The vast majority of research based on brand gender has been developed focusing on consumers’ perspectives and behaviour. The implications of studying different perceptions of a brand’s gender can be related to brand equity, since this term is strongly associated with brand personality. Furthermore, as consumers reinforce themselves and their self-concept through brand identification, implications regarding self-representation are emphasized in terms of self-congruency having significant influence in brandcustomer relationships. During this thesis, a new holistic firm perspective approach was applied to brand gender. Acne Studios, iconic fashion brand based in Stockholm, was analysed and constituted as case study, aimed to comprehend how a brand could be perceived and identified as androgynous. Several brand related elements, covering a wide spectrum from typography to brand’s portfolio, including garment analysis, as well as brand presentation and communication features were studied in order to provide a whole picture of the firm’s gender comprehension. Using as a starting point androgyny definition as the sum of the feminine and the masculine, the setting of brand´s gender was further expanded as a result of the analysis performed for covering all possible gender identifications. Overall, this study conveys a broad and inclusive understanding of gender within the fashion brand Acne Studios and its elements to deepen and provide a new perspective within marketing and gender research.

This thesis examines tactics of conservative influence by the tradwife community on TikTok as observed through a case study of three popular tradwife influencers alongside twelve qualitative interviews with US women during an election year. This mix-methods approach is informed by Social Drama Theory with application of self-congruity theory and recognition to the influence of influencers through perspectives of mediatization theories.  The case study analysis exposes tradwife influence through stages of Social Drama to propagate an effective narrative that women have lost their sense of, and must return to, traditional femininity, as a solution to the difficulties modern feminism has caused. While the interview participants related to the struggles of contemporary womanhood, they expressed firmness in their ideologies, sourced from their respective communities, and that tradwife content will not affect their mindset. However, they recognize tradwives as having great potential to influence those more susceptible. As this thesis unfolds— community, the having or lacking of it, proves to be key in susceptibility for influence.  This thesis occurs during and references the 2024 US American Presidential year, where Republican policy orchestrators aim to cement traditional Christian conservative ideologies into the federal government through the Heritage Foundation’s detailed instructions in Project 2025. The research exposes the impact of consuming aesthetic conservative content from tradwives as having the potential to affect the voting behavior of young US women, and subsequently, their corresponding potential to make conservative ideologies central to government policies.  Through identifying the loss of femininity as a crisis in need of urgent remedy, the study finds tradwife use of aesthetics, personal testimony, relatability, and authenticity to be effective tactics in the ability to influence. Young, voting US women are identified as perceiving the conservative rhetoric through Tradwife influencers as potent and able to sway young audiences. Concerning Project 2025, however, there was a lack of awareness that inhibited analysis, drawing such results as inconclusive.

2014年，台灣FOX頻道播出美國長青諷刺卡通《辛普森家庭》，以其台味十足的配音風格而紅極一時。台灣《辛普森家庭》揉合了在地當時流行的時事話題，與原版內容大相逕庭，卻深受台灣觀眾喜愛。然而，即使廣受歡迎，台版《辛普森家庭》也為部分觀眾所批評，認為其喪失原版樣貌，在網路上亦興起一波攻擊與護航熱議。過去研究指出，人們傾向接觸與自己相近的事物，也比較喜歡這樣的內容（Markus & Wurf, 1987; Chang, 2002, 2005, 2008a, 2011）。 據此，本研究以雜揉兩種文化的影視文化產品出發，試圖於自我一致性理論（Self Congruency Theory）版圖中加入影視消費一環。因此，本研究以「知覺影片文化」與「既存文化認同」之交互作用切入，欲了解兩者之間的關係。此外，本研究亦試圖剖析閱聽人觀影時的心理機制，加入閱聽人觀影後的認知反應（自我參照、自我－影片連結、心理距離）與情感反應（正向情緒、觀影享受），測試其對於影片態度的效果。 本研究採單因子實驗設計，以「知覺影片文化」為自變項，以「文化認同」為調節變項，兩者之交互作用項作為分析之用；此外，亦探討自我參照、自我－影片連結、心理距離、正向情緒、觀影享受等五概念對於影片態度之中介效果。研究結果指出，知覺影片文化與文化認同之交互作用並未能顯著預測影片態度，文中討論研究限制所在與未來研究建議。

