I am what I consume : a study of the impact of brand personality and self-congruity on brand preference

Abstract

Marketers are now, more than ever trying to create symbolic meanings for their brands, since consumer behaviour research has frequently shown that consumers prefer brands that suit their self-image or their personality. The purpose of this study is to identify relationships between consumer personality traits and brand personality traits. Moreover, to investigate consumers' perceived brand personality and their perceived congruence between the self-image and the brand image, and how this influences their attitudes towards brand preference. Empirical data was collected from 120 participants through a survey questionnaire, consisting of: the Brand Personality Scale (Aaker, 1997), a Direct Measure of Self-Congruity (Sirgy et al., 1997) and the Ten-item Personality Inventory (Gosling, Rentfrow and Swann, 2003), which served to measure the variables under study. All scales proved to be reliable, except for the Ten-Item Personality Scale which obtained a very poor reliability and consequently had to be eliminated from further analysis. Some traits from the Brand Personality Inventory had to be eliminated to achieve convergent and discriminant validity. Findings confirmed that consumers' attitude towards clothing brand preference is not based on the consumers' perceived brand personality, but rather their choice of brand is based on the perceived congruence between the self-image and the brand image. Therefore, it is valuable for marketers to assess consumers' self-concepts and understand how consumers use and interpret symbolic consumption, in order to be able to develop brand images that match the self-image of the target market.