The Relationship between Self-Concept and Brand Personality

Self-concept is a collection of individual thoughts and feelings that one refers to himself. According to Grubb & Grathwohl, self-image is a value that a customer perceives for his or her own person and the behaviors that are made in the purchasing process are of value to maintain or increase it. In fact, the practice of buying and displaying a brand by a customer is a symbolic tool in which one shows to others how valuable he is and to what extent he is committed to this. The self-concept is also 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. Either way, the consumer can achieve self-congruence by consuming a brand with a personality that he or she regards as similar to either the actual or ideal self. 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. 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"). Brunel, conceived the notion of self as a "multidimensional variable" term, which simultaneously includes three dimensions: 1) Cognitive dimension, including ideas, images and beliefs that the individual has about himself; 2) Sensation, including feelings and emotions that the individual has of himself; 3) Social dimension, includes all the perceptions and ideas that one thinks that others have on him. The point is what kind of idea can help brand managers and how they understand what benefits they bring. Self-image, which according to Gutheim & Tarnovskaya, can theoretically replace the concept of human personality, can predict future behaviors. Self-image has the ability to shape behavioral motives and direct them to specific products. Hence, awareness of the customer self-concept can be effective in determining their behavioral motivations, increasing purchase intention, loyalty and satisfaction. Grubb & Grathwohl found that consumer's different self-perceptions are associated with varying patterns of consumer behavior. They claimed that self-concept is a meaningful mode of market segmentation. Grubb found that beer drinkers perceived themselves as more confident, social, extroverted, forward, sophisticated, impulsive and temperamental than their non-beer-drinking brethren. However, the comparison of self-concept and beer brand profiles revealed inconclusive results: drinkers and nondrinkers perceived brands similarly. Dolich further tested the congruence relationship between self-images and product brands and concluded that there is a greater similarity between one's self-concept and images of his most preferred brands than images of least preferred brands. Dolich claimed that favored brands are consistent with and reinforce self-concept. Finally, Hamm & Cundiff related product perception to what they call self-actualization, that is, the discrepancy between the self and ideal self. Those with a small discrepancy were called low self-actualizers, a definition which does not seem consistent with Maslow's work on the hierarchy of needs. High self-actualizers describe themselves in terms of products differently from low self-actualizers and in turn perceive products differently. For both groups, some products such as house, dress, automatic dishwasher and art prints tend to represent an ideal-self, wife, or mother, while others such as cigarettes, TV dinners, or a mop do not.

Brand personality is a collection of human behavioral patterns that become habitual over time and are the basis for identification and prediction of individual. The personality is not exclusive to humans and is often based on the theory of imaginative thinking, which based on that, each individual object can be given a personality, independent of the body, the brands also have an independent character. According to Keller, the brand personality is a blend of the human characteristics that are in the reality, brand performance and the customer's minds about their brand. The question that follows from the definition of Aaker and also Geuens et al. is why brand identity is so important. Keller believes that the desirable brand personality gives the customer the opportunity to introduce himself in a more acceptable way, either in terms of himself or in terms of society, in the community and to better express his feelings and values. Maehle & Shneor also argue that customers can acquire a part of their desirable personality by purchasing a brand with particular personality characteristics and sometimes repairing their lost personality aspects through this method. Of course, brand personality has other benefits as well. In this regard, research indicates the effect of brand personality on brand preferences.

In regard to self-concept congruity, Sirgy proposed four types of congruencies based on four types of customer self-concept; actual, ideal, social and ideal-social. Actual- congruency means that the customer perceives brand features in line with reality and his expectations. Ideal-congruency is the idea that the brand has, in terms of the customer, features that can help him achieve his or her ideals. Social congruency also means that the customer thinks using a particular brand consolidates and strengthens her current social status, while in the ideal-social congruity, the brand has the characteristics that the customer can buy, so he can achieve what he likes in society. Sirgy believes that, despite some exceptions, the second-to-last (ideal, social and ideal-social) level of congruency is often applied to brands that have a luxurious look and the customer tries to buy these brands, focusing on ideals, social and ideal-social congruencies. However, for essential brands such as the branding of the banking service provider, more actual congruency is needed. The general arguments we have discussed apply to both actual and ideal self-congruence. What differentiates them is the underlying motive. In terms of actual self-congruence, self-verification theory indicates that people are motivated to verify, validate and sustain their existing self-concepts. They search for experiences that affirm their sense of self and avoid those experiences that threaten their sense of self. Self-verification leads to positive self-evaluations and positive evaluations of others that facilitate attachment to others. In addition, the self-verification motive leads people to behave in ways consistent with how they see themselves. One way to accomplish this is to consume a brand with a personality that is congruent with the actual self, which results in positive reinforcement for the consumer and leads to positive feelings about the brand and greater emotional brand attachment.

H1: Perceived actual self-congruity has a positive impact on emotional attachment to the brand.

