A brand can be a name, a logo, and/or a packaging style which uniquely identifies a product or a service and differentiate them from their competitors. A good brand communicates product superiority to consumers, thus increasing their perceived value. In the marketing literature, this increased value is known as brand equity, i.e. a set of intrinsic product attributes related to perceived quality and knowledge of a brand. From a customer-based perspective, brand equity refers to a general predisposition towards a brand composed of brand loyalty, name awareness, perceived quality and brand association. 

The effect of brand on consumer preferences for real and virtual goods and/or services is largely documented in consumer psychology and marketing. Yet, with the exception of studies of trust and the emerging field of captology, this effect has attracted scarce attention from the HCI community. This paper will present results from two unpublished studies showing that brand plays a major role on the way people perceive and evaluate web-sites. In particular, brand seems to be an influential factor affecting the evaluation of the web-site aesthetics.