Brand-Self Congruity describes the matching of a brand’s personality with the consumers’ concept of themselves. Previous studies have not investigated the relationship between consumers’ self-brand connection and the emotional and cognitive factors, such as emotional attachment and brand familiarity. Despite the evidence in the previous studies suggesting that the brand-self connection has both emotional and cognitive dimensions, this study argues that the emotional or affective dimension of the brand-self connection has a stronger influence on the congruity between the brand and the self. In order to test the above hypothesis, an experimental design was conducted among Texas A&M University Kingsville students, staff, and faculty members. The results have shown that participants assigned to high emotional attachment scenarios reported higher levels of brand-self congruity than those assigned to low emotional attachment scenarios; participants assigned to high familiarity versus low familiarity scenarios did not differ significantly in terms of brand-self congruity. The significance of this study lies in the fact that it adds support to existing theories of brand personality self-congruity and self-concept, as well as providing new insights about how emotions affect self-congruity. From a managerial perspective, when marketers attempt to connect self-brand image to a brand, they should focus on affective rather than cognitive elements, and emphasize the emotional feelings of the consumer to strengthen the association.
 

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Zhuofan Zhang

Department of Management, Marketing and Information Systems