Branding antecedents of consumer need for uniqueness: a behavioural approach to globalness vs. localness

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite the importance of consumers’ need for uniqueness in behavioural studies, branding antecedents such as consumer brand identification and brand personality have not been fully investigated. This study aims to investigate the impact of these factors on consumers’ brand attitude and purchase intention in the car industry by uncovering the moderating role of brand origin and gender via a non-linear structural equation modelling approach. The survey approach is applied as the primary data collection method through which a total of 381 usable responses were obtained. Nonlinear structural equation modelling is employed to examine the hypothesized relationships among the latent variables. In addition, a synergic statistical approach is also applied to compare the proposed and rival models. Surprisingly, the study unveiled that the relationships between consumers’ need for uniqueness and consumer purchase intention are only significant at the moderate to high level, not at the lower level. The same effect is detected in the relationship between consumer brand identification and brand attitude. The outcomes of the multi-group analysis show that the hypothesized relationships among all variables vary across gender and brand origin. Furthermore, based on the statistical results and the theoretical argument presented, the rival model is accepted in favour of the initial proposed model.