A comparison of brand personality and brand user‐imagery congruence
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to compare the brand personality and brand user‐imagery constructs in congruity theory to examine their relationship in the image congruence model as a basis of modeling brand attitudes for publicly and privately consumed brands.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 272 surveys measured subjects' self‐image perceptions and subjects' perceptions of brand personality and user‐imagery. Congruence measures were used as indicators of the difference between respondent self‐image and each brand's image, and served as independent variables in stepwise regressions with brand attitude as the dependent variable.
Findings
The results indicated that, for publicly consumed brands, user‐imagery‐based congruence measures contributed more often to the explanatory power of the model. For privately consumed brands, brand personality congruity produced significant regressions but did not account for a large portion of explained variance, while user‐imagery only entered one private brand model.
Originality/value
Brand personality and brand user‐imagery are often used interchangeably in self‐congruity theory research. Although both constructs have received past research attention, no studies have compared them in the same study. The study fills the gap in the literature and enhances the usefulness of the self‐brand congruity model, providing a knowledge base for determining an overall brand positioning strategy.
Keywords
Citation
Parker, B.T. (2009), "A comparison of brand personality and brand user‐imagery congruence", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 26 No. 3, pp. 175-184. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760910954118
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited