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The Role of Value congruity and Consumer Brand Identification toward Development of Brand Commitment and Positive

Word of Mouth

Apple was cited as an example because it was a popular brand with significant sales and a positive brand image that has

succeeded in building and maintaining emotional ties with its customer.

“Social identification and categorization theory suggest that an individual would

identify with a social category when the social category and its associated social identityenhances individual self esteem, and in order to preserve the attractiveness of the social

identity, the individual would engage in various behaviors that relates positively to that

category (He and Li 2010).”

Tuskej, et.al (2011) defines consumers’ identification with a brand as “Perception of

sameness between the brand and the consumer”. Meanwhile, Lam et al (2010) define

consumer-brand identification as a customer’s psychological state of perceiving, feeling, and

valuing his or her belongingness (i.e. psychological oneness that stems from actual or

symbolic membership) with a brand. Kim, et al. (2001) suggest that consumer brand

identification reflects the degree to which brand expresses and enhances consumers’ identity.

Del Rio, et.al (2001) suggest that personal identification function is one of several functions

performed by brand, and these functions would contribute toward the brand’s marketing

performance.According to Del Rio et al (2001), personal identification function is related to degree to

which consumer identify themselves with a brand and develop feelings of empathy and

similarity with the brand.

This process is in line with self-congruity theory (Johar & Sirgy 1991) which defines value

congruity as consumers’ mental comparison in respect to the similarity or dissimilarity of an

entity's values and consumers’ own set of values. Meanwhile, by drawing from past

literatures, Aguirre-Rodriguez, et al (2011) suggest that self congruity concept stems from

match between consumer self concept and a brand personality facet (either brand

personification or stereotypical brand users).

According to Aguirre-Rodriguez, et al (2011) self-congruity effect has been proposed to largely determine the success of value

expressive brands, since congruity between their brand personalities and targeted consumers’ self -concepts produces favorable

consumer responses such as brand attitudes and purchase intentions. This is in line with Del Rio, et al’s (2001) suggestion that

the greater the consistency (or congruity) between the brand’s image and the consumer’s self image, the higher the consumer’s evaluation of the brand and eventually, the higher his/her

willingness to buy the brand.

To measure self congruity, some researchers suggest that perceived brand values and

consumer values can be used to measure self congruity (Tuskej et al 2011).

Discussion

This study supports conclusion from original study by Tuskej et al (2011) that consumers’

identification is important as basic psychological force that enables the formation of

committed and meaningful relationships with brands” (Tuskej, et al 2011, p. 4).

In this study, value congruity was found to positively affect consumers’ identification and

affective brand commitment. Value congruity also found to influence social compliance

brand commitment and positive WOM indirectly. This means that the higher the value

congruence between a product and its consumers, the higher the chance for the product to

receive favorable outcomes in terms of commitment and positive word of mouth. This

supports proposition made by Aguirre-Rodriguez, et al (2011) that congruity between brand

personalities and targeted consumers’ self concepts would produce favorable consumer

responses.

Strength of impact of consumer identification to two different types of commitment is also



found to be different. Path from consumer identification to social compliance brand

commitment exhibit higher factor loading (0.63) than the path to affective brand commitment

(0.39). This indicates that in this study, consumer identification has more impact on social

compliance brand commitment than on affective brand commitment. Bhattacharya & Sen

(2003) contend that identification makes people feel attached, thus motivates them to commit.

Given the significance of consumer brand identification found in this study as well as

substantiated in previous studies, marketers need to focus on how to increase identification.

Value congruity has been found to affect identification. Thus one way a marketer can do to

increase identification is by carefully selecting unique and positive values to be built into a

brand and communicated to its target market.

This study, which was conducted on Apple users in Indonesia found that: (1) value congruity

positively influence consumers’ affective brand commitment, both direc tly as well as through

consumers’brand identification (2) Value congruity is not found to be directly influence

social compliance brand commitment, but only through consumers’ brand identification



2012_Winter_Proceedings

Emotional Brand Attachment and

Brand Personality: The Relative

Importance of the Actual and

the Ideal Self

Creating emotional brand attachment is a key branding issue in today’s marketing world. One way to accomplish

this is to match the brand’s personality with the consumer’s self. A key question, however, is whether the brand’s

personality should match the consumer’s actual self or the consumer’s ideal self. On the basis of two empirical

studies of 167 brands (evaluated by 1329 and 980 consumers), the authors show that the implications of selfcongruence

for consumers’ emotional brand attachment are complex and differ by consumers’ product involvement,

consumers’ individual difference variables, and the type of self-congruence (fit of the brand’s personality with the

consumer’s actual self versus with the consumer’s ideal self). On a general level, actual self-congruence has the

greatest impact on emotional brand attachment. Product involvement, self-esteem, and public self-consciousness

increase the positive impact of actual self-congruence but decrease the impact of ideal self-congruence on

emotional brand attachment.

The self-concept is defined as the cognitive and affective understanding of who and what we are and can take

two forms: the “actual self” and the “ideal self.” The actual self is based on the perceived reality of oneself (i.e., who

and what I think I am now), whereas the ideal self is shaped by imagination of ideals and goals related to what a person

believes that he or she would like to be or aspire to become (Lazzari, Fioravanti, and Gough 1978; Wylie 1979).

Actual self-congruence reflects the consumer’s perception of the fit between the actual self and the brand’s personality,

whereas ideal self-congruence is the perceived fit of the brand personality with the consumer’s ideal self (Aaker 1999). An

actually self-congruent brand reflects who the consumer actually is (“this brand’s personality is like who I really am”), whereas

an ideally self-congruent brand reflects who the consumer would like to be (“this brand’s personality is like who I would like to

be”).

The dependent variable in our framework is “emotional brand attachment.” In psychology, attachment is an emotion laden

bond between a person and a specific object (Bowlby 1979). In a marketing context, people can also build and

maintain emotionally charged relationships with brands (Belk 1988; Fournier 1998). Thus, emotional brand attachmentreflects the bond that connects a consumer with a specific brand and involves feelings toward the brand. These feelings

include affection, passion, and connection (Thomson, Mac - Innis, and Park 2005), which represent “hot” affect from the

brand’s linkage to the self (Mikulincer and Shaver 2007).

Product involvement has important implications for consumer information processing and has been shown to be

an important contingency variable for the success of various marketing strategies and activities (e.g., MacInnis and

Park 1991; Petty and Cacioppo 1986). According to Celsi and Olson (1988, p. 211), “a consumer’s level of involvement

with an object, situation, or action is determined by the degree to which s/he perceives that concept to be personally

relevant” (see also Zaichkowsky 1985). Similarly, Park and Young (1986, p. 11) state that “most researchers

agree that the level of involvement can be understood by the degree of personal relevance or importance.” In addition,

Richins and Bloch (1986) define involvement in terms of the consumer’s degree of interest or arousal for a given

product. On the basis of these previous studies, we define product involvement as the personal relevance of the product,

which is determined by the extent to which the product is interesting and important to the consumer.

When personally relevant knowledge is activated in memory, a motivational state is created that energizes or drives

consumers’ cognitive behavior (e.g., attention, comprehension, information search; Celsi and Olson 1988) or affective

responses (e.g., emotions; Park and Young 1986).

Self-esteem refers to a person’s overall evaluation of his or her worthiness as a human being (Rosenberg 1979).

Traditionally, self-esteem has been conceptualized as a unidimensional construct that represents an “overall positivenegative

attitude toward the self” (Tafarodi and Swann 1995, p. 322). People with high self-esteem like, value, and

accept themselves, imperfections and all. Low self-esteem represents an unfavorable definition of the self. However,

each of us is strongly driven to feel good about ourself, and we try to maintain and enhance our self-esteem (for a



review, see Wylie 1979). In the current context, one way to do so is to consume brands that are congruent with either

our actual or ideal self-view (Sirgy 1982).

