Emotional connection of consumer personality traits with brand personality traits: theoretical considerations

Concept of brand personality nowadays is widely discussed both in the science and business environments, however, the question of congruence between brand personality and consumer personality is still lacking clearness and in-depth analysis. Studies done in marketing field prove that consumers with specific personalities choose brands with similar brand personalities; however this is not proved for all types of personalities. Moreover, similarity or congruence concept is not discussed in detail and it remains unclear, how many traits or to what extent the personalities should be similar or different. The remaining sources of literature present ideas that consumer may choose brand with aspirational or even opposite personality, but these cases and the reasons for such choices often are not discussed. This paper aims to present detailed analysis on topic of congruence between brand personality and consumer personality. Moreover, new theoretical model based on main and complementary traits of both consumer and brand personalities is developed for examining connection between consumer and brand personalities. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.em.17.4.3016