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The purpose of this study is to examine the interaction effect of perceived psychological distance toward the luxury brand and construal level of the CSR ad content on young consumers' perceptions toward the CSR ad (i.e. ad-brand congruency and perceived trust on CSR ad). This study also investigates the mediation effects of ad-brand congruency and trust on electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intention on social media.

A two (low vs great psychological distance) by two (low vs high construal level) between-subjects experimental study is conducted with samples of social media users (n = 570) in the United States. Participants were randomly assigned to view one of the four CSR ads and instructed to respond to questions in the survey. The proposed hypotheses are tested using moderated serial mediation.

The interaction between psychological distance and construal level significantly influences ad-brand congruency. When participants view detailed information content (i.e. low construal level) with an accessible luxury brand (i.e. low psychological distance) in the CSR ad, they are more likely to perceive the ad is congruent with the brand compared to the CSR ad with abstract information content. There is no difference in ad-brand congruency for the aspiration luxury brand according to different content (i.e. low vs great construal level). Importantly, however, for both brands, the results reveal dual roles of the ad-brand congruency which increases eWOM intention directly and indirectly through trust. Findings confirm serial mediation effects of ad-brand congruency and CSR trust on the eWOM intention on social media.

By uncovering the interaction effect of psychological distance and construal level on ad-brand congruency, this study implicates how luxury fashion brands need to differently create CSR ad content. Our findings confirm dual ways of information processing that lead to positive engagement (i.e. eWOM) on social media, particularly among young consumers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The purpose of this paper was to assess how adolescents' favorite apparel brand was related to congruency between brand image and three components of self concept (actual, ideal, ideal social). Predictors of the brand‐self concept congruency relationships were also examined.

A questionnaire distributed to 300 high school students yielded usable data from 137 students. Participants' ages ranged from 14 to 18 years.

The highest level of congruency was found between adolescents' favorite apparel brand and their actual self concept followed by ideal social and ideal self concept. Adolescents who indicated that their apparel purchases were highly influenced by their peers or family members linked their favorite brand with their ideal social or ideal self concept. Materialistic adolescents also linked their favorite apparel brand to their ideal self concept.

Focusing on congruency between brand and self concept is an important strategy in marketing targeting adolescents. Family and peer group influences played an important role in congruency adolescents identified between self and apparel brands.

This research demonstrated application of self‐brand congruency theory to adolescents and to apparel products. Adolescent consumers, like adults, identify a preference for apparel brands that they can link to some aspect of self.

This study aims to distinguish between Muslim and non-Muslim consumers regarding celebrity influence on brands and purchase intention, and assess the relative importance of celebrity credibility, in terms of physical attractiveness, trustworthiness, expertise and product–brand congruency. The study also researches attitudes towards brands, and purchase intention and their ability to predict consumers’ religion.

The research aim was achieved through an empirical study involving a self-administered questionnaire distributed to members of the public recruited from the Federal Territory of Labuan, Malaysia. Data were collected from 250 Muslim and non-Muslim consumers using a convenience sampling method. Their participation was purely voluntary. Multiple discriminant analysis via Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer program version 20 was used to answer the research questions.

Empirical results of the multiple discriminant analysis indicated that celebrity expertise and attitudes towards brands strongly predict allocation to Muslim consumers rather than non-Muslim consumers. The relative importance of the celebrity credibility aspects from Muslim consumers’ perspectives was: celebrity expertise, celebrity attitudes towards brands, purchase intention, product–brand congruency and physical attractiveness. Muslim consumers are found to choose expertise but not trustworthiness. Muslim consumers’ faith or trust may be linked to the perception that products and services endorsed by the celebrities are in line with Shariah principles which are consistent with Islamic principles.

Respondents were randomly drawn from the Muslim and non-Muslim population of the Federal Territory of Labuan, Malaysia. Consequently, they may not represent the entire population of Malaysia. Future researchers could overcome the limits of generalizability by increasing sample coverage.

The paper empirically justified the discriminating function among celebrity credibility elements in terms of physical attractiveness, trustworthiness, expertise, and product–brand congruency of Muslim and non-Muslim consumer attitudes towards brands and purchase intention. Thus, the results of this study offer a new forward motion to the findings of prior studies on consumer perception of celebrity credibility, which is not much covered in the literature in the Malaysian context between Muslim and non-Muslim consumer perspectives. The findings are able to add literature on Muslim consumer behaviour in the use of celebrities, as these celebrities could act as inspirational to the consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate young New Zealand shoppers' ethnocentricity and brand perceptions by extending the research of O'Cass and Lim. The paper does this by looking at the relationship between ethnocentrism and brand choices, and by investigating whether young New Zealand shoppers have different price and brand‐user image congruency perceptions for local and foreign brands.

A total of six hypotheses were tested using data gathered from a mall intercept survey of 208 respondents aged between 16 and 25 years. The shoppers were measured through a series of Likert‐scale questions from the O'Cass and Lim study, the Shimp and Sharma CETSCALE items, and a range of demographic characteristic items.

Young New Zealand shoppers are about mid‐level internationally in terms of ethnocentrism, and ethnocentricity does not have an influence on their perceptions of brands. Price perceptions and self/brand user congruency perceptions are important to young New Zealand shoppers, and these are different for local versus foreign brands.

