A Study of Customer Brand Engagement for Materialistic Groups

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how co-design activities affect consumer psychological factors, such as self-brand connection, and thus consumer-brand engagement, and to investigate the applicability of this mechanism to populations with different degrees of materialism. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a questionnaire to construct a "co-design" scenario and a materialism scale to investigate the personal characteristics of the participants, and a scenario in which consumers participated in the co-design of an apparel brand to investigate their perceived self-brand connection and customer brand engagement. Findings: Co-design activities are effective in increasing consumers' brand engagement with the brand, in which the self-brand connection plays a partially mediating role and the individual consumer's level of materialism plays a negative moderating role. Research implications: The impact of co-creation on customer psychological factors and the boundary conditions of this process should be further investigated. The results of this study will provide a reference for companies to determine whether they should engage in "value co-creation" activities with their target groups. Originality/value innovation: Current research emphasizes the importance of adopting a psychological perspective on engagement and analyzing the scope of this mechanism of action in terms of consumer characteristics.