Me, myself, and the brand Exploring the effects of actual, ideal, and ought self-congruence on emotional brand attachment
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2024-08-29
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en
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In a world where competitive advantage is high and consumers are gaining more power, brands are increasingly focusing on establishing emotional attachments with consumers. This thesis looks into the effects of actual self-congruence, ideal self-congruence, and ought self-congruence on emotional brand attachments. Moreover, autonomy is introduced as moderator.
The findings show that generally, actual self-congruence has the strongest effect on emotional brand attachment. Ideal self-congruence has a smaller effect, while ought self-congruence is not found to influence emotional brand attachment. When controlling for age, gender, education, income, and product involvement, the effect of ideal self-congruence on emotional brand attachment is no longer significant. Moreover, product involvement significantly influences the strength of the relationship between actual self-congruence and emotional brand attachment. This holds that when the product is more personally relevant to the consumer and the personality of the brand matches the consumers’ actual self, emotional brand attachment will increase.
A higher degree of autonomy decreases the effect of actual self-congruence, while it amplifies the effect of ideal self-congruence on emotional brand attachment.
This thesis contributes to the literature in a number of ways. First, regarding the main effect without control variables or moderator, actual self-congruence has the strongest effect on emotional brand attachment. This is in line with previous research and therefore adds to the understanding of this concept.
Moreover, the results provide an explanation for the discrepant results in previous research of the effect of ideal self-congruence on emotional brand attachment, as autonomy is found to influence this relationship. Marketing managers are advised to target consumer’s actual self-congruence with their branding strategies, except when consumers are highly autonomous. In that case, it is advised to focus on ideal self-congruence.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen