The role of affiliation, attractiveness and personal connection in consumer‐company identification

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how consumers' personality (i.e. motivation for affiliation) and their perceptions about the company (i.e. identity attractiveness) and the relation they maintain with the company's employees (i.e. personal connection with salesperson) influence their identification with the company. The research also considers the moderating effects of identity salience and salesperson identification with the company. In addition, the study proposes that salesperson identification may further enhance the positive influence of the consumer‐salesperson connection on the consumer's identification with the company.Design/methodology/approachIn order to test the hypothesized model, this study uses a sample of customers from a financial institution with different levels of business involvement with the company. With a questionnaire formed with measures taken from previous literature, structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed model.FindingsThe results showed that all three determinants – i.e. identity attractiveness, need for affiliation, and personal connection – have direct and positive effects on consumer identification with the company. Moreover, the moderating effect of identity salience was also confirmed for the impacts of both identity attractiveness and need for affiliation on consumer identification, as well as the moderating effect of salesperson identification for the impact of personal connection between the customer and the salesperson on consumer identification.Practical implicationsThis research offers important insights for marketing managers. Specifically, companies need to be aware of and to deliver a consistent and attractive identity of both their salespeople and their company. Moreover, marketing communications that attempt to connect a product or brand to a social identity should consider the extent to which target consumers value that social identity, and what aspects can be leveraged to increase perceptions of relevance associated with that identity. Therefore, all communication activities should provide cues about how the company or its products are related to an identity that is relevant to the consumer.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the literature on social identity and organizational identification as it examines the consumer‐company relationship in a consumer context. The main contributions are three. First, it highlights the importance of the non‐product aspects of a company in terms of building a consumer‐company bond. Second, it shows that consumers are more likely to adopt social identities (i.e. to identify with particular social groups) when they consider the company's identity to be personally relevant. And third, it demonstrates the impact of the salesperson identification with the company on his/her performance, a relationship that sales literature has not considered yet.

Can Local People Help Enhance Tourists’ Destination Loyalty? A Relational Perspective

“…Personal connection is built through social interactions and can create a sense of coherence within groups (Marín & Ruiz de Maya, 2013). A personal connection is grounded in rapport theory, which refers to "a customer's perception of having an enjoyable interaction with a service employee, characterized by a personal connection between the two interactants" (Gremler & Gwinner, 2000, p. 92).…”

“…Personal connection was measured using three items derived from Marín and Ruiz de Maya (2013). Destination distinctness was measured using three items adapted from Wong and Merrilees (2005).…”

Duygusal Marka Deneyimi, Marka Ayırt Ediciliği, Marka Çekiciliği ve Marka Savunuculuğu Arasındaki İlişkiler - The Relationship Between The Affective Brand Experience, Brand Distinctiveness, Brand Attractiveness and The Brand Advocacy

“…In this context, consumers who have affective brand experience with the technology brand, will have higher brand distinctiveness. The brand attractiveness was evaluated as an important factor in the brand-consumer identification in the previous studies and the findings show that consumer self-evaluations will be higher when they thought the brand is attractive (Ahearne, Bhattacharya ve Gruen, 2005;Marin ve Maya, 2013). In this research, it has been determined that consumers who have affective experience with the brand find the brand more attractive.…”

“…Bu bağlamda, kullanmakta oldukları teknoloji markası ile duygusal marka deneyimi yaşayan tüketicilerin marka ayırt ediciliğinin de daha yüksek olacağı gözlemlenmiştir. Marka çekiciliği ise önceki çalışmalarda genel olarak tüketici-marka kimliği çalışmalarında tüketicilerin markayı kimliklendirmelerinde etkili olan önemli bir öğe olarak değerlendirilmiştir ve markayı çekici bulan tüketicilerin kimlik özdeğerlendirmelerinin yüksek olacağı sonucu ortaya konmuştur (Ahearne, Bhattacharya ve Gruen, 2005;Marin ve Maya, 2013). Bu araştırmada ise, marka ile duygusal deneyime sahip olan tüketicilerin markayı daha çekici buldukları yönünde tespitte bulunulmuştur.…”

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“…Items of social interactive value were borrowed from Jahn, Verma and Kunz [15] and Perez-Vega, Taheri, Farrington and O'Gorman [16]. Items of visual appearance and identify attractiveness were adapted from Perez-Vega, Taheri, Farrington and O'Gorman [16], Shukla [25] and Marín and Maya [34] respectively. The items of cognitive involvement and affective involvement were borrowed from Jiang, Chan, Tan and Wei [13].…”