Blending Cobrand Personalities: An Examination of the Complex Self

Abstract

This research examines the role of self-complexity in influencing consumer responses to cobrands with trait associations to two distinct brand personality dimensions versus one distinct brand personality dimension. Three experiments reveal that consumers whose complex self becomes activated prefer cobrands that exude both sophistication and excitement to those that exhibit either sophistication or excitement. Caucasians, who have a more complex independent self, tend to evaluate a sophisticated and excited personality cobrand more favorably when primed on independence, whereas Hispanics, who have a more complex interdependent self, tend to evaluate this cobrand personality combination more favorably when primed on interdependence. This research also suggests that this self-complexity-driven process is conscious in nature.