Modern society is structured around consumption. The climate of the current consumer culture is one of intense competition. In order to differentiate their brands and products, companies are beginning to focus on differentiating their brands on the basis of distinctive emotional, rather than functional, characteristics. Emotional brand attachment is defined as the bond that connects a consumer with a specific brand by involving feelings of affection, passion, and connection. When established, emotional brand attachment is a powerful tool for building brand equity and influencing the purchasing decisions of consumers. This paper explores the marketing tactics utilized by Dove brand and Nike, Inc. Although the means were different, both companies successfully generated emotional brand attachment between their products and modern consumers.

Emotional brand attachment has emerged as an important marketing concept that can strengthen a brand's performance. One way to create emotional bonds with consumers is to match the brand's personality with the consumer's self-concept (i.e. self-congruence). Nonetheless, research on brand attachment has a strong westernized focus leaving a vast majority of the world's population outside the frame of research, which limits our understanding of how consumers perception of self form emotional attachments to brands across cultures. We address this issue by developing the novel construct of ought self-congruence and test a conceptual model in two large scale studies including 810 respondents from Sweden and South Korea. The results showed similarities as well as unique cultural differences. Brand personalities in line with a consumer's actual self-view yield the strongest positive impact on emotional brand attachment in both cultures. However, an ideal self-congruent brand only showed a positive impact on Swedish consumers or when the self is sculpt independently from others. In contrast, South Koreans formed attachments to global brands that were congruent with an ought self-perception. A consumer's regulatory focus provides a theoretical explanation to the mixed results. Avenues for further research and managerial implications are also proposed.

行銷上，我們可以看到有許多品牌透過與消費者建立關係，來創造其與消費者之間更緊密的連結。這種策略的其中一種做法，便是為品牌塑造一種個性，使品牌與消費者之間建立關聯。而品牌個性的概念乃是基於消費者對於品牌的知覺，將人類的性格與特質加諸在該品牌上。消費者傾向透過在品牌當中尋求自我表達的功能，因此如果個人能夠認同該品牌，將會經驗較高程度的自我概念一致性，從而正向影響他對該品牌在理性和感性上的評估。 時尚產業的服飾、配件等主要產品具有外顯的性質，在消費者使用這些產品的時候，得以藉此表達自我的形象、特質，因此，在時尚產業的行銷當中，品牌與消費者的自我概念一致性被視為扮演重要的角色。然而，時尚產業當中不同的產業位階，如傳統精品、快速時尚，兩者即有諸多面向的不同，在不同位階之間，究竟品牌應塑造與其目標客群在真實自我，或是理想自我上的一致性，才能成功創造消費者對品牌較好的態度，甚至產生情感依附呢？ 本研究旨在分析品牌個性與消費者的真實與理性自我概念一致性在傳統精品、快速時尚品牌之間，是否存有適用性上的差異。研究首先回顧過去相關研究之文獻，了解品牌自我概念領域的研究進程，並探討自我概念一致性類型、時尚產業位階之間的特性，以及消費者在理性與感性上評估品牌的指標。接著訂定研究方向，以人物個性和品牌個性共同組成真實、理想自我一致性的不同情境，從而探討當品牌在提升消費者品牌態度與品牌情感依附時，在傳統精品和快速時尚之情形下，品牌自我概念一致性的適用性各自為何。 本項研究實驗採用情境故事法進行，並以2（人物個性：真實外向理想內向、真實內向理想外向）x 2（品牌個性：外向、內向）x 2（時尚產業位階：傳統精品、快速時尚）的二因子實驗設計，將實驗總共分成八組。 本研究發現，不同的時尚產業位階在真實、理想自我概念一致性並無顯著適用性的差異，反而在整體而言，皆以真實自我概念一致性對於品牌情感依附具有顯著較好的影響。 因此，對於時尚產業之行銷規劃上，無論傳統精品或快速時尚，皆應以其目標客群之真實自我為其設計品牌個性之主要依據，並強調品牌貼近、表達，並能體現消費者之真實狀態與價值，從而成功提升消費者對品牌之情感依附，加深消費者與品牌之心理層面連結。 / In today’s marketing world, it is commonly seen that certain brands are trying to build up relationships with their consumers in order to create a stronger connection with them. Among the many tactics of this strategy is to match the brand’s personality with that of the consumers’, in turn generating a linkage in between. The concept of brand personality is to have the brand endowed with a personality which is usually found in humans. A consumer tends to seek and pursue within the brand the function of self-expression, since if a consumer can identify with the brand, he will experience a higher level of self-congruence, which then leads to positive impacts on his perception and evaluation of that same brand. The conspicuousness of apparels in the fashion industry implies the fact that consumers use these products as a means to express their self-images and personality traits. Therefore, brand self-congruence plays an important role in the marketing of such an industry. Nevertheless, since characteristics vary greatly within the fashion industry due to the existing hierarchy among brands, there remains the question whether a fashion brand should create a personality to fit the actual or ideal self-congruence of its target audience to successfully generate better brand attitude and even form stronger relationships as emotional brand attachment. The objective of this study is accordingly to analyze whether the application of actual and ideal self-congruence differs within the fashion industry. The study first reviews previous literatures related to the topic to understand the progress having been made to date, and researches on the topic of types of self-congruence, the fashion industry, and the predictors of consumer evaluation of brands. The study then moves on to setting the conceptual framework, where scenarios were designed to understand the application of actual and ideal self-congruence of luxury fashion and fast fashion. The study adopts a scenario approach to manipulate self-congruence, and has a 2 (personality of the person: actually extrovert-ideally introvert vs. actually introvert-ideally extravert) x 2 (brand personality: extravert vs. introvert) x 2 (fashion industry: luxury fashion vs. fast fashion) between-subjects full factorial design, generating eight experimental conditions. The study found no significant difference between luxury and fast fashion in terms of the application of two self-congruence types. In contrast, a generally better influence is seen for the actual self-congruence in generating consumer emotional brand attachment. Therefore, the study attempted to suggest that actual self-congruence should be used to build brand personality both for luxury fashion and fast fashion through expressing and performing consumers’ authentic self and value, so as to successfully increase emotional brand attachment which in turn deepens the psychological connection.

