The purpose of this study was to investigate brand slognas that are effective in explaining how brand identity affects consumers. The effect of congruity between brand slogan and self-image (low and high) on attitude to slogans and brands were anaylzed. The moderating effect of self-monitoring (low and high) was also investigated. Survey data from 177 people in their 20s-30s were analyzed through descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and two-way ANOVA. First, congruity between slogan and self-image had a positive effect on both slogan and brand attitude. In other words, the higher the congruity between slogan and self-image, the more positive the attitude toward the slogan and brand. Second, no interactive effect was found in congruity between slogan and self-image and self-monitoring on slogan attitude; however it was identified for brand attitude. Again, in a group with high congruity between slogan and self-image, attitude toward the brand was more positive when self-monitoring was higher than when it was low. In conclusion, brand slogans that can represent the self-image of highly self-monitoring consumers are effective. In particular, this is meaningful as it has revealed its relationship with the impact of identity self-image congruity and self-monitoring on brand attitudes in fashion brands. These results offer meaningful guidance in determining brand slogans according to consumers’ personal characteristics.

Live-streaming commerce business is growing as the consumption of video content and Smartphone shopping increases. This study examines the following three aspects: whether para-social interaction influences perceived interactivity; whether seller trust affects satisfaction with the experience; whether relationships are controlled by a moderated mediator of self-image congruity. An online survey was conducted with 203 women aged 20-30 years. They were asked to respond to the survey after watching a beauty category live-streaming commerce broadcast. The results revealed that the para-social interaction had a significant effect on perceived interactivity, seller trust and satisfaction with the experience. The findings also indicated that the perceived interactivity and seller trust mediated the relationship between para-social interaction and satisfaction with the experience. Regarding the mediated moderation effect of self-image congruity, it was statistically significant between para-social interaction and perceived interactivity through seller trust. A higher level of consumer’s self-image congruity influenced the greater effect of para-social interaction on live commerce experience. This study makes important theoretical contributions to the para-social interaction in mobile commerce industry by emphasizing the mediating role of perceived interactivity and seller trust. This is achieved by examining the moderating effects of self-congruity on satisfaction with the experience. The results also verify the seller’s crucial role in live-streaming commerce market which leads to the consumers greater fulfillment.

This study defines Korean wave stars as Korean wave human brands and examines the influence of the characteristics, attachment, and self-congruity of the Korean wave human brand on brand equity. For this, this study surveyed Chinese female consumers in their 20s and 30s who consume many Korean wave products from May 2018 to June 2018. First, human brand characteristics, attachment, self-congruity, Korean wave aspiration level, and brand equity according to demographic characteristics were identified. Second, characteristics, attachment, self-congruity, and the aspiration level of the Korean wave human brand showed correlations with brand equity. However, brand awareness, a sub-factor of brand equity, does not show correlations with self-congruity. Third, characteristics, attachment, self-congruity, and Korean wave aspiration level had a positively influenced brand equity. Fourth, when looking into the mediated effect of attachment on brand equity, both human brand characteristics and self-congruity showed a partially mediated effect. Fifth, when analyzing the adjustment effect in the Korean wave aspiration level, a group with higher Korean wave aspiration level showed more correlations with attachment and brand equity. This study found that attachment and self congruity are important elements in forming human brand and brand equity. This study is significant in that it verified the influence of Korean wave brand power that has been on the rise recently on brand equity and provided a theoretical basis that has allowed researchers to determine that the characteristics, attachment, and self-congruity of Korean wave human brand significantly influence brand equity.

This study investigated how the image congruity of social commerce and fashion brand types affects purchase intention and how trust and price sensitivity moderate this relationship. National brands, private brands, and non-brands were used as brand types in the present study. The online survey method was used to gather the data, and 232 data samples were analyzed. The results of the research were as follows. Consumers perceived greater image congruity between social commerce and nonbrands, followed by private brands and national brands. The significant perception differences were examined by comparing the mean values. There was a significant positive effect of image congruity of social commerce and non-brands on purchase intention. However, insignificant effects were found for image congruity between social commerce and private brands and national brands. In addition, trust and price sensitivity positively predicted social commerce purchase intention. A significant moderating effect of trust was found on the relationship between purchase intention and image congruity of social commerce and non-brands. A moderating effect of price sensitivity was found on the relationship between purchase intention and image congruity of social commerce and private brands. The findings of the present study offer valuable insights into social commerce concerning implementing diverse fashion brands as well as academic and practical implications.

