Why Consumers Like Facebook Brands: The Role of Aspirational Brand Personality in Consumer Behavior

ABSTRACT

In total, the top five brands on Facebook have more than 500 million fans through the “like” Facebook button feature and yet research shows that about only 1% engage with the top brands on Facebook. This suggests that individuals have other underlying reasons for liking brands' Facebook pages. To address the question of the latent motivations for liking brands on Facebook, a conceptual model proposing that individuals liked Facebook brands to achieve specific virtual identities was developed and tested. The results demonstrate the significance of brand personality in determining consumer behavior. Self-congruity was also revealed to be an important moderator in the relationships theorized between brand personality and consumers' online behavior. Theoretical and practical implications are outlined and discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• brands
• consumer behavior
• consumer motivations
• Facebook
• virtual identity

Acknowledgment

The author would like to acknowledge the support and guidance of Dr. Norman P. Lewis, Dr. Cynthia Morton and Dr. Linwan Wu.