Brand Personality Self-Congruity and the Product Life Cycle: Assessment of Behavioral Intentions Toward Tourism Destinations: An Abstract

Abstract

Previous studies have assessed the effects of brand personality in various product categories (Freling & Forbes, 2005; Lin 2010), including tourism destinations (Bekk et al., 2016; Ekinci & Hosany, 2006). However, no known research has examined the effects of brand personality self-congruency on consumers in the context of destination brands across different stages of the product life cycle (PLC). The consideration of brands’ life cycle positions is critical for marketing strategy to maintain the desired brand recognition, given the relationship between product evolution and performance in the market (Lau, 2014; Shankar et al., 1999). Therefore, this research investigated the role of brand personality self-congruency in predicting behavioral intentions toward tourism destinations, considering two different positions in the PLC (introductory vs. maturity). The study also examined the effects of social needs (Sheth et al., 1991) and venturesomeness (Plog, 2002), a psychographic construct from the travel and tourism literature. Using a sample of 450 consumers in the United States, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis revealed the statistically significant effects of brand personality self-congruity (.682, p