The study aims to investigate the effects of media and self-image congruity of ideal body image on the dieting and exercising behaviors of Korean and U.S. female college students. This study focuses on the concept of self-image congruity in order to examine how respondents perceive actual and desired self-images compared to an ideal female body image selected by respondents. A self-administered survey was conducted, resulting in 331 total responses (194 from Korean students and 137 from U.S. students). The data were analyzed through descriptive analysis, t-test, exploratory factor analysis, and regression analysis using SPSS 23.0. The findings revealed significant differences between Korean and U.S. female college students. U.S. students were more exposed to body image ideals in the media than Korean students; however, Korean female students valued the information regarding ideal body image conveyed by the media more than U.S. respondents. Among Korean female students, exposure to media messages regarding ideal body image and media importance had significant effects on desired self-image congruity, while these factors were not significant among U.S. students. However, there was a negative effect of media exposure on actual self-image congruity among U.S. respondents only. Additionally, the study uncovered that Korean students manage their body image through dieting behaviors while U.S. respondents manage body image through exercise behaviors (weight training as well as cardiovascular exercise). The study provides further support for self-image congruity, which extends its applications to the body image field.

Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs) are facing the dilemma: on one hand, communicating branding messages effectively to target markets all over the world requires abundant resources, while stakeholders within the destination have different (sometimes even conflicting) interests in destination branding on the other. Specifically, residents of a tourism destination have great potential in helping the place by being involved in tourism development and destination branding, due to the development of information technology. To investigate how self-congruity influences residents’ evaluation on the place, as well as their voluntary WOM behaviours, this article proposes self-congruity as a key construct affecting residents’ place satisfaction and expectation, and further influencing residents’ place related behaviours, such as word-of-mouth (WOM). An empirical study was conducted in Ljubljana, Slovenia, with 309 questionnaire collected. Via a structural equation modelling analysis, this study finds that variation of self-congruity in the impacts on place satisfaction and expectation, as well as two types of WOM behaviours, namely one-to-one WOM and one-to-many WOM. This provides evidence to support the standpoint that different WOM are motivated by different factors via different psychological mechanisms. Specifically, (1) actual self-congruity and place satisfaction (reflecting an evaluation of past of current performance of the place) only affect one-to-one WOM, suggesting that this type of WOM is mainly motivated by one’s current state; (2) ideal self-congruity was found to affect place expectation, suggesting a consistency in the expectation of one’s self image and the place; (3) one-to-many WOM has two indicators of ideal self-congruity and place expectation, implying publishing one’s opinions and thoughts is driven by expectation rather than current state. In general, the results add detailed and in-depth findings on distinguishing the motivations of different types of WOM in WOM literature.

Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs) are facing the dilemma: on one hand, communicating branding messages effectively to target markets all over the world requires abundant resources, while stakeholders within the destination have different (sometimes even conflicting) interests in destination branding on the other. Specifically, residents of a tourism destination have great potential in helping the place by being involved in tourism development and destination branding, due to the development of information technology. To investigate how self-congruity influences residents’ evaluation on the place, as well as their voluntary WOM behaviours, this article proposes self-congruity as a key construct affecting residents’ place satisfaction and expectation, and further influencing residents’ place related behaviours, such as word-of-mouth (WOM). An empirical study was conducted in Ljubljana, Slovenia, with 309 questionnaire collected. Via a structural equation modelling analysis, this study finds that variation of self-congruity in the impacts on place satisfaction and expectation, as well as two types of WOM behaviours, namely one-to-one WOM and one-to-many WOM. This provides evidence to support the standpoint that different WOM are motivated by different factors via different psychological mechanisms. Specifically, (1) actual selfcongruity and place satisfaction (reflecting an evaluation of past of current performance of the place) only affect one-to-one WOM, suggesting that this type of WOM is mainly motivated by one’s current state; (2) ideal self-congruity was found to affect place expectation, suggesting a consistency in the expectation of one’s self image and the place; (3) one-to-many WOM has two indicators of ideal self-congruity and place expectation, implying publishing one’s opinions and thoughts is driven by expectation rather than current state. In general, the results add detailed and in-depth findings on distinguishing the motivations of different types of WOM in WOM literature.

