The Development of an Online Brand Personality Measurement Scale for Global E-Commerce Consumers

Abstract

In a competitive online scenario, brands need to build their personality to strengthen relationships and preferences. This study puts forward the proposition of an online brand personality measurement model. Following the psychometric literature, an instrument was developed through a preliminary survey, judges’ analysis, semantic analysis, and a pre-test. The version was applied in a survey with 256 respondents and used as the basis for an Exploratory Factor Analysis and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis through structural equation modeling, with independent samples. Evidence of exploratory, confirmatory, reliability, and content validity was obtained for the instrument, called the Online Brand Personality Scale. The model is composed of three factors: Esteem, Credibility, and Relevance. It was possible to identify the online brand personality traits, which potentially could be used in decision-making and strategic processes according to the consumers’ perception. Advances in literature are unveiled with a measure with validity and reliability, applicable in relational analyses with variables correlated to online brand personality in the global context.