自從歐盟成立後，歐洲市場對於台灣經濟的重要性與日俱增，目前為台灣主要貿易國家 (地區) 中出口成長率最高的地區，而德國又為台灣在歐洲進出口貿易額中最高的國家，然而國內學術界對於德國乃至於歐洲地區的消費者研究卻屈指可數，大多著重於中國大陸、美國與日本的研究，造成此現象的原因除了是過去歐洲市場在台灣的經濟地位不比中、美、日之外，也與台灣留學國外少以歐洲為主有關，造成與消費者相關的初次級資料取得不易、研究成本過高等因素，但隨著國內研究生赴歐洲交換學生的趨勢漸增，將提供國內學術界與實務界暸解歐洲消費者的機會。 本研究首先從過去的跨文化研究中暸解台灣與德國在各文化構面上的差異，推論受到文化所影響的品牌個性、廣告訴求與消費者價值信念，在台灣與德國消費者的認知中同樣會產生差異；此外，本研究也進一步探討品牌個性、廣告訴求、消費者價值信念與品牌偏好度的關係。本研究以問卷調查的方式蒐集台灣與德國消費者的第一手資料，並根據此初級資料進行分析比較，問卷內容包括品牌個性構面、品牌偏好度、廣告訴求、消費價值信念以及基本資料等五個部份，品牌則選定「Mercedes-Benz賓士汽車」與「Acer宏碁電腦」等兩個在台、德具有知名度的品牌。為了能夠順利進行調查，本研究分別以中文及德文版問卷在台灣與德國進行研究，採隨機發放的方式，總共蒐集了495份有效問卷，其中台灣問卷有247份，德國問卷有248份。 研究結果顯示，台灣與德國消費者對於同一個品牌的品牌個性、廣告訴求具有顯著差異，均對本國品牌較有正面的觀感，而台、德消費者價值信念也因為文化的不同而在「名牌情結」、「他人導向」、「情面影響」、「享樂主義」、「簡約習性」及「保障需求」上具有顯著差異。本研究的實證結果還發現，品牌個性會與消費者的品牌偏好度有關，而品牌偏好度受到廣告訴求與消費者價值信念的影響程度就相對較小。 廠商可依據本研究結果針對台灣消費者的「他人導向」、「簡約習性」、「保障需求」與「價格敏感」等信念，以及德國消費者的「享樂主義」、「價格敏感」與「簡約習性」等信念設計行銷活動，也可以藉由塑造品牌個性來增加消費者的品牌偏好度，對於學術而言，本研究不僅增加國內學術界對於歐洲市場的瞭解，更得到品牌個性、廣告訴求與消費者價值信念皆能影響品牌偏好度的結果，其中品牌個性又能明顯影響品牌偏好度，本研究成果可供後續相關研究作為深入探討的基礎。 / Since the establishment of the EU, the importance of the European market to Taiwan has been steadily increasing. Among Taiwan’s major trading countries (areas), the European market has the highest export growth rate, with the highest volume of trade happening between Germany and Taiwan. Despite this fact, researches about German or European consumers are still rare in the domestic academia, where the focus is mostly on China, USA, and Japan. There are some reasons causing this. First, Europe’s economic status of was lower than the previously mentioned countries. Also, there were fewer scholars from Europe, which may lead to higher research costs and difficulty in collecting data among others. Nevertheless, with the increasing number of exchange students going to Europe, this would offer domestic academia and businesses an opportunity to better understand European consumers. This research starts with an examination of previous culture-related literatures to discover the differences in all cultural dimensions between Taiwan and Germany. From this, the research infers that there would also be differences in brand personality, advertising appeals, and consumer value-beliefs. Moreover, the research discussed the relationship between brand preferences and brand personality/advertising appeals/consumer value-beliefs. Two well-known brands were selected, Mercedes-Benz and Acer, and questionnaires for each brand were developed and distributed randomly in Taiwan and Germany. Four hundred ninety five valid questionnaires were collected, among which 247 were collected in Taiwan and 248 were in Germany. The results revealed that there were significant differences in one brand’s brand personality and advertising appeals. Furthermore, consumers had more positive attitudes toward their home country’s brand. The research also found that consumer value beliefs affected by the culture were different between Taiwan and Germany in “Brand Favor,” “Conformance Orientation,” “Face Influence,” “Hedonic,” “Frugality Intention,” and “Security Needs.” In addition, it was proved that brand personality was significantly related to consumers’ brand preferences. However, advertising appeals and consumer value-belief had relatively lower influence on the brand preferences. Businesses could utilize the results of this study to devise marketing initiatives depending on consumer value-beliefs, such as Taiwan’s “Conformity-orientation,” “Frugality intention,” “Security Needs,” and “Price Sensitivity” and Germany’s “Hedonic,” “Price Sensitivity,” and “Frugality Intention.” Moreover, businesses could also build favorable brand personality to influence brand preferences. As for the academia, this research not only broadens the understanding of the European market, it also finds the relationship influence between brand personality, advertising appeals, consumer value-beliefs, and brand preferences, especially that in which brand personality significantly influences brand preference, which could be the base of further investigation.

