The Influence of Self-Construal on Self-Brand Congruity in the United States and Korea

Abstract

The present research extends the self-concept literature by examining the self-brand congruity hypothesis in two different cultures: the United States as an example of an individualistic culture and Korea as a collectivistic culture. The results of this research demonstrate that brands with distinct personality traits that are congruent with consumers’ self-concepts are evaluated more positively than brands with incongruent personality traits across cultures. More important, the findings suggest that the self-brand congruity effects are more evident in the United States than in Korea, lending empirical evidence that self-consistency is less emphasized and salient in East Asian cultures than in Western cultures.