Influence of consumer personality, brand personality, and corporate personality on brand preference: an empirical investigation of interaction effect

Abstract

Purpose The relationship between brand personality and consumer personality has become a researched issue in recent years. It is viewed that marketers start the dialogue with consumers through personality route by building brand personality in line with consumers’ own personality traits. Moreover, in the midst of stiff competition, role of corporate personality, as a component of corporate identity, has been considered instrumental behind the success of the organization. As a result, there might be a possibility that other than his/her own personality traits, a consumer’s brand preference may be influenced by both brand personality and corporate personality of the said brand marketer. So, the predictive roles of individual personality, brand personality and corporate personality on consumer brand preference formation need to be empirically investigated so that the same may be addressed strategically. However, as per knowledge of the researcher, no empirical study has been made to investigate the predictive role of consumer personality, brand personality and corporate personality on brand preference. In this back drop, to the best of our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to fill this research gap by investigating firstly, the direct effects of individual personality of consumer, brand personality and corporate personality on consumer brand preference and secondly the impact of interaction effects of those variables on brand preference in the context of the emerging economies. Design/methodology/approach This study includes Indian four-wheeler passenger car market as the focal point of the study. As the product category is predominantly linked with symbolic benefits to the consumers, this target segment may be motivated to express their personality through the brands they prefer. As a result it may be an appropriate sector to study the influence of individual, brand and corporate personality behind brand preference. In this study, we have used an anonymous self-administered structured questionnaire. Part A captured respondent’s brand preference. Part B used The Big Five Model personality scale. Part C used the ‘Brand Personality Scale’ proposed by Aaker (1997) as a measure of brand personality. Part D comprised ‘Corporate Personality Scale’ developed by Davies et al. (2001). Part E recorded demographic data, including age, income, educational qualification and occupation. For Part B, C and D, Respondents were asked to rate each of the dimensions, using a five-point Likert scale, ranging from 5=Most descriptive to 1=Least Descriptive. The validity of the theoretical model is tested through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). In the first stage, main effects of the proposed model are tested. In the next stage, we have tested interaction effects of constructs on band preference. To test the hypotheses multiple regression method has been used. Findings The result of main effects shows that individual and brand personality has significant impact on brand preference for the considered brand by the consumers. This implies that at the time of brand preference, consumers give due importance to individual personality and personality of the considered brand of SUV. A strong and clear brand personality indicates a favorable view about the brand. Further, the result shows at the time of buying decision, personalities of both product and corporate brand are influencing their preferences. Here, consumers might be making strong association between corporate and brand personalities. In addition, interaction effects among individual, brand and corporate personality are also significant. One may view from the result that consumers do not encourage compartmentalize thinking at the time of brand choice. In place of considering his/her own personality and brand and corporate personality as a standalone entity, they think in totality and interaction effects have significant influence on their brand preference. Research limitations/implications The paper has mentioned limitations: the restriction on selecting industry, company and brand, the restraint of sampling coverage and lack of generalization of the study findings. The implications should be interpreted with care. In this study we have not compared different brands from same industry or brands from different industries; there is a scope to do so. Moreover, this study considers results from one national context and, consequently, cross-national study may be conducted to extend the validity of the findings. Practical implications The findings from this study may enlighten brand marketers about the degree of influence of brand personality, corporate personality, and consumer personality on brand preference. This study advocates interaction effects of individual, brand and corporate on consumer brand preference. From this study perspective, we may say, brand personality and corporate personality provide significant opportunity for creation of uniqueness and have the potential to significantly influence brand preference. Originality/value This paper makes two contributions to the brand management literature. First, it provides new empirical evidence of the positive main effect of individual and brand personality on brand preference. Second, this paper first investigates interaction effects of individual personality, brand personality and corporate personality on brand preference. This is a very unique contribution of the paper. The results provide new insights for academic and practitioners into the relationship among individual personality, brand personality and corporate personality. This study is the first attempt to fill this research gap by investigating the impact of consumer personality, brand personality and corporate personality on brand preference.