--ABSTRACT--

The Effect of Brand Personality on Consumer Attitude

Dong-Jin Moon
Department of Business Administration
Graduate School of Seoul National University

This study examines the effect of brand personality on consumer attitude. Previous research has suggested that the greater the congruity between consumer personalities and brand personalities, the greater the preference for the brand. However, empirical explorations of this hypothesis revealed that the congruity between consumer personalities and brand personalities is limitedly related, if ever, to the preference for the brand. It is partly because of the views of the previous researchers who considered human personality as a uni-dimensional concept, and partly because of the lack of consensus regarding what brand personality really is.

This study focuses on the brand personality. If a brand can cover the consumer personalities emerged by his actual or ideal self, in other words, if one can have the opportunity to express his self by consuming a brand, it may be said that the brand has distinctive and differentiated personality. And it would give sustainable competitive advantage to the brand.

This study examines the relative effect of brand personality on consumer attitude. In this study, brand personality is represented by the 'Big Five' factors - Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication and Ruggedness - which were suggested by

Jennifer Aaker.

The research has been conducted with two Korean automobile brands which seem to have different personalities. The results of the empirical study show that, among the five major factors, 'Sophistication' has relatively more effect on consumer attitude than the other factors. The implications and limits of this study are discussed in the latter part of the paper.



Key Words : brand personality, brand, human personality, sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, ruggedness, brand knowledge, extroversion, brand awareness, brand image

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