Brand personality and consumer self-expression: Single or dual carriageway?
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IAN PHAU is a lecturer in marketing at Curtin University of Technology. He is an active researcher with a keen interest in branding, country image and product piracy.
KONG CHEEN LAU is currently involved in the IT and communications industry in Singapore. He has significant research experience in brand personality.
Abstract Considerable research into consumer behaviour has examined the self-expressive role of brands, but has found little support for the premise that brand personality has an influence on consumer attitudes. This paper thus proposes that consumers have a part to play in influencing how a brand personality is perceived. This is in contrast to other research and propositions, which suggest that brand personality is created by how marketers and advertisers intend to project it. The findings suggest that when a brand commands a high preference, the preferred personality of the consumers actually has an influence over its perceived brand personality — provided that the consumer has built a positive relationship with the brand and then reinforces his/her personality on to the brand. The research also illustrated that the individualist’s ‘self’ has a stronger positive influence on the perceived personality of their preferred brand as compared to collectivists. The findings from this research shed light on the self-expressive use of brands, and the effects of the cultural orientation of consumers in influencing the relationship between their self and the perceived brand personality of their preferred brand. Marketers must strategically position their brands to provide a vehicle for consumers to experience emotional benefits, subsequently leading to stronger brand equity.
INTRODUCTION
progress has been made to show how the personality of brands can be used for the purpose of self-expression.4,5 This paper thus proposes that consumers have a part to play in influencing how a brand personality is perceived, in contrast to the suggestion that brand personality is created by how marketers and advertisers intend to project it.6–8 When consumers build trusting relationships with their
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A brand is perceived to possess a ‘personality’. Consumers use it to ‘self-express’ or to experience the emotional benefits of the brand. In so doing, it helps to differentiate the brand from competitors in a particular product category.1–3 While research has shown that self-expression can be an important driver for brand preference and choice, very little
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䉷 HENRY STEWART PUBLICATIONS 1350-231X BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. 8, NO. 6, 428–444 JULY 2001
Ian Phau Curtin University of Technology, The School of Marketing, GPO Box U1987, Perth, Western Australia 6845
BRAND PERSONALITY AND CONSUMER SELF-EXPRESSION: SINGLE OR DUAL CARRIAGEWAY?
preferred brand, they will reinforce positive attitudes (which include their personality) on to the brand.9 Dittmar supports this notion by suggesting that individuals share in the ‘process of transmitting, reproducing and t
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