本研究之目的是探討消費者自我認知年齡 (Cognitive Age) 與品牌年齡之一致性程度，對其品牌偏好的影響。為使研究結果具一般性之參考價值，本研究不以單一產品為研究標的，而是將產品依其所滿足之消費者需求的不同，區分為功能型產品 (Utilitarian Product)、享樂型產品 (Hedonic Product) 與象徵型產品 (Symbolic Product) 三類，以產品類型做為調節變數，了解在不同產品類型下，消費者自我認知年齡與品牌年齡之一致性，對其品牌偏好之關係會有何種程度之變化。 　　有鑑於國內並未有類似之研究探討，本研究分兩階段進行，先透過次級資料探討確定消費者認知年齡與品牌年齡之差距，對消費者在品牌偏好度上之可能關係，在次級資料之研究結果與研究方向一致時，正式進行第二階段的調查，驗證研究假說。 　　研究結果顯示消費者之認知年齡確實不同於真實年齡，兩者間呈現正向相關之特性，顯示真實年齡高者，其認知年齡也會較高。在研究主效果上，消費者真實年齡與品牌年齡之一致性，以及消費者認知年齡與品牌年齡之一致性，都與消費者之品牌偏好度呈現正向影響關係，但其中以認知年齡之影響較為明顯，支持認知年齡對真實年齡與品牌偏好間之關係具中介效果。結果發現，消費者認知年齡與品牌年齡之一致性對品牌偏好度之關係，在象徵型產品上最為強烈，其次是享樂型產品，功能型產品最弱。 　　整體而言，認知年齡較傳統行銷所使用之真實年齡更能反映消費者之自我概念與品牌偏好，特別是對象徵型與享樂型產品。因此，若能妥善將認知年齡與其他人口統計變數搭配使用，將有助於行銷者掌握消費特性，擬定契合之品牌策略。此外，本研究建議象徵型產品廠商在其品牌管理上尤應注重目標消費者之認知年齡，諸如品牌年齡定位與代言人的選擇，都應配合其目標消費族群之認知年齡。 / The purpose of this study is to discuss the congruency of consumer’s cognitive age and perceived brand age on brand preference. In order to maximize the contri-bution of the study, this study examines 3 product types, namely functional, hedonic, and symbolic rather than choosing a single product. By using product types as mod-erator, the study shows the effect of consumer’s cognitive age and perceived brand age on brand preference changes under different types of products. Because there’s no similar study in Taiwan before, the study uses secondary da-ta to explore the relationship between a consumer’s brand preference and cogni-tive-brand age gap (the disparity between the consumer’s cognitive age and brand age). A second stage of investigation was conducted to verify the research assump-tions once the secondary data study and the results were found to be consistent. According to the results, the gap between consumer’s cognitive age and actual age actually exists, and the two of them are positively related, implying that older people have higher cognitive age. On the main effect, although “the congruency of consumer’s actual age and brand age” and “the congruency of consumer’s cognitive age and brand age” both have a positive relationship with brand preference, the relationship between “the congruency of consumer’s actual age and brand age” and “brand preference” is stronger, indicating that cognitive age has a mediating effect on the relationship between actual age and brand preference. Furthermore, the relationship between “the congruency of consumer’s cognitive age and brand age” is much more salient for symbolic products than hedonic products, while functional product consumer choices are the least affected by this relationship. To sum up, cognitive age tells us more about consumer self-image and brand preference than the traditional marketing variable, actual age. This is especially true for symbolic and hedonic products. Therefore, if marketers could combine cognitive age with other demographic variables, they will learn more about consumers and draw up the most appropriate strategy for their brand. Furthermore, this study re-commends that firms marketing symbolic products should take into account con-sumers’ cognitive age, when determining brand age positioning. The selection of ad-vertising actors should also be aligned with the target consumer’s cognitive age.