From consumer-brand personality congruence to brand loyalty : case study on green brands

Abstract

For years now, brands have been increasingly present in everyday life. Consumers no longer buy out of necessity but because they perceive a symbolic value in a product or brand and therefore want to express their self-concept. These changes in consumer behaviour result in the creation of a consumer-brand relationships where the brand is considered as a full member. The consumer personifies the brand and is able to describe it with personality traits as if it was a real person. For their part, companies have well understood the advantage of having a brand personality. Indeed, studies have shown that brand personality is one of the elements that generates brand preference, brand commitment and even brand loyalty. Based on Sirgy's theory of self-image/product-image Congruence (1982) that shows that consumers buy products the image of which is close to their self-image, it is consistent to ask whether there might be such a congruence between the personality of the brand and the personality of the consumer. This is the stated hypothesis of this research. Moreover, as brand personality is predictive of favourable attitudes and behaviours towards the brand, such as brand loyalty, it is worth considering that whether the potential congruence of personalities would have a predictive effect on the brand loyalty relationship. The research focused on green brands and more specifically organic brands in view of the strong values associated with green consumption. For this purpose, a quantitative survey was carried out in Wallonia among consumers around 5 organic brands: Alpro Bio, Pur Natur, Côte d'or Bio, Café Liégeois Bio and Ginette Beer. After collecting a sample of 280 people, statistical analyses (factor analysis, Student t-test and regression analysis) were carried out. The results show a very strong congruence of consumer/green-brand personalities on different personality dimensions and more particularly on Conscientiousness and Fallaciousness dimensions. However, this personality compatibility has only a very weak direct predictive power on the different stages of brand loyalty. The contribution of this research is twofold. First, it reinforces previous researches in the field of congruence. It confirms the importance of the personality congruence perception on the purchase decision. On the other hand, with regard to brand loyalty, it gives a more nuanced picture of the personality congruence predictive effect. Then, in a managerial way, it highlights the dimensions of personalities that are most salient for the consumer to help green brand managers in their decisions.