Does Brand Personification Matter in Consuming Tourism Real Estate Products? A Perspective on Brand Personality, Self-congruity and Brand Loyalty

ABSTRACT

This study explored the importance of the brand personification perspective in consuming tourism real estate products in the Chinese context. The structure and the relationships among personified and non-personified brand personality, self-congruity and brand loyalty with the tourism real estate market were empirically tested. Results indicate that personified brand personality dimensions had greater influence on self-congruity than non-personified dimensions; and self-congruity mediates the relationship between brand personality dimensions and brand loyalty. The findings confirm the influence of brand personification and suggest that personified dimensions are more important than non-personified dimensions for consumers to describe self-images and form their self-congruity and brand loyalty. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.

摘要

本文剖析了品牌人格化视角在中国旅游房地产产品消费中的重要作用，并以旅游房地产市场为背景，实证检验了拟人化品牌个性、非拟人化品牌个性、自我一致性和品牌忠诚之间的结构和因果关系。研究发现，与非拟人化维度相比，拟人化维度对顾客自我一致性的影响更大；自我一致性在旅游房地产品牌个性维度和品牌忠诚之间起中介作用。结果表明，品牌人格化视角对于品牌个性具有重要影响，拟人化的维度对于顾客描述自身形象和形成自我一致性和品牌忠诚具有更重要的影响。本研究对中国旅游房地产的营销管理具有理论和实践上的指导意义。

KEYWORDS:

• Brand personification
• personified brand personality
• non-personified brand personality
• self-congruity
• brand loyalty
• tourism real estate firms

关键词:

• 品牌人格化
• 拟人化品牌个性
• 非拟人化品牌个性
• 自我一致性
• 品牌忠诚
• 旅游房地产公司

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China under Grant No. [2016M602477], the Doctoral Start-up Fund of Guangdong Natural Science Foundation under Grant No. [2017A030310507] and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant No. [2017BQ022].

Notes on contributors

Zhihong Liu

Zhihong Liu is Lecturer in the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, School of Economics and Commerce at South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China (E-mail: [email protected]).

Songshan (Sam) Huang

Songshan (Sam) Huang is Professor of Tourism and Services Marketing in the School of Business and Law at Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia, Australia (E-mail: [email protected]).

Shangyan Liang

Shangyan Liang is a PhD student in the Department of Tourism Management, School of Management at Jinan University, Guangzhou, China (E-mail: [email protected]).