INTRODUCTION Online marketing has grown rapidly over the past years and has become a key component when making marketing mix decisions. Over 2014, internet advertising revenues in the U.S. increased 16% from the previous year to a total of $49.5 billion (IAB 2015). In addition, according to Online Publisher Association, video advertisements have reached the majority of the Internet users (66%), and have resulted in an action from almost half of the users. The significant business opportunities provided by the online environment are reflected as the increasing amount of attention for online advertising in academic research (Mei et al. 2008). It is yet to be researched how online videos and the accompanied online video advertisements interact and how advertisement customization can play a role to possibly optimize user experience and therefore the effectiveness of online video advertisements. Particularly, congruity forms a key opportunity for customization in embedded online video advertising. Congruity is defined as consistency between the ad and video or the advertised product and video (Moore et al. 2005). Evidences in extent literature have shown the positive effects of congruity on, for example, the processing fluency of the ad, the consumer attitudes towards the ad and the persuasiveness of the ad (Moore et al. 2005). However, in the context of online video advertising, limited research has been conducted on this topic. The main goal of this research is to explore the effect of online video advertising congruity on consumer attitudes towards the online video, advertisement and advertised product. Therefore, this research attempts to examine the information processing of a consumer and how congruity acts in this process to affect consumer's preferences. Due to the nature of this research question, an online experiment is used to test the hypothesized relationships of the conceptual model. The collected data in this study were examined using partial least squares (PLS). CONGRUITY AND PROCESSING FLUENCY Congruity can be defined in terms of similarity. The perceived similarity between two given stimuli of equal importance, determines their congruity (Rokeach & Rothman, 1965). Extensive research has been conducted on the effects of congruity in advertising. For example, studies have focused on congruity between involvement types of ads and TV programs (Sharma, 2000), viewer's mood-ad content congruity (Kamins, Marks, & Skinner, 1991), and program context- advertised product congruity (De Pelsmacker, Geuens, & Anckaert, 2002). Previous research from (Moore, Stammerjohan, & Coulter, 2005) has shown that congruity has a positive effect on consumer attitudes. Research on online banner advertisements on websites has indicated that advertisements should be consistent with the website brand (Newman, Stem Jr, & Sprott, 2004). Appeal congruity can then be achieved when the appeal of the online video and the appeal of the embedded ad are similar: an emotional (affective) video paired with an emotional ad can be deemed congruent. Similarly, an informational ad will be more effective when embedded in an informational video. In this study, Ad-and-Video congruity represents such type of congruity. Based on extent research on processing fluency, it can be assumed that online video advertising congruity, either in terms of appeal or content, will result in more processing ease of the ad as the information provided by the video and ad is similar. The following hypotheses are formulated: Hypothesis 1: Congruity between the appeal of the online video and the appeal of the advertisement has a positive effect on processing fluency. Hypothesis 2: Congruity between content of the online video and the advertised product has a positive effect on processing fluency. We further propose that the above process is influenced by ad/video appeal or execution format (emotional vs. informational). An informational ad format is defined as an ad execution designed to appeal to the rationality of the receiver by using objective information describing a brand’s attributes or benefits, while an emotional ad format as an ad execution designed to appeal to the receiver’s emotions by using drama, mood, music and other emotion-eliciting strategies (Yoo & MacInnis, 2005). When an individual is watching an emotional ad or video, the possible effect of Ad-video or Product-video congruity on a consumer's processing fluency will be attenuated. The following hypotheses are formulated: Hypothesis 3a: Congruity between the appeal of online video and the appeal of embedded advertisement has a stronger effect on processing fluency for informational appeals than for emotional appeals. Hypothesis 3b: Congruity between content of the online video and the advertised product has a stronger effect on processing fluency for informational contents than for emotional contents. Involvement and processing fluency With regards to online advertising, research has shown that the degree to which a consumer is involved with the topic of a website also affects the processing of online advertising. It can be argued that when an individual is not involved in watching an online video, its effect on a consumer's processing fluency will be absent. On the other hand, when a consumer is highly involved in watching an online video, it is more likely that the viewer experiences processing fluency. As a result, in this situation, involvement may actually affect processing fluency of the viewer. Based on these findings, the following hypothesis is formulated: Hypothesis 4: Involvement has a positive effect on the processing fluency of consumers. Post-viewing attitudes Research has also indicated the mediating role of an individual’s affective response from processing