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Research on the symbolic use of commercial brands has shown that individuals prefer those brands matching their own personality. While the Big Five model of human personality is universal, brand personality attributions are partly culture-specific. Furthermore, research investigating brand-related trait attributions has largely neglected negatively valenced traits. Consequently, the objective of this research was to identify and operationalize indigenous German brand personality attributions from a person-centric perspective. This approach entails an exploration of those positive as well as negative human personality dimensions applicable and relevant to brands. Within two studies, four dimensions of brand personality (Drive, Conscientiousness, Emotion, and Superficiality) were identified. A preliminary 20-item instrument is proposed for the parsimonious measurement of brand personality attributions in the German cultural domain.
Keywords: brand personality, brand-related trait attributions, symbolic use of commercial brand, symbolic consumption, self-image congruence.
Beyond physical, utilitarian, and experiential attributes, commercial brands also carry significance as consumption symbols, stressing their capacity to fulfill symbolic or value expressive functions for the individual (Shavitt, 1990; Sirgy, Johar, Samli, & Claiborne, 1991). Empirical research in the fields of consumer psychology and marketing has extensively shown that by purchasing and utilizing commercial brands, individuals are inclined to maintain, enhance, or seek social approval of certain aspects of their self-concept (Belk, 1988; Dolich, 1969; Grubb & Grathwohl, 1967; Levy, 1959; Sirgy, 1985, 1986). In a nutshell, individuals hold favorable attitudes towards, and will most probably purchase, those brands matching their own personality. It is along these lines that the concept of brand personality has emerged (Aaker, 1997).
Departing from the seminal work published by Aaker (1997) which aims to operationalize brand personality attributions in the North American cultural domain, in the present paper the authors have endeavored to explore and measure the personality-related meaning of commercial brands in the German cultural context. Before the two studies conducted to identify (study 1), and validate (study 2), the way in which brand personality attributes are structured in the minds of individuals in Germany are addressed, the following two sections will briefly outline related research and our own conceptual approach.
AAKER'S BRAND PERSONALITY FRAMEWORK
According to Aaker (1997), brand personality is defined as the set of human characteristics associated with a brand (p. 347). While brand and human personality appear...