Selective Perception & The Brand   The study of the brand has taken has taken on added importance in the last few years. It has been shown that the development of a singular brand can fuel and extend the livelihood of its parent manufacturer; or, in the dot.com world, make a startup attractive for investment.   Selective perception can have both positive and negative effects on the brand. Obviously, if the image of the brand is not salient enough with the consumer, the benefits of the brand are marginalized. One of the defining elements of the brand is how it can differentiate itself from its competitors. The prestige or status of a brand, whether it is "old-fashioned" or "modern," or whether it is on the top or bottom of the line, is often determined by the way in which the brand, in other words, is often derived from (Moran, 1980). Also, cultural barriers can have a negative impact on the brand. The problem, in some cultures, is not that the type of advertising cannot be processed and assimilated, but rather that it is consciously rejected in terms of the viewers' social attitudes and values as inappropriate and a waste of money (Braithwaite and Swindells, 1996).   Selective perception also influences the message the advertiser is tying to pass on in a brand situation. Image loaded advertising builds up brand image by creating intuitive associations with the brand (Braithwaite and Swindells, 1996). Both image loaded and content loaded processed advertising cue viewers' expectations about the product experience and lead directly to selectively perceiving the benefits in particular ways. Providing the product performance is satisfactory, then the advertising claim will color product perceptions in such a way that people accept the claim as true on the basis of their own judgment. In this way some brands can come to own generic benefits (Braithwaite and Swindells, 1996).   Next