fluency to its evaluation (Winkielman & Cacioppo, 2001). A viewer of an online video is shown an ad that has the same appeal as the video, making it rather easy to process. The viewer appreciates this as it takes less effort to view the ad and to relate to advertised product to the content of the video and the viewer's interests. As a result the viewer is more likely to generate a positive attitude towards the ad, the advertised product and the video. The insights lead to the formulation of the following three hypotheses: Hypothesis 5: Processing fluency has a positive effect on the attitude towards the online video. Hypothesis 6: Processing fluency has a positive effect on the attitude towards the advertisement. Hypothesis 7: Processing fluency has a positive effect on the attitude towards the advertised product. Figure 1 shows the conceptual model, which summarises the hypothesized relationships. <Insert Figure 1 about here> METHODOLOGY We conducted an experiment in the form of a 2 (type of appeal: informational vs. emotional) × 2 (Ad-Video congruity: congruent vs. incongruent) × 2 (Product-Video congruity: congruent vs. incongruent) full-factorial between-subject design. Video and advertisement appeal are each measured by the three items derived from the study by Moore et al. (1995) on the individual difference in response to advertising appeal. Processing fluency is measured by two items of the study by Lee and Aker (2004). Three items of the study from Zaichowsky (1985) are used to measure the involvement of the participants. The three items related to the attitude towards the video, advertisement and product are derived from the respective studies from Russell et al. (2004) and Kozup, Creyer and Burton (2003). Returned questionnaires numbered 276 responses with 24 incomplete data, resulting in 252 valid responses for data analysis. The collected data in this study were analyzed using partial least squares (PLS). Measurement model A measurement model was used to evaluate reliability, convergent validity, and discriminate validity. A structural model was used to determine the significance and association of each hypothesized path, and the explained variance. Reliability was examined by composite reliability values above the 0.70 benchmark (Fornell and Larcker 1981). Results show all values above 0.70, indicating satisfactory reliability. Convergent validity was examined by all indicator loadings that were significant and exceeding 0.7 and average variance extracted (AVE) by each construct exceeding 0.50 (Fornell and Larcker 1981). Results shows all indicator loadings above 0.70 and all AVEs exceeding 0.50, indicating satisfactory convergent validity. Discriminant validity is demonstrated by the square root of the AVE for each construct exceeding the correlations between the constructs (Chin 1998). These results indicate that the proposed models have good reliability and validity. Structure model Figure 2 shows the standardized path coefficient, the significance of each hypothesized path and the variance explained (R²). H1 and H2 investigate the effect of Ad-Video congruity and Product-Video congruity on processing fluency. Results show that Product-Video congruity is positively related to processing fluency (β=0.115, t-value=2.131, p<0.05), supporting H2. However, the effect of Ad-Video congruity on processing fluency is not significant ((β=0.022, t-value=0.377, p>0.05). Thus, H1 is not supported. H3a and H3b examine the moderating effect of the type of appeal. The hypothesis testing of H3a and H3b is discussed under the multi-group analysis (PLS-MGA). H4 proposes that involvement has a positive effect on the processing fluency of consumers, which is supported by the results (β=0.399, tvalue= 6.778, p<0.05). H5, H6, and H7 investigate the effects of processing fluency on post-viewing attitudes. Processing fluency is positively related to attitude towards the video (β=0.192, t-value=2.838, p<0.05), advertisement (β=0.426, t-value=7.607, p<0.05) and the focal product (β=0.422, t-value=7.171, p<0.05). These results support H5, H6 and H7. <Insert Figure 2 about here> We hypothesize that the type of appeal (informational or emotional) moderates the effects of Ad-Video congruity and Product-Video congruity on processing fluency in H3a and H3b. Specifically, the effects on under informational appeal condition are stronger. To test for group differences, we applied a multi-group analysis (PLS-MGA) approach. The PLS-MGA results for both informational and emotional groups, show that that the positive effect of Ad-Video congruity on processing fluency is only significant for informational appeals (β=.150, t-value=1.99, p<.05) but not emotional appeal (β=-.010, t-value=.15, p>.05), supporting H3a. Similarly, results show that that the positive effects of Product-Video congruity on processing fluency is only significant for informational appeals (β=.170, t-value=2.27, p<.05) but not emotional appeal (β=.050, t-value=.57, p>.05), supporting H3b. CONCLUSION Results show that congruity is related to the improvement of processing fluency only for informational ads/videos. This finding provides some support to the processing fluency theory which holds that less discrepant information should result in a higher processing fluency and extends the existing literature by investigating the appeal/execution format as a boundary condition. Involvement itself has been found to be positively related to processing fluency. Thus, when a consumer is initially more involved in watching a video, the processing fluency increases. This is in line with previous research that proved that involvement positively affects the attention that is given to advertisements and ultimately also the attitude of consumers.

