The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871

The Daily Illini

The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871

The Daily Illini

The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871

The Daily Illini

The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871

The Daily Illini

    University researcher explores how connection to brand affects self-esteem

    The guy who only wears Nike. The girl who only drinks Coca-Cola products. The die-hard Packers fan.

    All of these people have something in common: A preference for a particular brand. But for some people, this self-brand connection might run deeper.

    Tiffany Barnett White, associate professor of business administration at the University, wanted to find out just how deep this relationship can be. In a recent study, she found that, rather than using a brand as a complement to or reflection of one’s personality, some consumers connect the brand to their own self-concept.

    To measure this phenomenon, White and her partners, Shirley Cheng, a doctoral student at Hong Kong Baptist University, and Lan Nguyen Chaplin, an associate professor at Villanova University, administered self-esteem evaluations before and after exposing a subject to objectively negative information about the subject’s favorite brand.

    They found that people who have strong self-brand connections, when exposed to objectively negative brand information, reported meaningfully lower levels of self-esteem.

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    “They weren’t just in a bad mood. They felt bad about themselves,” White said.

    For example, White said, when someone with a high self-brand connection to the brand Adidas was shown information about how sponsoring the Olympics was a big marketing flop for the company, he or she demonstrated self-concept implications.

    “They were more likely to agree with statements like ‘I’m not the person I want to be,’” White said.

    White made it clear that the phenomenon doesn’t apply with someone who just likes a particular brand or someone who uses the brand frequently.

    “It’s something different,” she said. “It’s a kind of connection a consumer feels with the brand that’s deep and meaningful.”

    Peter Resendez, junior in LAS, said he has a deeper connection to his favorite team, the Yankees, but doesn’t feel that he would be an example of someone with a self-brand connection strong enough to impact his self-worth.

    How the Yankees perform does, however, have an impact on his emotions, he said. When his favorite team doesn’t take the World Series title, he considers it a losing season and is disappointed when it’s over. While he would consider it an obsession, he doesn’t let it define him.

    As a marketing professor, White said, she hopes her study will help brands see the broader implications of negative performance. Beyond the risk of consumers being dissatisfied or switching to a new brand, it makes consumers with a strong self-brand connection more sensitive to certain types of competitive appeals, she said.

    Her findings might also be used as a cautionary tale, helping consumers understand their relationships with brands.

    “It reminds people to not lose themselves in a self-brand connection … to avoid misattributing this negative information to one’s self-concept.”

    Tushar Nagananda, junior in Engineering, said he tries to defy the idea of self-brand connections and emphasizes the concept of choice at every chance he gets. One brand in particular that he tries to avoid is Apple, a brand that people frequently feel connected to.

    “I guess it’s kind of a non-conformist idea,” Nagananda said. “I try to buy what’s best for me, rather than what everyone else is doing.”

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