The primary focus of our research was to develop a better understanding of when marketers should emphasize a brand

personality related to aspirations (i.e., tailored to the consumers’ ideal self) or the real (actual) consumer self to

increase emotional brand attachment. Our findings support the view that self-congruence can increase emotional brand

attachment; however, both the type of self-congruence and the context/consumer characteristics must be considered.

Our results indicate that product involvement is an important moderator of the relationship between self-congruence

and emotional brand attachment. When involvement is high, the brand is more personally relevant, and

the consumer will elaborate on the connections between the brand and his or her actual self. If these comparisons are

congruent, the consumer’s actual self is verified, and the

The second moderating variable was self-esteem. Our results are consistent with the notion that consumers with high self-

esteem are attracted to a brand that is congruent with their actual self because of a self-verification process, which helps

consumers feel good about themselves and builds stronger brand connections. Consumers with low self-esteem, however,

would find brands related to the ideal self more attractive because these brands represent an opportunity to make them feel

better about themselves by association (i.e., self-enhancement). In contrast, brands congruent with the actual self are

perceived negatively when consumers do not feel good about their current selves. Again, these findings add to the knowledge

on reasons that actual and ideal self-congruence work in different situations.

Public self-consciousness is the final moderating variable. Our results indicate that when public self-consciousness is

high, actual self-congruence produces stronger emotional brand attachment. Again, this finding illustrates the importance

of the authentic self-expression motive in relation to brand personality. When public self-consciousness is high, consumers

form attachments with brands that allow them to express who they really are. In contrast, ideally self-congruent brands lead

to a stronger emotional brand attachment only with consumers who have a low level of public self-consciousness.

An academic implication of this finding is that in addition to the congruence between the brand and self, the social context

plays a key role in the development of emotional attachment to a brand as well

Our findings indicate that there are four important issues for managers to consider when trying to increase consumers’

emotional brand attachment: (1) incorporating consumers’ selves into branding considerations, (2) focusing on authentic

branding, (3) reconsidering aspirational branding, and (4) individualizing their branding efforts.

Our studies show that to emotionally connect consumers to their brands, marketing managers should adopt a

customer-oriented perspective in defining brand personality that takes the selves of their targeted customers into

consideration.



12_4_p05

IMPACT OF VIRTUAL BRAND EXPERIENCE ON PURCHASE INTENTIONS:

THE ROLE OF MULTICHANNEL CONGRUENCE

The results suggest that a person's self-identity, and

information consistent with that identity, may influence their attitudes and behavior across multiple marketingchannels. Virtual world brand experiences may be perceived as more meaningful and memorable when the

consumer is able to identify with other users of the brand in the virtual world, and the brand's image in the virtual

environment is consistent with the consumer's self-concept.



627203

Brand personality and self-image are two

research tracks which increased our knowledge

of the relationships between consumers and

brands (Vernette, 2003). Sirgy (1982) explains

that the concept of self-image is used as acognitive referent in the evaluation of symbolic

elements. The consumer seeks certain

congruence between the features of a brand’s

image and the way his personality is presented

(Belk, 1988; Sirgy, 1982). In other words, the

consumer would express his self-image by

choosing brands the personality of which

appears to him close to his own personality

(Vernette, 2008).

As a matter of fact, brands have an impact on the

consumer’s behavior, for the consumercompares his image to that of the brand,

whether implicitly or explicitly. He often sets

some imaginary relationships with it. He can

situate himself in relation to a given brand

through congruence, or lack of it , between his

own personality and that which he attributes to

a given brand (Plummer, 1985; Biel, 1993).

From a managerial perspective, congruence

between brand personality and self-image is an

important concept which companies should take

into account in order to develop and bettermanage their brand.



im_en_2009_4_Khare

Role of individual self-concept and brand personality congruence in

determining brand choice

RESULTS:The greater the congruence between

brand personality and the consumer's ideal/actual

self-image is, the higher the acceptability of the

brand will be. It may be

because the consumer is able to reduce the

discrepancies that exist between his/her actual and

ideal self-image by the purchase of the brand and it

enhances his/her self-esteem

The evaluation and purchase of brands by

consumers is based upon its having congruence with

the self-construct of the consumers. The higher thedegree of congruence a brand has with the

consumers’ personality and how he/she perceives

himself/herself, the higher is the likelihood that the

brand will get acceptance with the consumer. In the

case of youths, the primary motive is to appear

smart, modern and be a part of the global youth

community. Therefore, the brands that personify

youthfulness, debonair-looking, enthusiastic, chic

and classy would have greater acceptability.



