Title: The person brand effect and the role of product innovation: Consumers' stereotypes influence evaluations of persons and their products

Abstract: A series of field and laboratory experiments found that consumers' stereotypes influence perceptions of a person who creates a product (i.e., a person brand) as well as post-trial evaluations of the product. Consistent with schema congruity theory, consumers evaluated a product created by a person who was counter stereotypical on one dimension (e.g., gender but not ethnicity) more positively than the stereotypical creator's product. Consumers' cognitive resources during trial are a boundary condition on improved evaluations of a unidimensional deviate’s product. In contrast, consumers evaluated a product created by a person who was counter stereotypical on two dimensions (e.g., gender and ethnicity) most negatively. Product innovation moderated these effects such that an innovative product created by a bidimensional deviate was evaluated similar to that of the stereotypical creator's product. These findings have implications for branding, product innovation, schema congruity theory and stereotyping.