Utvecklingen av marknadsföringsstrategier inom mode över tid visar att dagens konsumenter önskar ett ökat engagemang från varumärken, samt en mer fördjupad anknytning. För att möta konsumenters efterfrågan om engagemang och fördjupad varumärkesanknytning så använder varumärken olika marknadsföringsstrategier. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur emotionell anknytning till klädvarumärken påverkar unga kvinnliga konsumenters köpbeteende. I studien har Maslows behovstrappa, Kellers brand equity modell, samt en modell för konsumenters köpbeslutsprocesser använts för att analysera resultatet. En tematisk analys har genomförts för att analysera och identifiera teman i de semistrukturerade intervjuerna som utförts med konsumenter. Resultaten från studien betonar den djupgående effekt som emotionell anknytning har på köpprocessen inom klädindustrin och utmanar till reflektion kring hur ekonomiska faktorer kan påverka processen. Dessutom kan det observeras att informanterna genom köp från varumärket strävar efter att identifiera sig med den identitet och livsstil som varumärket de känner emotionell anknytning till signalerar. Denna studie bidrar även till forskningen inom emotionell varumärkesanknynting och beteende kring konsumenters köpprocess genom ytterligare förståelse inom ämnet. / The evolution of marketing strategies in fashion demonstrates that the consumers of today have an increased desire for engagement from brands and that they seek a deeper emotional attachment to brands. In order to meet the consumer demand for engagement and deeper brand connectedness, brands have to adjust their marketing strategies. The aim of this study is to investigate how emotional attachment to brands influences the purchasing behaviour of young female consumers. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Keller’s Equity Model and a model of consumer decision-making processes have been used to analyse the results. A thematic analysis was conducted to examine and identify different themes from the semi-structured interviews that were conducted with consumers. The findings of the study highlight the significant effect that emotional brand attachment has on the purchasing process of fashion related products and encourage consideration of how economic factors could influence the process. Additionally, it is observed that through purchasing from the brand the consumers feel emotional attachment to, consumers strive to identify with the identity and lifestyle that the brand they feel emotionally attached to signifies. This study contributes to research within the field of emotional brand attachment and consumer behaviour related to the purchasing process through further knowledge within the subject.