Make it Your Own: How Process Valence and Self‐Construal Affect Evaluation of Self‐Made Products

Self‐production, participation of consumers in the production process of products for their own consumption, leads to consumers’ enhanced evaluations of the self‐made products. Three experimental studies investigate how and why self‐production affects consumers’ product evaluations and reveal that not all production experiences create additional value for all consumers. In particular, Studies 1 and 2, using hypothetical stories and real experiences, show that only positive (vs. negative) production experiences enhance evaluations of self‐made products over products made by others. Positive (but not negative) experiences decrease the psychological distance between the self and the product and strengthen identification with it. Study 3 manipulates self‐construal (independent vs. interdependent) to investigate its role on evaluation of self‐made products and products made with close others as a group (i.e., group‐made). Consumers with independent self‐construal evaluate self‐made (vs. other‐made) products more favorably only if the process is positive. However, consumers with interdependent self‐construal evaluate self‐made products more favorably even if the process is negative. Additionally, consumers with interdependent (vs. independent) self‐construal exhibit more favorable evaluation of group‐made products. Finally, even if consumers know how another person feels while making a product, other people's process emotions do not affect consumers’ product judgments as strongly as their own experienced process emotions.     

Gucci versus Old Navy: Interplay of Brand Personality and Regulatory Focus in Advertising Persuasion

The present research examines how brand personality and regulatory focus (promotion vs. prevention) interplay in affecting advertising message persuasiveness. In Experiment 1, the moderating role of brand personality with respect to regulatory focus is tested. The results show that a promotion‐framed advertising message is more persuasive for a fictitious exciting brand than is a prevention‐framed message, whereas a prevention‐framed (vs. promotion‐framed) message is more effective for a fictitious competent brand. To replicate Experiment 1 and further test the hypothesis, in Experiment 2, two real brands representing two additional brand personality dimensions (sophistication vs. sincerity) are tested and the influence of individuals’ self‐construal level is controlled. The findings reveal that individuals exposed to the sophisticated brand show a more positive attitude when the brand message is promotion framed. By contrast, individuals exposed to the sincere brand react more favorably when the brand is presented with a prevention‐framed advertising message.     

Beyond the Usefulness of Branded Applications: Insights from Consumer–Brand Engagement and Self‐construal Perspectives

Branded mobile applications (apps) present one of the most promising opportunities for marketers to reach current and potential customers, sell products or services, and facilitate customer engagement with brands. This study aims to explore how branded apps influence consumers’ brand repurchase intention and continuance usage intention. Integrating the utilitarian view from information systems research and the view of consumer–brand engagement from marketing research, a complementary engagement path alongside the utilitarian path was devised and tested in order to elucidate consumer perceptions toward branded apps. Independent self‐construal and interdependent self‐construal moderate relationships along the utilitarian path and engagement path, respectively. Data collected from 637 respondents support most of the proposed hypotheses. Results show that the engagement path has more influence on continuance intention and equal influence on repurchase intention when compared to the utilitarian path. Findings show that apps users have different thoughts along each of the two paths, depending on their self‐construal. The study's findings also provide app designers and marketers with new perspectives on how to better design branded apps.     

The interplay of culture and situational cues in consumers' brand evaluation

This research examines the effects of situational cues in consumers' brand evaluation; more importantly, this relationship is explored across the US and Korean cultures. The findings suggest that consumers prefer brands with personality traits that are congruent with the social situations. Furthermore, as predicted, this brand‐situation congruity, for which brand preference increases when the social situational cues are congruent vs. incongruent with the brand personality, is stronger among Korean vs. American subjects.     

An empirical assessment of cross‐cultural age self‐construal measurement: Evidence from three countries

This study investigated which age measures, independent or interdependent, were better for cross‐cultural consumer research. Specifically, it assessed the fit between the “actual” and “ideal” self‐concept model within the framework of self‐construal theory by examining the actual and ideal self‐attributed age identity across South Korea ( n = 480), China ( n = 207), and France ( n = 338) using both independent and interdependent age identity scales. Multivariate analyses revealed differences for individuated self‐schemata across the three countries for actual and ideal age self‐construal, as well as for actual other‐referent interdependent age self‐schemata. However, the reverse occurred too: The ideal interdependent ages showed a lack of difference across the three different cultures. Overall, the results indicate that interdependent decade scales are better than independent age scales for cross‐cultural consumer behavior studies. Though such scales are more complex, they are easy to translate and to administer, and simple to analyze and to interpret. Evidence also suggests that such scales are reliable and robust across disparate samples in the countries studied. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Consumer evaluations of brand extension: The roles of case‐based reminding on brand‐to‐brand similarity

