Me, myself, and Ikea: Qualifying generic self-referencing effects in brand judgment

Bob M. Fennis and Jacob H. Wiebenga

Journal of Business Research, 2017, vol. 72, issue C, 69-79

Abstract: The present research extends previous work on the latent tendency to be attracted to objects, events and entities that are associated with the self by demonstrating when and how generic self-referencing brand names influence brand judgment. In five studies we hypothesize and find that using pronouns in brand names that refer to the consumer's self (i.e., ‘I’ or ‘my’ as in ‘iTunes’ or ‘MySpace’) produces an attraction effect and promotes favorable brand responses. The strength of the effect hinges on the extent to which the consumer's self-view is positive. In addition, we test a logical extension of the effect and show that attraction turns into avoidance when consumers' acute self-view is negative, particularly for products for which the association with the consumer's self is more salient, i.e., self-expressive products.

Keywords: Brand judgment; Name letter effect; Self-referencing; Self-view; Self-esteem; Implicit egotism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:72:y:2017:i:c:p:69-79

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.11.015

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