E-store brand personality congruence for multichannel apparel retail brands

PurposeThis study aims at examining the role of the e-store brand personality congruence/incongruence of a multichannel apparel retailer in the formation of consumers' perceived e-store brand fit and e-store patronage intention, based on the concept of image congruence.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey was conducted with a US national sample of 458 female consumers (20–50 years old) who had shopped for clothing online.FindingsResults revealed that e-store brand personality incongruence in three personality dimensions had a negative impact on consumers' e-store patronage intention directly as well as indirectly by reducing the consumers' global perception of the e-store brand fit. Further, the retailer's relevance to the consumer moderated the relationship between the perceived e-store brand fit and e-store patronage intention in that this relationship was significantly greater among consumers with a high (vs low) perceived self-relevance of the retail brand.Practical implicationsThe findings highlight the importance of symbolically integrated cross-channel brand management for multichannel apparel retailers by clearly identifying their brand personality and carefully crafting it into their e-store interface design and e-store visual merchandising to convey the brand personality.Originality/valueThis study expands the application of image congruence to the cross-channel image congruence phenomenon in multichannel retailing environments by examining the e-store brand image congruence employing both direct and indirect approaches.

The effect of brand personality congruence, brand attachment and brand love on loyalty among HENRY's in the luxury branding sector

PurposeThe purpose of this research study is to empirically investigate a hypothesized theoretical framework that captures the impact of brand personality congruence, brand love and brand attachment on brand loyalty in the luxury branding sector.Design/methodology/approachEmpirical data were gathered from 416 millennial shoppers with incomes from US$100,000 and above (High-Earners-Not–Rich-Yet). Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses of the framework developed for the study. Dubai is chosen as the context of the study based on the fact that the luxury brands sector is one of the leading industries in the country, and has a sizeable population of HENRY's.FindingsThe findings of this study revealed that brand personality congruence is a critical determinant of brand love and brand loyalty, suggesting congruence between the consumer's personality and the brand is essential to the luxury branding sector. The study also establishes a relationship between brand attachment and brand loyalty.Research limitations/implicationsThis study offers new empirical support for the proposition that consumers' emotional aspects like brand personality congruence and brand love are critical for enhancing brand loyalty toward luxury. The findings from this study can provide brand managers with a guide to managing their branding strategies and understand the strategic role of these variables on communication strategies for a new emerging segment of the HENRY's customer segment.Originality/valueThis study contributes to luxury branding and a new segment of millennials by examining the relationship between brand personality congruence, brand love, brand attachment and its effect on brand loyalty in the luxury branding context.

Measuring personality congruency effects on consumer brand intentions in celebrity-endorsed brands

Purpose Brand managers frequently use well-known celebrities to position their brands and capture consumers’ attention to improve the brand’s market share. The attachment of a celebrity with a brand creates a human image for a brand and helps in personifying its image. The consumer perceives the brand as an individual and relates his personality, as well as the personality of the celebrity with that of the brand. It becomes pertinent for marketers to understand how brand-celebrity personality congruence and brand-consumer personality congruence affect the brand reputation, uniqueness and purchase intentions. Thus, the purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between the two personality congruence aspects – brand & celebrity personalities and brand & consumer personalities, and their impact on the reputation of the brand and its uniqueness. Further, the paper aims to examine the impact of the brand reputation and brand uniqueness on purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach The present study uses Aaker’s five-factor personality scale to study the personality congruence effects on brand reputation, brand uniqueness and purchase intentions. The literature review was carried out to categorize factors related to celebrity personality, brand personality and consumer personality. The data for this study was collected through questionnaires from 1,235 respondents. In the first step, congruencies between celebrity, brand and consumer personality were determined. This was followed by a two-stage structural equation modelling for assessing the model fit and testing the hypotheses. Findings From the study results, it is observed that brand-celebrity congruency influences brand reputation and brand uniqueness. However, brand-consumer congruency had an effect only on brand reputation and not on brand uniqueness. Both brand reputation and uniqueness have favourable impact on consumers purchase intentions. Originality/value This study contributes to the existing literature on celebrity endorsement by extending the discussion with personality-based congruence. The research deciphered two aspects of identification, i.e. consumer-brand personality congruence and brand-celebrity congruence. The paper hypothesized the favourable association between brand personality and consumer personality congruence and brand uniqueness. However, it was observed that brand personality-consumer personality identification had an insignificant influence on brand uniqueness. This is contrary to the findings of some studies in the literature. Further investigation of this relationship in the future may add a new dimension to the identification context.