本研究探討當消費者的自我形象與產品形象符合一致性時，對真實和虛擬產品之購買意願的影響。在消費者自我形象方面，分為真實我形象與理想我形象，在「依滿足消費者需求之產品分類」(Woods, 1960) 為調節作用下，即將產品分為真實產品與虛擬產品，再各細分為「功能型產品」(Utilitarian Product)、「享樂型產品」(Hedonic Product) 與「象徵型產品」(Symbolic Product)，用以衡量真實我形象一致性和理想我形象一致性對不同產品類別的購買意願會有何不同程度的影響。 本研究經由前測選出了各類型產品之代表性產品，對於一般的真實產品與網路上的虛擬產品，分別以牙刷和解毒靈丹代表功能型產品，KTV和虛擬電子情人代表享樂型產品，以及戒指和騎士團徽章代表象徵型產品。透過十五組項目之五點量表語義差異法，衡量消費者自我形象與產品形象，並以「考慮購買」、「購買意願」、「購買該產品是很重要的消費」和「擁有該產品是很重要的」四題來衡量對產品購買意願的強度。分為真實產品與虛擬產品二種問卷，分別發出228份與201份，透過迴歸分析，驗證自我形象一致性對產品購買意願之影響程度。 研究結果顯示：一、在功能型產品方面，不管是一般的真實產品或是網路上的虛擬產品，自我形象一致性對功能型產品的購買意願並無顯著影響。二、享樂型產品之購買意願受真實我形象一致性的影響較大。三、象徵型產品可分為角色定位和自我提昇兩大類，其產品購買意願將分別受到真實我一致性和理想我一致性因素的影響。四、當產品購買決策變成群體決策時，個體自我形象一致性的影響將受到限制。 整體而言，在產品形象定位上，應以目標客群的自我形象為參考依據，而非其人口變數。並依不同的產品類別，塑造不同的屬性，功能型產品應塑造產品功能屬性的品質形象，而享樂型與象徵型產品得依吻合消費者之自我形象來形塑成個性鮮明的產品形象，都將有助於企業對品牌與產品定位之效果。 / The purpose of this study is to discuss the effects of consumers' self-congruency on purchase intentions of real products versus virtual products in terms of functional, hedonic, and symbolic products as moderate effect. Self-image includes actual self and ideal self; as for the moderating effects of “psychological demand character” (Woods, 1960), this study divides both real and virtual products into utilitarian product, hedonic product, and symbolic product to measure the influences of actual-self image congruency and ideal-self image congruency on different product categories. After two pretests to find out the representative product for each category of real and virtual products, this study takes toothbrush and detoxification medicine for functional products; KTV and virtual e-lover for hedonic products; and ring and Knight insignia for symbolic products. Self-image and product-image are measured by the 15-item semantic differential scale. The magnitude of purchase intention is measured with four questions, “consider to buy”,“intend to buy”, “it’s an important consumption”, and “it’s important to ownTwo-hundred-twenty-eight paper-based questionnaires and 201 virtual questionnaires were collected and regressed to verify the effects of consumers' self-congruency on purchase intentions. There are some key findings. 1. For functional products, regardless of real or virtual products, the effect of consumers' self-congruency on purchase intentions is not significant. 2. Actual-self image congruency influences the purchase intention of hedonic product more. 3. Symbolic product can be classified into self-enhancing and role-positioning. These two product purchase intentions are respectively affected by actual-self image congruency and ideal-self image congruency. 4. When product purchasing decision becomes group decision, individual self-congruency will be constrained. To sum up, product image positioning should consider the target customers’ self-images, instead of demography data. Also, according to different product categories, product images should be shaped differently. Functional product should focus on quality image. Hedonic and symbolic products should adopt the images matching consumers’ self images. This will help form better brand and product positioning strategies.