Benefits of matching consumers’ personality: Creating perceived trustworthiness via actual self‐congruence and perceived competence via ideal self‐congruence

Abstract

Endorsers such as social media influencers who aim to match consumers’ personality to strengthen their credibility must consider that actual self‐congruence and ideal self‐congruence have different effects on the main dimensions of credibility: perceived trustworthiness and perceived competence. In our study, we conceptually argue that actual self‐congruence is associated more strongly with a closer psychological distance and, in turn, with trustworthy information, and we empirically show that perceived trustworthiness solely mediates the effect of actual self‐congruence on consumer behavior. Subsequently, we conceptually argue that ideal self‐congruence is more strongly related to ideal skills and therefore should be more strongly related to perceived competence, and we empirically demonstrate that perceived competence solely mediates the effect of ideal self‐congruence on consumer behavior. Our findings explain the mechanism behind the effects of actual and ideal self‐congruence and demonstrate important differences in authentic and aspirational marketing strategies with regard to creating the perception of trustworthiness and competence via social media influencers.

Enhancing Service Brand Passion Through Self-Congruity: The Moderating Role of Gender and Age

“…In comparison to actual selfcongruity, the ideal selfcongruity has a much greater impact on customer attitudes (Ibrahim et al, 2008;Zogaj et al, 2021a). Custo mers receive benefits, and these benefits influence their decisionmaking in future con suming behaviors so that ideal and actual selfcongruity become essential antecedents of purchase decisionmaking and product choice (Quester et al, 2000;Zogaj et al, 2021b). Selfcongruity, user image, and usage image are all terms used to describe how people perceive themselves (Aaker, 1997;Moons et al, 2020).…”

Exploring the relationship between integrated marketing communications and decentralised organisational structure: a heuristics perspective

“…A company’s performance depends significantly on having and implementing a successful strategy (Porter, 1996). Marketing discipline and communications lack credibility, at least in part, for their contribution to company performance (Kumar, 2015; Webster et al , 2005; Zogaj et al , 2021). The concept of IMC concerns successfully connecting marketing communications with company strategy.…”

Social perception of brands: Warmth and competence define images of both brands and social groups

“…Combining these two ideas, research studied the way consumers relate to influencers. In a survey of Instagram users who followed at least one influencer, actual self-influencer congruence determined the psychological distance between the consumer and the human brand (Zogaj et al, 2020). So higher actual self-influencer congruence led to more purchase intentions (of the products recommended by the influencer) through the mediation of influencer trustworthiness.…”

“…Ideal self-influencer congruence also had a positive effect on purchase intentions, but this time through the mediation of perceived competence of the influencer. So, like the country-of-origin effect and human brands, research on social media influencers (Zogaj et al, 2020) shows that social perception and brand perception are not only similar but sometimes apply to the same target.…”