This paper selects Xi'an and Suzhou as the research objects, uses the methods of questionnaire and situational simulated method to discuss the impact of tourists' perceived destination image and self-concept congruity on intention to visit, and the moderating effect of self-construal (independent / interdependent). The Study I found the following results: the tourists' perceived destination image and self-concept congruity as well as the self-concept congruity dimensions (actual self-concept congruity, ideal self-concept congruity, social self-concept congruity, ideal social self-concept congruity) have a significant positive effect on intention to visit; the impact of ideal self-concept congruity is greater than that of actual self-concept congruity; the impact of ideal social self-concept congruity is greater than that of social self-concept congruity; and the ideal self-concept congruity has strongest impact on intention to visit. The Study II found out that: self-construal has moderating effect on this impact; the higher the actual self-concept congruity perceived by the tourists of independent self-construal, the greater the intention to visit; the higher the social self-concept congruity perceived by the tourists of interdependent self-construal, the greater the intention to visit. The research conclusion has certain reference value for building of tourism destination image, understanding of the tourism decision-making of the tourists and formulation and implementation of marketing strategies of relevant departments and enterprises.

Advertising is important for tourism and past research has demonstrated its cognitive, affective and behavioural effects on consumers (e.g., Vakratsas & Ambler, 1999). These effects are largely dependent on how well viewers process advertisements that contains different elements, such as image, description and slogan. Images are particularly important to tourism advertisements and most tourism advertisements include images of the advertised destination. This paper proposes a conceptual model which explores the influences of image vividness and image congruity on the effectiveness of ecotourism advertisements. The Meaning Transfer Model (e.g., McCracken, 1989) suggests an object’s meaning can be transferred through images. This model has been widely adopted in advertising because most advertisements contain images. Images are believed to help transfer the intended advertising meaning and intention of the advertiser (Shimp & Andrews 2013). Most previous advertising research has focused on meaning transfer through the use of celebrity endorsers (e.g., Campbell & Warren, 2012; Hanrahan & Liu, 2013) whilst limited studies have examined key factors that influence the success of a meaning transfer from an advertising image to the advertised brand . Image vividness is believed to be one of the important factors that can influence the success of a meaning transfer (Nisbett & Ross, 1980). However, findings from previous research on image vividness are far from consistent. Some findings suggest that image vividness facilitate imagery processing and subsequently increase advertisement and brand favourability (Fennis et al., 2012) whilst other findings suggest that image vividness has no direct impact on attitude formation or persuasion (Taylor & Thompson, 1982). Recent research suggests that, advertising elements, in particular image vividness, may play an important role in forming the attitude towards the advertisement as well as the travel intention towards the advertised destination (Pelsmacker et al., 2002; Rasty et al., 2013). Besides image vividness, image congruity may be another important factor in determining the success of a meaning transfer through advertising images (Shimp & Andrews, 2013). Congruity has been widely studied in the field of consumer behaviour (Sirgy, 1990; Wang et al., 2009). McLaughlin (2009) categorised advertising congruity into four types (advertisement and context congruity, advertisement and product congruity, advertisement and advertiser congruity, and advertisement and other commercial component(s) congruity). Image congruity with the advertised product category has been identified as one of the most important advertising congruities (Chandon et al., 2000). Congruent advertisements are better than incongruent advertisements in generating positive attitudes or feelings towards an advertisement. For example, Kamins et al. (1991) found a viewer’s perceived congruity between the emotions reflected in a tourism advertisement and the media invoke more positive attitude towards the advertisement. Further, Rifon et al. (2004) found congruity between the description of an advertisement (ad description) and an advertising website used to display the advertisement resulted in more positive attitude towards the brand. Congruent advertisements can also generate a better purchasing intention. Kamins et al. (1991) found congruent advertisements were better at invoking an intention to use an advertised service. Conversely, incongruent advertisements lead to frustration or other negative feelings or a less favourable attitude towards an advertisement (Mandler, 1981). Australian ecotourism advertisements are selected as the context of the current study. Ecotourism is a nature-based tourism that focuses on preserving the environment, benefiting local economies and educating travellers (Weaver, 2008). Although ecotourism is rapidly developing in the last decade, the effectiveness of ecotourism advertising has been rarely researched, perhaps because ecotourism is still a relatively new area of tourism (Hughes et al., 2005). Reiser & Simmons’s (2005) study is among a handful of studies which have investigated the effectiveness of ecotourism advertisements. Their study found that ecotourism labels helped develop a positive attitude towards an advertisement and the advertised destination. Additionally, Chang et al. (2005) found that the use of a celebrity aboriginal endorser was more effective in achieving a favourable attitude towards an advertisement than was the use of a non-celebrity aboriginal endorser. Ecotourism advertisements often use three major types of images (scenery, animal and people) (Morgan & Pritchard, 2001). However, no empirical studies have examined the meaning transfer between image and advertising responses within the ecotourism context. People’s Republic of China is a critical market for Australian tourism and it is Australia’s second largest tourist source country (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014). Chinese tourists ranked first in terms of total trip expenditures (a total of $5.7 billion in 2014) (Tourism Research Australia, 2015). By 2020, China is expected to become Australia’s largest source country (Tourism Australia, 2011).The ecotourism market in China has risen in the past decade since its introduction in the 1990s (Cheng et al., 2013; Zhong et al., 2007). There were 1.9 billion domestic trips in China in 2009, of which 333 million were ecotourism trips. Around 80% of China’s nature reserves now have some form of ecotourism feature (Chappell, 2012). Chinese ecotourists are increasingly interested in taking overseas ecotourism trips. However, no previous study has empirically examined Chinese ecotourists’ attitude towards foreign ecotourism advertisements, which provides the opportunity for the current study. Based on the above discussion, the paper proposes positive relationships among image vividness, image congruity, attitude towards the advertisement and travel intention towards the ecotourism destination. Empirical research will be carried out in the future to test the proposed relationships. The theoretical framework can also be extended by including other advertising effectiveness measures such as comprehension or emotion (MacKay & Fesenmaier, 1997) so as to develop a better understanding of Chinese ecotourists’ responses to ecotourism advertisements.

