Abstract: Reaction-time technique was used to measure the relation strength between the brand name and its product category in prior researches. Base on the semantic network definition of the brand name, we employed the technique to explore the brand associations. Five brands in three categories were checked by free-recall method and reaction-time technique. The comparison of the results showed that the reaction-time technique is a more sensitive and objective tool to define the brand associations. The differences of reaction-times containing closely related versus distantly related ideas enable researchers to make inferences about the precise nature of the brand structure in long-term memory.

Key words: brand-associations, brand attributes, raction-time technique, free-recall method