Foreign brands do not suffer from ethnocentricity but they do have a distorted (high) price perception amongst young New Zealand shoppers, suggesting a need for marketing aimed at dispelling this misperception. There is also a lack of congruency with brands, indicating that more active promotions with stronger and more distinct brand images are required.

This is one of the first studies to examine young New Zealand shoppers in any context, and is the only study to link young New Zealand shoppers with other international studies of ethnocentrism and brand perceptions. While adding to the understanding of brand perceptions it also provides practitioners with insights into young shoppers' perspectives on international brands.

In seeking to expand our understanding of brands and their impact on consumer behaviour, assesses the relationship between brand associations, which contribute to consumption behaviour. A self‐administered questionnaire was developed and administered to a non‐probabilistic convenience sample of 315 young consumers. The findings of this research indicate that the status‐conscious market is more likely to be affected by the symbolic characteristics of a brand; feelings aroused by the brand; and by the degree of congruency between the brand‐user’s self‐image and the brand’s image itself. Results also indicate that the higher the symbolic characteristics, the stronger the positive feelings, and the greater the congruency between the consumer and brand image, the greater the likelihood of the brand being perceived as possessing high status elements. The suspicion that status‐laden brands would be chosen for status consumption and conspicuous consumption was also confirmed. These findings broaden our understanding of status‐conscious consumers and their behaviour towards brands.

The purpose of this research is to explore the effects of regional geographic brand congruency (GBC) on brand trust, brand parity, perceived value, brand honesty and purchase intentions.

The research uses an experimental method in two studies to test hypotheses derived from the literature.

This research conceptualizes GBC as the relationship between products/services and geographic regions that are authentic, credible and fitting. Results from the two studies support the hypothesis that brands with regional GBC have higher levels of consumer evaluation compared to brands with geographic incongruence or with no geographic reference at all.

This research offers insight into the decision to name a brand. If one is going to associate a product with a regional geographic location, it is more effective to use a location that is fitting as it applies to that product; otherwise, it would be best to avoid a geographic association in a brand name.

The exploration of regional geographic brand congruency in relation to outcomes of brand trust, brand parity, perceived value, purchase intentions and honesty offers new insights into the nature and role of place images.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how adolescents' self‐concept and brand image congruency are related to their level of liking for an apparel brand. It also aims to examine whether this relationship varies depending on adolescents' gender and identity development.

Self‐image congruency theory was used to investigate whether adolescents' liking for an apparel brand was related to perceived congruency between aspects of self‐concept and apparel brand. Male and female adolescents (n=140) between 14 and 18 years of age participated.

Adolescent consumers liked apparel brands that they linked to their ideal social self‐concept. This connection was particularly strong for male adolescents with less established identities.

Adolescents liked an apparel brand when they reported a link between the brand and ideal social self‐concept. These adolescents may have used apparel brands to shape the views others formed of them.

Many questions concerning the basis for adolescents' apparel brand preferences have not been answered. Our research documents how male and female adolescents use branded apparel products in relation to their identity development status.

The purpose of this paper is to determine if the star power of an athletic endorser influenced consumers’ consumption of the advertised product. Specifically, does the amount of star power an athlete is thought to have impact consumers’ direct consumption of the advertised product and media consumption of the athlete? Moreover, the components of star power, along with congruency measures, were examined to determine which components of star power influenced both direct and media consumption.

Four advertisements were created that used an athlete with high star power and an athlete with low star power. Respondents viewed two of the advertisements, but did not know which athlete had high star power or low star power. They were asked to answer a questionnaire that contained questions pertaining to the components of star power (source attractiveness, source credibility, professional trustworthiness, likeable personality and character style), congruency of the athlete and product, direct consumption of the advertised product and media consumption of the athlete.

Results indicated that overall star power increased the direct consumption of the advertised product and the media consumption of the athlete, however not each component was found to be significant. Character style was the only component that was consistently significant across all four advertisements. The congruency between the athlete and product was also found to be significant across all four advertisements.

First, this study only looked at two athletes; others may generate different results. Second, the products used in the study were fashion related; other categories of products may also generate different relationships. Third, only two brands were used. It was also assumed that the respondents knew the athlete in the advertisement. Finally, the questions used to measure direct consumption did not distinguish between buying the brand in the store or online.

This study has the potential to contribute theoretically by analyzing how and which components of star power affect consumption of endorsed products, as well as which components influence consumers. Moreover, adding a congruency measure will aide in strengthening the measurement of endorser effectiveness. The justification of the present study lies in the need to determine how the dimensions of star power an athlete possesses contribute to the consumption behaviors of consumers.

This study examines how the locus of agency of brands' artificial intelligence (AI)–powered voice assistants (VAs) could lead to brand loyalty through perceived control, flow and consumer happiness under the moderating influences of brand image and voice congruity.

This study conducted a 2 (locus of agency: high vs. low) by 2 (brand image-voice congruity: congruent vs. incongruent) between-subjects experimental design. MANOVA, ANOVA and structural equation modeling (SEM) were conducted to test the hypothesized model.

ANOVA results revealed that human-centric (vs. machine-centric) agency led to higher perceived control. The interaction effect was significant, indicating the importance of congruency between brand image and VAs' voices. SEM results confirmed that perceived control predicted brand loyalty fully mediated by flow experience and consumer happiness.

This study provides evidence that the positive technology paradigm could carve out a new path in existing literature on AI-powered devices by showing the potential of a smart device as a tool for improving consumer–brand relationships and enriching consumers' well-being.