Research offers conflicting evidence with regard to the potential effectiveness of using authentic (focused on the actual self) versus aspirational branding (focused on the ideal self) strategies. This study extends previous research by modelling how four individual characteristics of value for cross-cultural market segmentation (an individual’s level of independence, interdependence, cosmopolitan orientation and local orientation) influence the actual and ideal self-congruity effects. The model is tested by using survey data from US (n=828) and Indian non-student consumers (n=824). Findings show that the actual self-congruity effect on brand attitude is stronger than the ideal self-congruity effect for interdependents and locals. Conversely, the ideal self-congruity effect on brand attitude is stronger than the actual self-congruity effect for independents and cosmopolitans. The study offers practitioners suggestions on the use of authentic versus aspirational branding strategies in their brand communications in order to elicit most positive brand attitude among consumers depending on their individual characteristics.

This study investigated the differences between gender for effectiveness of career competencies training and integrative life planning on career aspirations, self-identity and congruity between the real and ideal self of adolescents in Lokoja, Nigeria. The sample consisted of 227 adolescents who scored low on Ego-identity scales and were found exhibiting low self-identity, which affected their career aspirations. They were made up of 114 males and 113 females. Quasi-experimental pre-test, post-test and control group design was used with the sample, which was randomly assigned to three groups. Career Competencies Training (CCT), Integrative Life Planning (ILP) and the control. A Self-Identity Questionnaire (SIQ), Congruity Questionnaire (CQ) and Career Aspiration Questionnaire (CAQ) were administered to the three groups before and after the experimental programmes. CCT and ILP groups were the training groups while the control was the waiting group. The statistical tools used were Means, Standard Deviation and ANCOVA. A null hypothesis was formulated to guide the study and was tested at 0.05 level of significance. There is no significant difference in the post-test scores on the self-identity, career aspiration, and congruity of real and ideal self of adolescents exposed to career competencies training, integrative life planning and the control group due to gender. The use of both training is therefore recommended. Parents should be encouraged to take cognizance of the congruity between the real self and the ideal self of their adolescents so that they can be properly guided on their career aspirations.

