Public defence: Monica Therese Hagen-Aga

Monica Therese Hagen-Aga will defend her PhD degree in Marketing Management. The topic of the thesis is the role of consumers’ memory trace in the attentional prioritization of brands

11 Dec

Practical information

  • Date: 11 December 2025
  • Time: 10.00 - 15.00
  • Location: Drammen, A5508 and Zoom
  • Download calendar file
  • Organizer: USN Handelshøyskolen

    • Join digitally (Zoom) 
    Password: 111225
     

    Program 

    Kl 10.00. Trial lecture: «Memory processes in the attentional prioritization of brands from a global perspective»

    Kl 12.00. Public defence: «The Third Source of Brand Saliency»

    Assessment committee 

    • First opponent: Professor Anders Emil Tobias Otterbring, University of Agder
    • Second opponent: Associate Professor Morana Fuduric, University of Zagreb
    • Administrator: Associate Professor Birger Opstad, USN School of Business, University of South-Eastern Norway

    Veiledere

    • Principal Supervisor: Professor Marit Gundersen Engeset,  USN School of Business, University of South-Eastern Norway
    • Co-supervisor: Professor Luk Warlop, BI Norwegian Business School
Any questions?

Monica Therese Hagen-Aga is defending her hesis for the degree philosophiae doctor (PhD) at the University of South-Eastern Norway.

The doctoral work has been carried out at the USN School of Business in the program Marketing Management.

You are invited to follow the trial lecture and the public defence.

Summary

The competition for consumers’ attention starts from within consumers.

Familiar brands are more likely to be prioritized early by visual attention and chosen. Across three complementary experimental paradigms, the research investigated the role of attitude accessibility and familiarity in visual attention.

The results showed that familiarity predicted both early visual Portrettbilde av Monica Therese Hagen-Agaattention and final brand choice, while attitude accessibility was related to choice.

These effects were found beyond bottom-up saliency (features designed to stand out visually, such as bright colors or contrast).

Visual design features and attitudes may still play a role in attention, but when a brand choice is being made, familiarity appears sufficient to gain early attention in the choice process.

Hence, attention may already “know” the choice that will follow before consumers do. Thus, efforts to change design features to visually stand out could risk weakening recognition if they move too far away from what consumers already know.