Consumer reactions to self-expressive brand display

Sandor Czellar (1) , D. E. Sprott , E. R. Spangenberg , David Raska

1 GREGH - Groupement de Recherche et d'Etudes en Gestion à HEC

Brand names and other brand elements are often displayed on one's body or clothes for the purpose of personal value expression. Despite the frequency of such brand displays in the marketplace, we know little about how consumers respond to seeing brands in this fashion. A recent view of consumer brand identification—the concept of brand engagement in self-concept (BESC)—provides a unique perspective from which to explore how consumers react when see-ing brands displayed by others. Across three experiments, we demonstrate a consistent pattern of findings indicating that consumers' reactions to others ostentatiously displaying brands as means of value expression are strongest for those with high BESC levels and with a high value focus during brand exposure. The research highlights important variations in consumers' responses to self-expressive brand stimuli associated with others; implications for branding practice and re-search are provided.

Mots clés: Brand engagement; self-concept; advertising; brand management

Sandor Czellar, D. E. Sprott, E. R. Spangenberg, David Raska. Consumer reactions to self-expressive brand display. 2009. ⟨hal-00489413⟩