name in the consumer decision‐making process. Further, most such studies have included the manipulation of product brand name as an independent variable. The primary objective in this study was to address that lack of attention to consumers’ use of brand names by developing and empirically testing a multi‐item scale called the brand dependence scale (BDS). The psychometric properties of the scale were assessed and the relationship between brand dependence and brand disparity was explored. The results of the study showed that the BDS demonstrated adequate internal reliability and that a significant positive relationship between brand dependence and brand disparity existed. Implications of the study results and managerial applications for the scale are discussed.