This paper aims to gain an understanding of luxury brand positioning in relation to brand attributes, distribution channel and the target consumer characteristics. In so doing, we hope to get a fuller explanation of brand perceptions within the market environment in which the transactions occur. Luxury brands need to flourish in an increasingly complicated and competitive environment. In the past socio-demographic characteristics were used to position the offering, but this is becoming more difficult to apply in contemporary global markets. It is possible to broadly position luxury brands using Aaker’s (1997) 3A’s framework to show how brands are crowded and compete in the middle “aspirational” segment. There also appears to be a polarization within the market on the part of highly informed and expert consumers who do not follow traditional norms of purchasing behaviour; purchasing elite luxury and high street purchases at the same time. Such inconsistent behaviour compels us to investigate the luxury brand consumer in depth. Consumer perceptions of luxury value comprise financial, functional, individual and social components (Hennings et al. 2012), as well as changing cultural interpretations (Mo and Roux. 2009) and symbolic and human characteristics (Aaker, 1997). Examing the brand and the consumer is not sufficient and a third aspect needs to be considered relating to distribution channels (D’Astous and Lévesque 2003). This is the environment where the personality of the brand is staged to reinforce tangible and intangible attributes that further influence consumer perceptions. Store personality suggests functional qualities and psychological attributes that help define the store in the consumer’s mind (D’Astous and Lévesque, 2003). In order to differentiate between brands perceived with similar positioning, the symbolic qualities of the luxury brands become highly relevant and a key motivation of luxury brand purchase behaviour (Heine 2009; Liu et al 2010). What is of interest to us in this study is the congruity between consumers’ perceptions of a luxury flagship store personality, the personality of the luxury brand and consumers own personality traits. Drawing upon the foregoing we have established that there is a need to understand how consumers see themselves in relation to luxury brands. Understanding the relationships between the consumer, the brand and store personality is critical for the effective positioning and strategic management of the luxury brand in terms of product mix strategy, pricing, advertising and distribution. Our analysis draws upon Aaker’s (1997) brand personality, luxury consumer personality traits from Weidmann et. al., (2009) and store personality dimensions from D’Astous and Lévesque, (2003) and we delineate luxury using the four values, financial, functional, individual and social from Weidmann et. al.,(2009). The difference in the degrees of alignment represents what we have termed “congruence distance” between each personality dimension. Misalignment may indicate that the corporate view of the luxury brand is out of sync with consumer perceptions and may impact upon strategic marketing efforts. Using a quantitative research approach we report the results of a survey of Tod’s consumers in the UK, France and Italy. Constructs are developed to measure consumers’ perceptions of a luxury flagship store personality, the personality of the luxury brand and consumers own personality traits. Our theoretical contribution hopes to enhance explanations of luxury consumption. We have taken three disparate frameworks that each look at elements of luxury brand positioning to assess levels of convergence using one case study. We add to luxury brand theory by presenting a rubric of congruence distance that draws the three frameworks together and highlights clusters within dimensions of value. Managerially, we find the importance of alignment across a variety of dimensions and clusters. Through this rubric, multiple segmentation and positioning scenarios can be assessed with implications for strategy. We find that consumer interaction with sales personnel is critical to consumers’ experience of the brand based upon an understanding and expectation of the luxury it represents.

