Descriptive Characteristics of Memory-Based Consideration Sets: Influence of Usage Occasion Frequency and Usage Location Familiarity

Prior research has examined the composition of memory-based consideration sets in usage situations in terms of the specific products included in them. To shed more light on how much effort it would take consumers to choose from a memory-set and how difficult it would be for a product to enter or remain in that set, this research examines the composition of memory-sets in terms of their descriptive characteristics: stability, or how consistent the set is across similar situations; size, or how large the set is; variety, or how distinct the products within the set are; and preference dispersion, or how equal the preferences are toward the set products. To pinpoint the specific elements of usage situations that influence these properties and to address the limitation of inconsistent operationalizations of usage situations both within and across prior studies, this research operationalized usage situations in terms of two key elements: usage occasion and usage location. Results of two studies using 32 situations that varied on occasion and location familiarities in two replicate product classes revealed that memory-sets of more familiar occasions had lower stability, larger size, and marginally greater variety. Similarly, sets of more familiar locations portrayed lower stability than those of less familiar locations, as well as set variety equal to those of less familiar locations. Finally, the underlying explanation of the above results, the process of forming memory-sets—direct retrieval of items from memory in more familiar situations and use of situation goals in less familiar situations—was also confirmed.