close window 
A new study shows that market shares of certain brands of food vary from market to market, and that the brand that establishes itself in a particular geographical area first usually has a systematically higher market share and perceived brand quality.
The results are consistent with the theory that consumer perceptions of a given brand’s quality varies across markets. However, “we saw some really surprising geographic patterns,” said associate professor of marketing Jean-Pierre Dubé. He coauthored the study, “Market Structure and the Geographic Distribution of Brand Shares in Consumer Package Goods Industries,” with professor of marketing Sanjay Dhar, and Bart Bronnenberg, at UCLA. The research reveals that national brands may be more regional than previously thought, Dubé said.
The authors studied 31 consumer package goods industries in the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan markets. Building a brand name through heavy advertising is particularly important in the package goods industry, where not much difference exists between, for example, one can of corn and another.
Also, the authors discovered that just because a market was larger, such as in a heavily populated area like New York City, it did not mean a larger number of name brands were available. Instead, they found a concentration of more heavily advertised, big-name brands.
But the real surprise came when the authors got more specific, studying the local market shares and their local perceived brand qualities of mayonnaise and coffee in the various markets. Even though the brands were introduced generations ago, the first brand to enter a particular geographical market and build a name for itself through advertising still tends to do markedly better than the next entry.
Read the paper, “Market Structure and the Geographic Distribution of Brand Shares in Consumer Package Goods Industries.”
—Mary Sue Penn