Consumer-brand relationship

Project leader: Wiktor Razmus

 

(1) Psychological consequences of brand engagement

Research on and observation of consumer behaviours show that people not only build their image using brands but also enter into close relationships with them. This may manifest itself, for instance, in identifying with the brand, engaging in various initiatives organized by the brand, or having the brand logo tattooed on one’s body. The research conducted to date has broadened the knowledge of the marketing effects of brand engagement. Yet, we still know little about what psychological consequences this engagement has for the consumer. This project focuses on the subject of the consumer-brand relationship, that is the consumer himself or herself, analysing the emotional consequences of brand engagement and consequences for consumers’ self-esteem.

 

(2) Validation of the scale measuring brand engagement - pilot studies

Brand engagement research is part of research on consumer–brand relationships and is dominated by the marketing perspective. Scholars exploring this perspective define customer brand engagement as “the level of an individual customer’s motivational, brand-related and context-dependent state of mind characterised by specific levels of cognitive, emotional and behavioural activity in direct brand interactions” (Hollebeek, 2011a, p. 790). Scales measuring this construct which are available in the literature on the subject, have a number of limitations. The purpose of the research in this project is to validate the scale measuring brand engagement by verifying its predictive power.

 

(3) Brands and extended self

For contemporary consumers, the role of brands is not limited to facilitating the decision-making process. Brands provide consumers with emotional benefits and enable them to communicate self-expressive messages to society. Brands are also objects through which consumers extend their self-concept. This project focuses on a generalized tendency to include important brands as a part of the self-concept - brand engagement in self-concept – BESC. Research on this construct has largely been dominated by the marketing perspective. To a much smaller degree, scholars explore the psychological antecedents and consequences of the generalized tendency to include brands as a part of the self-concept. We concentrate on global nature of the BESC, relation of BESC with personal aspiration and specificity of consumer self-image with low, moderate, and high propensity for BESC.

 

Publications

• Razmus, W., Jaroszyńska, M., & Palęga, M. (2017). Personal aspirations and brand engagement in self-concept. Personality and Individual Differences, 105, 294–299.
• Razmus, W. & Laguna, M. (2017). Brand Engagement in Self-Concept: Scale properties and the global nature of the construct. Current Psychology, in press. doi: 10.1007/s12144-017-9584-x
• Razmus, W. (2012). Skala Konstruowania Siebie przez Marki (KSM): Polska adaptacja skali Brand Engagement in Self-Concept (BESC). Marketing i Rynek, 8, 15-19.