Utilizing the case‐based reminding theory in analogical reasoning, this research proposes that the evaluation of a brand extension can be improved by reminding consumers of a similar brand in the extension category. This effect is derived from a brand‐to‐brand similarity, in addition to the product‐to‐product and brand‐to‐product similarity identified in prior literature. Experiment 1 explores the idea that the effect of similar case reminders is most pronounced in moderately similar extensions than in highly similar or highly dissimilar extensions due to schema congruity. Experiments 2 and 3 distinguish the levels of similarity (i.e., product‐to‐product, brand‐to‐product, and brand‐to‐brand similarity) as a source of consumers' evaluations on a brand extension and further eliminate an alternative explanation of instantaneous learning in the advertisement setup of Experiment 1. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Matching a cause with self‐schema: The moderating effect on brand preferences

The moderating roles of consumer brand involvement type and product type on the effect of a match between consumers' self‐schema and the cause a brand supports on consumers' preference for the cause‐supporting brand is investigated. The authors show that a schema–cause match enhances consumer preference for a brand engaging in cause‐related marketing when (1) consumers' involvement with the brand is of the impression‐relevant type (vs. outcome‐relevant type) and (2) when the branded product is functional (vs. hedonic). © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Consumer–Brand Relationships: A Contrast of Nostalgic and Non‐Nostalgic Brands

This research examined how consumer–brand relationships change when one contrasts brands perceived as nostalgic with brands perceived as non‐nostalgic. Paired comparisons of brands in six product categories revealed that brand attachment, self‐brand connections, and storytelling, as well as, the propensity to offer the brand as a gift and collect brand‐derived products, depend on the nostalgic status of the brand. On a sample of 606 consumers, the results showed that a brand's nostalgic status has a positive effect on attachment, self‐brand connections, and storytelling. These effects had not previously been considered in nostalgia research. Furthermore, the nostalgic status of a brand has positive effects in terms of intention to purchase the brand as a gift and collect brand‐derived products. Moreover, ANOVA results illustrate that consumer relationships with nostalgic brands are systematically stronger than with non‐nostalgic brands. Finally, results indicated that product category moderates all of the dimensions of brand relationships while gender does not.     

Consumer self‐construal and trust as determinants of the reactance to a recommender advice

Commercial recommendation agents (RAs) represent an important type of the decision support systems (DSSs) that are widely used by online retailers and firms. To date, little is known about the factors that shape the user's decision making and reactance toward the recommendations of these agents. Building on theories from psychology and information systems domains, this research proposes that a user's self‐construal and trust are two relevant factors that interact to shape the behavior toward the RA advice. Two studies, the first conducted using potential online customers and the second conducted at a behavioral laboratory, provided support to this proposition. The first study considered RA trust and showed that activating the interdependent self leads users with low (high) trust to exhibit high reactance behavior toward the RA advice. The second study variated trust using trust cues and corroborated the latter finding, while showing no important impact for the psychological reactance trait. As expected, in both studies the reactance behavior of independent users was not affected by trust. These results contribute by underscoring that social interdependence extends to RAs because the role of trust becomes salient when the interdependent self is activated for a user.     

A path to altruism: Investigating the effects of brand origin and message explicitness in CR‐M campaigns

An increasing number of fashion brands are employing cause‐related marketing (CR‐M) campaigns to promote their social responsibility. However, with growing consumer skepticism about CR‐M, it is becoming more difficult than before to encourage consumers' positive responses to these campaigns. Based on construal level theory and rhetorical theory, this study examined the way brand origin (local vs. global), and its interaction with message type (explicit vs. implicit), influence consumers' perceived brand altruism and brand favorability. Two experimental studies were conducted with a total of 574 U.S. consumers. The results of Study 1 indicated that consumers exhibited higher perceived brand altruism and brand favorability toward a local brand's CR‐M campaign than a global brand's, showing that psychological distance can influence a CR‐M campaign's effectiveness. In addition, the results of Study 2 revealed that an explicit CR‐M message was more effective for global brands, while an implicit message was more effective for local brands, and perceived brand altruism mediated both effects. This suggests the importance of framing messages according to brand origin to maximize CR‐M campaigns' ability to achieve their goals effectively, in which perceived brand altruism plays a key role. The study's implications and limitations are discussed.     

