The Role of Psychological Distance in Enhancing Identity-Relevant Brand Awareness

Abstract

Advertisers are increasingly prioritizing brand awareness, as it has become a top marketing objective, yet market trends suggest that much of consumers’ brand knowledge is not easily retrieved from memory. To inform advertising strategies designed to address this issue, we examine how self-identity–driven psychological distance affects the type of brand information that consumers are more readily able to retrieve from memory. Study 1 demonstrates that the psychological distance associated with a self-identity influences consumers’ ability to recall concrete (vs. abstract) identity-relevant brand knowledge. For identity-congruent brands related to a current (future) self-identity, consumers elaborate on and process more concrete (abstract) brand information, resulting in stronger brand associations that are more easily recalled from memory. Study 2 leverages this effect to enhance the recall of brand knowledge by matching the psychological distance of a self-identity with a construal mindset. Study 3 demonstrates that retrieval of newly learned brand information can be enhanced by matching the psychological distance of a self-identity with the concreteness of advertising messaging and identifies consumers for whom this effect may not occur (i.e., those with high product involvement). The research makes important theoretical contributions and suggests actionable advertising strategies for enhancing the retrieval of brand knowledge.