The Ideal Self at Play in videogames (Przybylski et al., 2012)

Regressional analyses supported study 1’s results in that higher self-convergence scores led to greater intrinsic motivation.

Post-play affect was also supported in that self-convergence scores led to greater positive affect and lesser negative affect.

They followed-up with another analysis by controlling for the mean level of the self-convergence score and found that the link

for negative affect remained significant, but positive affect was not significant.

As for immersion’s role as moderator between game-ideal self-convergence and intrinsic motivation, having a highly immersive

experience improved intrinsic motivation among individuals with high game-ideal self-convergence scores. In contrast, a poorly

immersive experience lowered intrinsic motivation for the same group. Among individuals with higher actual-ideal and game-

ideal self-discrepancy scores, a poorly immersive experience lowered intrinsic motivation.

The authors’ hypothesis that videogames allow players to experience their ideal self within its virtual worlds was supported in

both the laboratory and online survey settings. This benefit of ideal and gaming self congruence in videogames is expressed by

higher intrinsic motivation and positive feelings. The relationship is stronger among individuals who felt a wide discrepancy

between their actual (i.e. real life) self and their ideal self making videogames attractive as a welcoming social space because it

allowed them to achieve greater congruence of self than the outside world.

The authors noted this as well and wondered whether such attraction can be construed as compensatory or constructive and

what long-term effects are entailed.

The study investigated a specific aspect of the self that is through the Big Five personality dimensions. However, other aspects

of identity are not explored yet. Rereading the introduction section, videogames was proposed to help expand and promote the

development of one’s self because of its mutable context and the ease to adopt identit ies, idealize identities. I must question

this proposition in light one’s development of their ethnic and sexual identities.



Consumer Perceptions & Video Game Sales- A Meeting of the Minds

Consumer Perceptions & Video Game Sales: A

Meeting of the Minds

The most important finding to this paper is that indeed, quality is still a major driver ofvideo game sales. The results suggest that consumers still try to spend their money rationally

by purchasing the titles that critics consider qualitatively superior. However, it is important to

note that this does not necessarily mean that people read reviews. While there is certainly a

chance that many consumers do, it is also possible that people buy games based on positive

word of mouth from people they know or some other source. In either case, the effect that

quality has on a video game’s eventual sales is a dramatic one, which suggests that for

developers, the key to a commercial success is not to invest in a popular license or developing a

middling game in a popular genre – it is to make the best product possible.

One of the more surprising outcomes from the regression was that the platform on which a

game is released does not appear to have a significant effect on sales. Theory suggested that

the opposite would be true since putting a game on a popular system should increase sales, yet

the results indicate that platform cannot drive sales on its own. This could change in the futureif video game systems begin to differentiate themselves, but this is not yet the case.

The lack of significance for genre suggests that merely developing a game in a popular genre

is not enough to generate sales. While it is true that some releases in the first person shooter

genre, for example, have enjoyed massive success, there is no guarantee that making a certain

type of game will generate consumer interest. A glance at the titles that have been most

successful in this genre reveals that the highest sales coincide with the highest aggregate

review score, reemphasizing the importance of product quality in selling games. This does not

necessarily mean that genre is a complete non-factor, however. As Guitar Hero demonstrated,

releasing a high-quality game in the right genre can generate massive success for the producer.