Past research has shown that the self-congruity effect (Sirgy, 1982) is an important key predictor for consumers’ responses (e.g., attitude, purchase intention, choice, satisfaction, and loyalty) toward various marketing stimuli such as brand, store, and product (Barone, Shimp, and Sprott, 1999; Sirgy, Grewal, & Mangleburg, 2000). The self-congruity effect refers to the match between consumers’ actual self-concept and the image of objects compared, such as brand image, product image, store image, and advertising materials (Choi & Rifon, 2012; Sirgy, Grewal, & Mangleburg, 2000). These relationships, however, have not been tested in the context of luxury brand products (Sirgy, 1982). Our purpose is to address this knowledge gap by investigating the relevancy of self-congruity theory to the purchase of luxury brands. In contrast to the long-standing self-congruity effect, we propose that actual self-incongruity and ideal self-congruity effects will work when consumers evaluate luxury fashion brands. A survey method was used to gather data. Data were collected through an online panel provided by E-rewards, a marketing research company located in the United States. A stratified sampling method was employed to obtain an evenly distributed number of participants from different income classes. The strata was identified by income. Three strata were developed: (1) more than $100,000; (2) $55,000 to less than $100,000; and (3) less than $55,000. The sample (n = 502, average age = 41) represented most demographic categories. We tested the influence of actual self-incongruity and ideal self-congruity on brand attitude, purchase intention, and perceived quality for 3 brands. Actual self-incongruity had a significant positive effect on brand attitude, whereas ideal self-congruity had a significant positive effect on brand attitude, purchase intention, perceived quality. Overall, the results supported our main hypothesis. We conducted an additional analysis to examine the moderating role of income. Specifically, for brand attitude, the influence of actual self-incongruity was significantly positive only for the low-income group. The influence of ideal self-congruity was significantly positive only for the low- and middle-income groups. For purchase intention, the influence of ideal self-incongruity was significantly negative only for the low-income group, whereas the influence of ideal self-congruity was not significant for the middle- or high-income groups. Finally, for perceived quality, the influence of actual self- and ideal self-incongruity was significant only for the middle-income group, whereas that influence was not significant for the high-income group. This research contributes to the self-congruity effect in the context of luxury brands. Our results show the positive influence of ideal self-congruity and actual self-incongruity on the evaluation of luxury brand products. This is the first study identifying that actual self-congruity has a negative influence on the evaluation of brands in a luxury market context, as opposed to previous findings. Our results provide important implications to practitioners in planning their marketing communication strategies or consumer relationship management for luxury brand consumers.

The aim of this paper is to assess the mediating effect of self-congruity on the relationship between susceptibility to interpersonal influence and status consumption. The findings of this paper are based on 222 sample. The paper utilises Baron and Kenny procedure and Sobel test to examine the mediation effects of self-congruity on the relationship between susceptibility to interpersonal influence and status consumption. Results indicate that self-congruity played a mediating role in the effect of susceptibility to interpersonal influence on status consumption. A partial type of mediation was established. Possible areas for further research are indicated at the end of the paper.

This study empirically investigates how four individual-level characteristics impact the effect of the four self-congruity types on brand attitude. A widely used practice among marketers focuses on communicating that using their brands will bring consumers closer to how they would like to see themselves, their ideal self-concept (e.g. being a slim person like the models in the ads), instead of how they actually see themselves, their actual self-concept. However, recent research shows that there is no “universality” of a superior self-congruity effect. Specifically, individual-level characteristics (e.g. self-esteem levels, product involvement levels) determine if actual or ideal self-congruity impact brand perceptions more strongly (Malär, Krohmer, Hoyer & Nyffenegger, 2011). This study extends that research by (a) considering all four self-congruity types (actual, ideal, social, and ideal social) and (b) four additional individual-level characteristics, which are valuable for segmenting consumer markets within and across countries. The four individual-level characteristics are a dominant independent self-construal, interdependent self-construal, cosmopolitan orientation and local orientation. Considering these individual-level characteristics offers marketers insights on which of the four self-concept types they should try to match with their brand communications when targeting these specific consumer groups. Survey data from a non-student sample was collected in the US. After performing data cleaning procedures, 800+ usable responses were analysed with the use of PLS-SEM (Lohmöller, 1989). The measurement models demonstrate satisfactory reliability, convergent and discriminant validity. Furthermore, the results suggest that the data is not compromised by non-response bias and common method variance. The structural models display satisfactory predictive capabilities of the four self-congruity types on brand attitude. The findings show that as expected an individual’s dominant independent self-construal, interdependent self-construal, cosmopolitan and local orientation impact which of the four self-congruity types has the strongest effect on brand attitude. For individuals with a dominant local orientation or interdependent self-construal, actual self-congruity has the strongest effect on brand attitude. For individuals with a dominant cosmopolitan orientation or independent self-construal, ideal self-congruity has the strongest effect on brand attitude. The findings of this study extend self-congruity theory by considering the effect of these four individual-level characteristics. Managerial implications are also presented.