Abstract
Brands provide a means for consumers to present the self, expressing their inner selves (the ‘real me’), or their social selves (how others see me). With the rise in social media use, academics and practitioners seek to understand how consumers’ self-expression through following brands online leads to brand outcomes. This study investigates the inner and social self-expressiveness of brands as separate antecedents of two outcomes: intention to co-create value and willingness to pay a premium price. Insights from 332 followers of brands on social media reveal that the inner and social self-expressiveness of brands drive these outcomes differently, as online brand engagement and brand trust mediate the relationship between self-expressive brands and brand outcomes, but only when the brand has an ability to express the inner self. The findings have implications for the study of self-expressive brands and their influence on brand outcomes.
Highlights
Consumer behavior research has long recognized that consumers seek to express themselves through brands (Belk, 1988)
As the relationship between brand engagement and loyalty is well established (Hollebeek et al, 2014) and loyalty is associated with the willingness to pay a premium price (Chaudhuri & Holbrook, 2001), we suggest that online consumer brand engagement would be positively associated with a willingness to pay a premium price, and we hypothesize the following: H7: For brands followed on social media that have an ability for selfexpression, the level of online consumer brand engagement has a positive impact on consumers’ willingness to pay a premium price for that brand
Given that following brands with an ability for inner or social self-expression leads to positive brand outcomes, does it matter that those who follow social self-expressive brands may not engage with the brand or trust the brand? We suggest that the relationship between followers of brands with inner selfexpressiveness and brand outcomes, such as the intention to co-create value and the willingness to pay a premium price, may indicate a longer-term relationship, as those brands reflect the ‘real’ self, and we find that trust and engagement in the brand are required before the individual will co-create value for the brand or pay more for it
Summary
Consumer behavior research has long recognized that consumers seek to express themselves through brands (Belk, 1988). Self-expressive brands are defined by the extent to which consumers perceive that a brand reflects their inner self (‘the kind of person I truly am inside’) or enhances their social self (‘the way society views me’) As social media platforms have fundamentally altered the way that people interact with each other and how they present themselves, research has sought to explore how people associate with brands online and how they use brands for self-expression (Hol lenbeck & Kaikati, 2012). Studies have demonstrated the effect of self-expressive brands on WOM, brand advocacy, brand love, and knowledge sharing with the firm (Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006; Wallace, Buil, & de Chernatony, 2014; Leckie, Nyadzayo, & Johnson, 2016; Choi & Burnham, 2020). Recent studies of selfexpressive brands in an offline context have distinguished between inner and social self-expressive brands (Leckie et al, 2016; Choi & Burnham, 2020), focusing on inner self-expressive brands and arguing for further consideration of social self-expressive brands (Leckie et al, 2016)
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