What I Am, What I Want to be: The Role of Brand Experience in the Relationship of Self-Congruence Facets and Orientation toward Happiness

Abstract

The study aimed to address the key questions; how to deliver attractive and compelling brand experience and what could be the possible outcomes. Brand experience is likely to have an intervening role between self-congruence facets (actual self and ideal self) and orientation toward happiness. The study followed quantitative research design and positivism research philosophy based on deductive approach and it can be categorised as descript to-explanatory study. The data analysis involved descriptive analysis (descriptive study), structural equation modelling (online survey). The finding of the online survey supported self-congruity theory contention that, consumers generate stronger responses when their actual self-concept or ideal self-concept is consistent with the brand personality. The results confirmed that actual self-congruence and ideal self-congruence had yielded indirect effect on orientation toward happiness through brand experience. Surprisingly, the inclusion of brand experience has turned the direct effect of self-congruence facets (on orientation toward happiness) as insignificant. The study considers actual self-congruence and ideal self-congruence as distinct predictors of brand experience by extending beyond the prior studies. Furthermore, the study contributes to the current literature by introducing brand experience as processing mechanism between self-congruence facets and orientation toward happiness.