‘How do you feel about a disease?’ The effect of psychological distance towards a disease on health communication

Based on construal level theory, this research addresses the moderating role of an individual's psychological distance towards a disease in the effectiveness of advertising messages framed by two distinctive construal level terms (high-level and low-level). In Experiment 1, two different disease types (bronchitis/distant disease vs. influenza/proximal disease) were featured, with the result that an advertisement with high-level construal terms was more persuasive for a psychologically distant disease (bronchitis) than for a psychologically proximal disease (flu). The reverse was true for an ad framed with low-level construal terms. To replicate Experiment 1 and further test the hypothesis, in Experiment 2, the perceived distance individuals have towards one disease (cancer) was measured and used as independent variable. Consistent with the results from Experiment 1, the low-level construal messages were more effective under the psychologically close condition than the psychologically distant condition. Reverse was true for the high-level construal messages.     

The effects of between‐partner congruity on consumer evaluation of co‐branded products

Branding studies, especially those focusing on brand extension, have often centered on establishing the relationship between consumer evaluation and the match between a product concept and the brand (concept congruity). This study introduces an additional type of congruity that arises in the evaluation of co‐branded products, the congruity between brand partners (between‐partner congruity). Between‐partner congruity has not previously been explicitly considered in the co‐branding literature, but is potentially an important influence on consumer perceptions of a brand partnership. Thus, this study represents an initial attempt to understand how the level of between‐partner congruity will affect consumer response to cobranded products. Several findings in the marketing literature have suggested that when respondents have the motivation to resolve incongruity, the relationship between congruity level and evaluation is nonmonotonic. In other words, moderately incongruent concepts are preferred to congruent or highly incongruent concepts to form an “inverted‐U” data function. Yet, when motivation to process is low, evaluation becomes less favorable in a linear fashion as incongruity increases. This study examines whether these findings can be extended to co‐branding. When concept congruity is controlled across brand pairs, the nonmonotonic relationship between between‐partner congruity level and product evaluation is observed when consumers are encouraged to elaborate on the rationale for the partnership (high involvement). However, when consumers attend to the global similarity of the partners (low involvement), product evaluation becomes less favorable as between‐partner incongruity increases. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Determinants of Community‐Based Sponsorship Impact on Self‐Congruity

Sponsors increasingly shift from large professional to community‐based properties, as these can deliver an engaged audience and enable them to demonstrate their corporate social responsibility (CSR). This research comprises two studies and shows that community‐based sponsorship may improve CSR image and, in turn, self‐congruity, a key determinant of consumer behavior. Study 1 investigates perceived sponsor–club fit, confirming attitude and corporate positioning similarity as relevant predictors. Importantly, CSR image similarity does not impact fit, suggesting sponsorship opportunities for organizations independent of their initial CSR image. Study 2 shows perceived sponsor CSR image to mediate the relationship between the perceptions of a community‐based property's CSR image and consumers' self‐congruity with the sponsor. While perceived sponsor–club fit and sponsorship awareness moderate the relationship between property and sponsor CSR image, attitudes toward CSR moderate the association between sponsor CSR and self‐congruity. The paper concludes with implications and future research directions.     

The “little emperor” and the luxury brand: How overt and covert narcissism affect brand loyalty and proneness to buy counterfeits

The authors build on approach‐avoidance motivations theory to investigate the relationship between narcissism and luxury brand consumption. Narcissistic consumers, that is, those showing excessive conceit, are prone to consuming high‐prestige products and are thus attractive targets for luxury brands. Yet despite research in psychology distinguishing two types of narcissism, overt (or grandiose) and covert (or vulnerable) narcissism, little is known about how luxury consumption varies by these forms of narcissism. This paper focuses on Chinese Generation Y consumers to examine how overt and covert narcissism differ in their effects on luxury brand loyalty and proneness to purchase counterfeits as well as the moderating role of brand‐image self‐image congruity on the relationship between overt/covert narcissism and brand loyalty. Findings highlight the need for marketers to understand narcissistic targets more clearly in order to develop successful strategies to foster brand loyalty and diminish counterfeit consumption.     