In terms of ideal self-congruence, self-enhancement has been identified as people's underlying tendency to seek information that increases their self-esteem. Self-enhancement theory assumes that people are motivated to increase their feelings of personal worth. This motive drives people to approach their aspirations (i.e., their ideal self) to enhance their self-esteem. A brand with a personality that reflects consumer's ideal selves can support them in their self-enhancement activities by giving them the feeling of getting closer to their ideal self. Thus, if the consumer sees his or her aspirations and dreams embodied in a brand (i.e., ideal self-congruence), he or she will be attracted to that brand and become emotionally attached to it.

H2: Perceived Ideal self-congruity has a positive impact on emotional attachment to the brand.

Several researchers have confirmed the effect of consistency between customer self-concept and brand personality on customer behavior. Cheung & Lau believe that the greater the congruity of self-image with the brand personality, the customer is more likely to choose the brand with his information and perceptions in his purchasing decisions. So, if there's a high level of alignment between the customer's self-concept and the brand personality, then the customer will likely buy the brand with a higher intention. Kim et al. point to the effects of this congruence on the emotional attachment of the customer to the brand; Park & Lee argue that this correspondence affects the quality of brand communication with the client. Referring to the effects of this synchronicity from another perspective, Mishra et al. argues that if the congruency is at a weak, moderate and high level, it leads to the separation of the customer from the brand, the risk of brand change and increased loyalty, respectively. According to Wang et al., the congruency between the brand and customers personality affects customers intent of buying.

Emotional Attachment to brand: Attachment Theory, first was introduced in psychology by Bowlby. He defines emotional attachment, as a purposeful emotional relationship between an individual and an object or an existing one and this relationship meets a basic human need. It entails from the dependence of a newborn to his mother to the need for relationships and love in an adult. Based on this theory, the degree of emotional attachment to an object or an entity predicts the nature of personal interactions with it and accordingly, individuals who deeply sympathize with another person tend to commit more to him, to work more closely with him, save him, sacrifice him and if he fails, they are unhappy and painful. Brand research has shown that the consumer can also depend on the brands and the brand's attachment is defined as the degree of communication that connects the brand to the person. In fact, the attachment between the brand and consumer is an emotional relationship which goes beyond the brand's attitude and appears with a sense of desire and pleasure. Accordingly, the consumer is associated with the brand on the subconscious level, he engages with the brand, so that he does not want to disconnect from it.

Construal-Level Theory (CLT) states that the time interval, the perceived proximity of an event in time, can affect the reaction of individuals to future events by altering their mental representations of events. The longer the interval is, the greater the event happens to be understood by its abstract characteristics (high-level interpretation), if given by its tangible characteristics, a low-level interpretation takes place. This theory suggests that people find something that does not directly experience reality, in a psychological far way. For example, by moving from representing an object as a "cellular phone" to representing it as "a communication device," we omit information about size; moving from representing an activity as "playing ball" to representing it as "having fun", we omit the ball. Concrete representations typically lend themselves to multiple abstractions. For example, a cellular phone could be construed also as a "small object," and "playing ball" could be construed as "exercising". An abstract representation is selected according to its relevance to one's goals. With this in mind, the actual-self is defined on the basis of the reality of an individual; and ideal-self is an ideal of the person's perceptions and goals of himself. In fact, the actual-self of one is mentally and psychologically close to her and the ideal-self is thought to be far-fetched, this theory plays an important role in the congruency of the actual versus ideal-self with the brand and also shaping the emotional attachment toward the brand. The construal-level theory has generated significant research in consumer behavior, including studies on brand extensions. It may also play a role in the relative importance of actual versus ideal self-congruence for emotional brand attachment. Specifically, the actual and ideal selves are associated with certain levels of psychological distance, which then affect the construal level and the degree of emotional brand attachment.

The theory of self-verification states that individuals tend to maintain their existence and to validate it; they seek out experiences that confirm their self and avoid threats. Confirmation of self leads to a positive self-assessment that facilitates the attachment to others; In addition, this causes individuals to behave consistently with their actual-self. One way to achieve this is to use a brand with a personality that is in congruence with real-self, which will enhance the consumer's positive feelings and creates a pleasant feeling in him and ultimately affects the brand's attachment.

Self-reinforcement theory (self-enhancement) is a type of stimulus whose purpose is to create a good sense in relation to oneself and to increase self-esteem. This motivation becomes more prominent in the condition of threat, failure or shock. Self-enhancement means the information preference that increases the self-esteem of people. A brand with a personality that protects individuals ideal, increases self-help activities in the individual and makes them feel ideal. So when she sees her own ideal person in a brand, her attention is attracted to that brand and this will create an emotional attachment with the person. In the case of ideal self-congruence, self-enhancement strategies become central. In particular, people with low self-esteem are more likely to have a gap between their actual and ideal selves. Self-enhancement is a way to reduce this discrepancy.

Our first two hypotheses refer to the impact of actual and ideal self-congruity on emotional brand attachment. On a general level, we can state that the brand's personality provides the basis for the consumer's affection toward the brand by animating and humanizing the underlying brand. It is important to note that the hypothesized effects in H1 and H2 may not be equally pronounced for all people. In other words, these effects may be stronger for those with certain characteristics or predispositions. Thus, we further explore three key variables that might moderate the relationship between self-congruence and emotional brand attachment.

