The mediating effects of perceived quality and risk on purchase intentions between prototypical and me-too brands

The study examines brand familiarity, extrinsic attributes, perceived quality and risk for their effects on purchase intentions between prototypical and me-too brands. Since the MP3 player was selected as the product category and the majority of users comprised young adults, a survey was administered to a general student population at three universities in Australia. While perceived equivalent quality had a positive mediating effect on brand familiarity-purchase intentions for the me-too brands, it had a negative mediating effect on extrinsic attributes-purchase intentions for the prototypical brand. Finally, perceived financial/performance, social/physical, time and psychological risks produced negative mediating effects on the perceived equivalent quality-purchase intentions relationship for the prototypical brand, while social/physical risk produced a positive mediating effect for the me-too brands.