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exploring brand personality congruence - K-REx - Kansas State ...

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Abstract<br />

This study was designed to explore the measurement and application of <strong>brand</strong><br />

<strong>personality</strong> <strong>congruence</strong> (BPC), defined as the gap between the customer’s own <strong>personality</strong><br />

and a restaurant’s <strong>brand</strong> <strong>personality</strong> as perceived by the customer. The study involved two<br />

phases: Phase I primarily focused on the development of the BPC scale based on the existing<br />

Brand Personality Scale (Aaker 1997), while Phase II involved testing the relationship<br />

between BPC and <strong>brand</strong> loyalty and the mediating effects of satisfaction and trust on that<br />

relationship. Both Phases used the online survey methodology for data collection.<br />

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the dimensionality of <strong>brand</strong> <strong>personality</strong>.<br />

The five-factor solution was supported with the dimensions of sincerity, excitement,<br />

competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. Exploratory factor analysis showed that <strong>brand</strong><br />

<strong>personality</strong> dimensions were not stable for measuring customer <strong>personality</strong>. Only<br />

characteristics most closely associated with the Big Five dimensions of agreeableness,<br />

extroversion, and conscientiousness significantly loaded on the customer <strong>personality</strong> scale.<br />

A confirmatory factor analysis of the reduced scale resulted in a 5-factor solution: successful,<br />

exciting, unique, sincere, and friendly. Because BPC was operationalized as the gap<br />

between the customer’s perceived <strong>personality</strong> and the restaurant’s <strong>brand</strong> <strong>personality</strong> as<br />

perceived by the customer, only indicators that were common between the two scales were<br />

used to establish the 17-item BPC scale consisting of the following dimensions: exciting,<br />

unique, sincere, and leader.<br />

In Phase II, second-order structural equation modeling was used to test BPC as an<br />

antecedent of the post-purchase evaluations of trust, satisfaction, and <strong>brand</strong> loyalty. Results<br />

indicated strong positive relationships, which suggested that higher <strong>congruence</strong> with the<br />

<strong>brand</strong>’s <strong>personality</strong> results in increased trust, satisfaction, and <strong>brand</strong> loyalty. BPC had the<br />

greatest direct effect on trust and also had indirect effects on satisfaction via trust and <strong>brand</strong><br />

loyalty via trust and satisfaction. Additional analyses showed that trust and satisfaction<br />

partially mediated the relationship between BPC and <strong>brand</strong> loyalty. Trust also mediated the

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