Effects of game‐product congruity on in‐app interstitial advertising and the moderation of media‐context factors

Advertising has become one of the major sources of game apps revenues and interstitial ads, in particular, are the most used monetization method among the types of in‐game mobile ad formats. Interstitial ads overlaid on top of a mobile game app have more obvious advertising intent and a higher degree of forced exposure and perceived intrusiveness. This study examined how the degree of congruity (high vs. moderate vs. low) between the promoted products in interstitial ads and the mobile game app environment affects consumers’ responses. The moderating effects of media‐context factors (i.e., excited– or calm–happiness game types and game immersion) were further assessed. The results of two experiments revealed that game‐product congruity lead to better consumers’ responses toward ads and advertised products. The positive effects of game‐product congruity were more salient when consumers played calm–happiness games and were less immersed in the game. Theoretical implications on integrating perspectives across disciplines such as schema theory, happiness, and immersion within the media‐context framework, as well as practical suggestions are discussed.     

Making unique choices or being like others: How priming self‐concepts influences advertising effectiveness

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that priming independent and interdependent self‐concepts affects responses to advertisements. In Experiment 1, for a privately consumed product, the influence of product assortment size on ad effectiveness was moderated by the accessibility of these self‐concepts. Experiment 2 replicated this finding for a publicly consumed product and also examined an additional ad feature, consensus information. Ad effectiveness was enhanced by larger product assortment only when the independent self‐concept was primed and by the presence of consensus information only when the interdependent self‐concept was primed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Gay Consumers and Brand Usage: The Gender‐Flexing Role of Gay Identity

Prior research suggests that gender identity congruity between an individual and product brand will yield positive responses in terms of consumer behavior, However, gender atypicality has been observed among gay males and lesbians, which may confound previous research conducted under a heteronormative gaze. Drawing on research in psychology that considers gay identity as a cognitive construct and a component of self‐concept, the findings of this study indicate that an individual's strength of gay identity and involvement in the gay community appear to invert effects of “typical” gender schema congruity on brand usage for both gay males and lesbians.     

The role of actual,ideal, and ought self‐congruence in the consumption of hedonic versus utilitarian brands

To emotionally attach consumers to a brand and inspire brand loyalty, marketers often target the brand personality towards the consumer's actual or ideal self. The self is not limited to its actual and ideal dimension, however, and motivation to approach a desired self may vary depending on the consumer's personality. Thus, the current research is the first to link self‐congruence to self‐discrepancy theory by incorporating the ought self into the self‐congruence framework and taking into account self‐discrepancies as potential moderators of the self‐congruence effect. Additionally, hedonic brand nature is discussed as important condition for self‐congruence and self‐discrepancies exhibiting their fullest effect. The conducted study focuses on how actual, ideal, and ought self‐congruence influence emotional brand attachment and consequently brand loyalty. For brands of primary hedonic nature, findings confirm actual and ideal self‐congruence as drivers of emotional brand attachment, which in turn increases brand loyalty, while ought self‐congruence influences brand loyalty directly. Moreover, self‐discrepancies moderate the described relations, albeit their effect is contrary to theory‐based expectations. From these findings, the authors derive important implications for business practice and future research.     

Understanding the Relationship between Individualism and Word of Mouth: A Self‐Enhancement Explanation

This study examines factors moderating the relationship between individualism and word‐of‐mouth (WOM) transmission. The conceptual model is based on the premise that high‐individualism consumers are highly driven by the self‐enhancement motive when they transmit WOM and that they change their willingness to provide WOM based on the perceived opportunity for self‐enhancement. The results reveal that high‐individualism consumers are more willing than low‐individualism consumers to transmit WOM in relation to satisfactory consumption experiences (vs. unsatisfactory), when WOM is unsolicited (vs. solicited), and when the context involves high perceived social risk (vs. low perceived social risk). Thus, the findings indicate that self‐enhancement may indeed be the underlying mechanism in the relationship between individualism and WOM transmission.     

Relationships among consumer vanity,gender, brand sensitivity,brand consciousness and private self‐consciousness

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships among consumer vanity, gender, brand sensitivity, brand consciousness and private self‐consciousness within a context of social comparison theory. The four dimensions of consumer vanity are concern for and positive view of physical appearance and concern for and positive view of achievement. Participants were 400 college students (284 women; 116 men). Participants above the median in three of the four dimensions of vanity (except vanity achievement view) were more sensitive to and more conscious of brand names. Participants above (vs. below) the median in vanity achievement view scored higher on private self‐consciousness. Women scored higher on brand sensitivity, brand consciousness and private self‐consciousness than men. There was a significant correlation between brand sensitivity and brand consciousness. Results support the notion that consumers’ decisions, especially regarding brand names, may be guided by vanity‐related concerns and views.