The Journal of Brand Management Vo lume 7 Number 6 Moderators of the brand image/perceived product quality relationship Lester W. Johnson,* Geofrey N. Soutar** and Jillian C. Sweeney*** Addresses: * Monash Mt Eliza Business School, Monash University, PO Box 2224, Caulfield Jct, Vic 3161, Australia; Tel: +6139215-1803; E-mail: lohnson@monashmteliza.edu.au; ** Graduate School of Management, University of Wester Australia, Nedlands, WA 6009, Australa; *** Deparment of Information Management and Marketing, University of Wester Australia, Nedlands, WA 6009, Australia; Received (in revised form): 8th May 2000 Lester Johnson is Professor of Marketing at the Monash Mt Eliza Business School in Mel boure, Australia. His PhD is from the University of Connecticut. His current research and publi cation is primarily in the areas of services mar keting and management. He is currently editor of the Australasian Journal of Ma rket Research, co-editor of the Australasian Marketing Journal and an associate editor of the International Journal of Se rvice Industry Management. Geofrey Soutar is Professor of Marketing and Director of the Graduate School of Manage ment at the University of Wester Australia. He holds a PhD from Corell University. He has published widely in a range of areas spanning marketing and management and is currently ed itor of the Journal of the Australia New Zealand Academy of Management. Jilian Sweeney is a Senior Lecturer in Mar ketng at the University of Wester Australia. She was awarded a PhD in marketing in 199 5. Before starting an academic career, she obtained exten sive experience in market research consultancies in London, Sydney and Perth. Her research fo cuses on quality, brand equity, perceived value and relationship marketing. She is also particu lary interested in services marketing. She has published widely including in the Journal of Re tailing and the Journal of Services Marketing. ABSTRACT Consumers ofen use extrinsic cues such as price al ld bran d to infer perceived product quality. The ef ect of th ese cues is sometimes hypothesised to be moderated by variables such as product famil iarity. Some authors have found a U-shaped re lationship between the cues and perceive d product quality, in the sense that, for a particular moderator (eg product familiarity), either low or high familiarity consumers use these cues more than those with modera te f amiliarity. In the cur rent pape, this idea is extended to the brand image/perceived product quality relationship. This paper describes the testing of a model using a large sample (n = 1068) of Australian con sumers and several potential mo derators. INTRODUCTION Consumers often use extrinsic cues, such as price or brand, to infer product quality.1 This is particularly the case with price, which may be used as a quality cue, although its effect seems to be moderated by a consumer's product knowledge (or familiarity). 2 How ever, this moderating effect is not simple, as it has been found that people with low or high familiarity use these cues more than do people with a moderate level of familiarity. In other words, there seems to be a U shaped relationship.3 .4,5 In the current paper, this prior research is extended by examining the effects of several potential moderating variables on the brand image-perceived product quality relationship. The potential moderators examined were product familiar ity, perceived risk, dif fculty of product eval uation, product involvement (the hedonic component) and purchase involvement. The Lester W Johnson Centre: Geofrey N. Soutar Above: Jillian C. Sweeney The Journal of Brand Mana g ement, Vol. 7 No. 6, 2000, pp. 425-433. © Henr y Stnvart Publications, 1 350-231X Page 425