Despite the increased emphasis on license-based games and sequels over the past few

years, these results were also insignificant. A possible explanation is that license-based games

do not sell huge numbers, but these games are cheap enough to produce that the number of

units sold is adequate for the producer to secure a profit. As for sequels, companies may focus

on sequels simply because there is a lower risk involved and a better chance of at least breaking

even – not because they expect every sequel to be met with massive sales.



p1-vorderer

EXPLAINING THE ENJOYMENT OF PLAYING VIDEO GAMES: THE

ROLE OF COMPETITION

This article has elaborated the importance of competitive elements as determinant of

enjoyment in playing computer games and factors that foster the selection ofcomputer-games as offers of social competition. On a basic level, competitive

elements can be incorporated by such games because of their interactivity, which

allows for active engagement of the user in the playing process and for immediate

feedback on user’s actions. On a broader level, the user’s feeling to play against an

opponent likely evokes a social-competitive situation that should be especially capable

to engage and to involve the user. Therefore, it appears reasonable to regard

competition as a major factor in the explanation of video game enjoyment and of the

preference for such games.



vgu&g

Video Game Uses and Gratifications as Predictors of Use and Game Preference

While there is evidence for use of games to equilibrate emotions, the most

prominent of the motivations for game use are more social in nature. Responses in

the focus groups did not focus as much on gratifications derived from feelings ason relationships, resulting in only two emotional gratifications. In the survey

data, diversion is the third most popular reason for using video games, while

arousal ranks a very close fourth. Importantly, the two emotional gratifications

are consistent predictors of game play time across age groups. While they are not

the highest ranked gratifications overall, they are important predictors of amount

of play.

Results show that the game experience focuses on personal and social

gratifications. Players enjoy the challenge of “beating the game”, but also of

beating friends. For many, it is not enough to win the game; one’s exploits must

be known amongst one’s friends. Like other contests, such as sports, game

players can establish a place on a peer pecking order by being the best at a game.

Focus group data suggests that competition is most acute among sports andfighter genres—games in which players compete through both agility and

knowledge of the game. Unlike real world sports and fighting, the video game

world does not discriminate by physical height and strength, offering a more level

playing field than is found in the real world. Like the real world, games are used as

a source of social interaction, particularly for males. In fact, social interaction and

diversion gratifications were the strongest predictors of time spent playing video

games in the oldest three cohorts. Therefore, the diversion from life that video

games provide is not necessarily diversion from other people (c.f., Williams in this

volume). Instead, gaming appears to be a type of diversion that involves other

people in social interaction . This finding contradicts the idea of the solitary

player isolated from social contact. In fact, frequent game play appears to be

highly social with focus group participants describing the experience as being verysimilar to a group of guys shooting baskets at the park. The ritual is the same; the

location has changed.

Unlike findings from previous studies of television and film gratifications,

video game players did not mention using video games for learning (see Lieberman;

Ritterfeld & Weber in this volume). This is important for understanding the

mechanisms by which video games may effect users. Bandura (1994) argues that

social learning resulting from media messages occurs when users choose a role

model from a media portrayal and mode l the model’s behavior. Consistent with

this theory, in most television uses and gratifications studies respondents

that the major reason for using television is to learn about the world and about

they should act. Television viewers seek role models from television characters

and personalities, modeling their behaviors in real life. Given the purposeful use oftelevision for learning, social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1994) provides a logical

explanation of the effects of television. In fact, the storytelling nature of television

is consistent with centuries old socialization mechanism of folklore (Levi-Strauss,

1995). However, the data in these studies suggest that video game players may

not be learning by imitating video game role models as has been hypothesized by

video game researchers (e.g., Calvert & Tan, 1994; Irwin & Gross, 1995).

Bandura (1994) argues that during the attentional process stage, people “…

determine what is selectively observed in the profusion of modeling influences and



what information is extracted form ongoing modeled events.” (p. 67-68) Thus,

selection of role models is an active and purposeful behavior enacted via each

individual’s self -reflective capacity (see Bandura, 1994, p. 64-66). If video game

players were acquiring behavior via a social learning mechanism, they would be

aware of and self-reflective upon their choices. However, video game users do not

report using games to learn how to behave in the same manner as television and

film viewers do. While there may be incidental social learning of behavior, it ismore likely that video game effects will result from another mechanism such as

arousal transfer, priming, or possibly desensitization.

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