Service engagement: The consumer engagement is defined by the degree to which he interferes with an object, situation, or action and is related to the degree to which he perceives the relation from the concept. In order to understand the roles of customers in the production process and the provision of services, customer engagement in the service (product) must be addressed first. In general, three types of engagement in the service (product) provision process can be addressed to customers: 1) Customer interaction with the service provider; 2) Customer interaction with service environment; 3) Customer interaction with other customers. When involvement is low, consumers may not be willing to process deeply and therefore do not engage in the cognitive elaboration required to engage in self-verification. In this case, the product is not important enough for consumers to invest the effort of choosing the brand as a self-verifying brand relationship partner. As a result, these consumers are less likely to make the connection between the brand and their actual self and therefore are less likely to form an emotional brand attachmen, which leads to the following hypothesis:

H3 (a): Service engagement strengthens the relationship between actual self-congruity and emotional attachment to the brand.

According to MacInnis & De Mello, brands or products that envision ideals can be sources of hope and promote status, desires, symbolic self-completion and enhanced self-esteem. When involvement is low, consumers can simply experience the positive emotions (such as hope) associated with the brand, thereby increasing their emotional brand attachment. These arguments lead us to the following hypothesis:

H3 (b): Service engagement weakens the relationship between ideal self-congruity and emotional attachment to the brand.

Self-esteem: Self-esteem is a sense of worthiness. This feeling comes from the sum of our thoughts, feelings, emotions and experiences throughout life; we feel that we are loved or disliked; we love ourselves or not. The collection of thousands of impressions, assessments and experiences we have about ourselves makes us feel unpleasant about ourselves, or vice versa. Self-esteem differs from self-concept; self-concept is the set of features that a person uses to describe himself (in terms of physical, rational, social, etc.). For example, a person may consider himself a good footballer or a fairly good person, which is the content of self-concept, but self-esteem is the value of information within the self-concept for a person and results from the individual's beliefs about all traits and characteristics that are in him. Self-esteem can be considered as the value we consider for ourselves; we see ourselves as we think others see us. In the case of ideal self-congruence, self-enhancement strategies become central. In particular, people with low self-esteem are more likely to have a gap between their actual and ideal selves.

H4 (a): Self-esteem strengthens the relationship between actual self-congruity and emotional attachment to the brand.

People with high self-esteem rarely attempt to bolster their feelings of worth because their actual-ideal self-discrepancy tends to be low. As a consequence, they are less likely to engage in self-enhancement strategies and therefore do not experience the positive emotions that result from such a symbolic self-improvement. Thus, they are less likely to develop a strong emotional attachment with self-enhancing brands.

H4 (b): Self-esteem weakens the relationship between ideal self-congruity and emotional attachment to the brand.

Public self-awareness: Self-awareness or the nature of the mind is the knowledge and perception that one has of himself. In other words, self-awareness involves our knowledge of ourselves and its increase means that a person has a clear picture of his qualities, values, attitudes, interests and needs; and his sense of consciousness is the ability to consciously think about himself, including features that are unique to one. Publicly self-conscious persons are especially concerned about the impression they make on others. People who are high rather than low in public self-consciousness are more concerned about physical appearances and fashions; are more likely to use self-presentation strategies to gain approval from others; are more compliant with normative standards in social contexts; are more likely to distance themselves from negative reference groups; and are more sensitive to interpersonal rejection. Publicly self-conscious consumers will appreciate authentic self-expression because they can feel more in control of the social interaction. By consuming an actually self-congruent brand, they create a public impression that generates expectations they feel they can meet, which leads to a closer emotional bond with the brand. Less publicly self-conscious consumers, however, are much less concerned about others impressions and therefore care less about expressing themselves in an accurate way. They do not gain the same positive emotions that result from self-expression through brands that are congruent with the actual self. Thus, we hypothesize the following:

H5 (a): Public self-awareness strengthens the relationship between actual self-congruity and emotional attachment to the brand.

Consumers with high public self-consciousness are aware of the need to fulfill social expectations and worry about the negative public impression they make in the case of not meeting these expectations. This perceived risk of reputational damage and the associated lack of control of public image can result in negative emotions toward the source of that risk: the ideally self-congruent brand, which leads to a lower emotional attachment toward such a brand among consumers with high public self-consciousness. In contrast, consumers with low public self-consciousness care less about their public perception. Consequently, they should be less concerned about the risk of overpromising and failing to meet these promises. They also would take less risks and care less about their failure to live up to high expectations because they are less concerned with regard to their public impression on others. Therefore, negative emotions toward the underlying brand evoked by risky self-exposure should not play an important role. Thus, negative emotions do not interfere with the positive emotions the consumer has because of the self-enhancement potential of an ideally self-congruent brand. These positive emotions should then increase the consumer's emotional brand attachment.

H5 (b). Public self-awareness weakens the relationship between ideal self-congruity and emotional attachment to the brand.