Effects of Activated Self-Concepts on Advertisement and Brand Attitudes

Abstract

Consumers often choose to purchase a brand based on its associations with perceived reference groups. The brand imbued with a personality then helps consumers create or maintain various types of self-concepts. Escalas and Bettman (2003) have found that people who tend to self-enhance prefer brands that are associated with aspirational groups while people who tend to self-verify prefer brands that are associated with membership groups. Extending upon their findings, the present study investigates how priming self-enhancement goals or self-verification goals influences consumers’ attitudes toward brands and advertisements that are associated with either membership groups or aspirational groups. The results demonstrate that while priming does not have a direct correlation with ad and brand attitudes, the combination of priming and preexisting self-motivation tendencies significantly influence brand and ad preferences. Participants who agreed with the self-enhancement statement had more positive attitudes for the brand and the advertisement associated with aspirational groups, and participants who agreed with the self-verification statement had more positive attitudes for the brand and the advertisement associated with membership groups. In addition, the degree to which participants identified or wished to identify with the reference groups was positively correlated to their ad and brand attitudes. The findings’ marketing and self-concept implications are discussed.