Abstract

Intangibility has been a well-recognized research topic especially in service marketing. However, recently, as virtual products or information products have emerged in consumer markets, the role of intangibility has shifted from a service-exclusive term to a product-related one. This is because that many products are intangible in some degrees to consumers. Lately, academic research shows that intangibility, is a three-dimensional construct that includes: physical intangibility, mental intangibility, and generality. This finding has advanced the understandings on intangibility of virtual products. However, little has been done in relating to branding strategy and its influence on consumer behavior under this topic. Thus, the focus of this research is to study whether the branding strategy, as compared to the generic category strategy, is an efficient risk and evaluation difficulty reducer when the branded product/service is perceived to be intangible. Moreover, this research also concentrates on how the branding strategy will assist the consumer decision process by reducing perceived risk, evaluation difficulty and perceived intangibility. Data were collected among university students. The result of the data analysis shows that brand is a major intangibility-reducer especially for services. It also reduces consumer perceived evaluation difficulty and purchase-related risk.