The purpose of this study is to investigate symbolic consumption of fashion global brands and its relation to the self. This work adopts a qualitative approach and the “tripartite model of self” (Brewer & Yuki, 2007) to study brand meaning among consumers in two different cultural settings: UK and Colombia. Findings show how some meanings change among groups, addressing different self-identity needs, motivations and tensions. This work contributes to debates around international marketing strategies.

Many studies in the marketing literature focus on investigating the effects of brand attachment and self-congruence on favorable consumer behavior, such as brand loyalty, positive Word-of-Mouth, resilience to negative information (Thomson et al., 2005, Japutra et al., 2014a). However, limited studies examine the relationship between brand attachment, self-congruence and negative consumer behavior. For instance, Johnson et al. (2011) posit that when consumers are in relationships with brands and more self-relevant, they are more likely to induce retaliatory actions when the relationship ends. Highlighting the dark side of brand attachment, Japutra et al. (2014b) show that stronger brand attachment leads to a wide range of unwanted consumer behaviors including trash-talk, Schadenfreude, and anti-brand actions. These studies show how brand attachment is capable of hurting consumers. However, only limited studies pay attention on the negative consequences of brand attachment (e.g. Johnson et al., 2011; Japutra et al., 2014b). The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of self-congruence and brand attachment on compulsive buying behavior.

The Consumer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) literature has, in recent years, introduced various CBBE models and measurement scales. This study aims to compare the external validity of the two prominent CBBE models in the fashion retail industry; those introduced by Yoo and Donthu (2011) based on Aaker (1991)’s CBBE concept and Nam et al. (2011). In order to make this comparison, the study collected data from 285 respondents in Turkey. Research findings show that Nam et al.’s (2011) CBBE model is, in the fashion industry context, the more reliable and valid. When the concept of “brand awareness” is included in this model, the psychometric properties of the model are improved.