The Research Of Halo Effect Of A Kind Of Brand Personality On Basis Of Consumer Self-Expression

The Halo Effect(or the Halo Error) which appears very often when people rate unknown things is a kind of extremely universal phenomenon. People can not avoid it completely. In the field of Consumer Behavior Research, the studies of the Halo Effect mainly focus on how it affects the rating process about products or brands. Each attribute of the brand can become the certain consumer's trigger of the Halo Effect, and this causes the researchers equate the status of each attribute when they establish the model of the Halo Effect. The author thinks that all the attributes of the brand are probably in the different levels, attributes as triggers of the Halo Effect in high levels can affects the consumer's rating of attributes in low levels in the certain situation, but not vice versa, and the degrees of the Halo Effect caused by triggers in different levels are not necessarily the same, so this kind of simple equity has great problem. Based on this reconsideration, this proposal mainly pays attention to one kind of attribute in high level(a kind of brand personality on the basis of consumer self-expression ).This brand personality has the characters of the brand personality, what is more it can satisfy consumers by some values. The author plan to reveal the important status of this brand personality in the all brand attributes and its great value in marketing management by this research.. And, brand personality is a important composition of brand equity . Netemeyer and others have divided all compositions of brand equity into two kinds: core facets and related brand associations, but they have not determined what are the relationships among these facets. The author will show the relationship between the brand personality on the basis of consumer self-expression and core facets so to further develop the theory of Netemeyer and others.The Halo Effect refers to that when people rate new things they tend to deduce what they do not know by what they know, or deduce the whole by a part ,and this just likes a halo. The Halo Effect usually turns out to be higher scores in every facet, or lower scores in every facet than the fair judgment. Or all the correlations of the facets are much bigger. As to the direct cause of the Halo Effect, the academic circles proposed three kinds of models, and this proposal is on the basis of the salient dimension mode. This. model thinks that the rating of the salient dimension will affect the rating of other dimensions which are not salient enough. The salient dimension is a dimension that rater fully understand, and it is very important to rater. But the rater cannot rate other dimensions which are not salient enough accurately. In this proposal the salient dimension is the brand personality on the basis of consumer self-expression. Jennifer.Aaker defines brand personality as a series of personalities which relate with brands. And these personalities are symbolized by brands. Some brand personalities have the function of self-expression, and in this proposal the subject is limited in the brand personality on the basis of consumer self-expression and a dimension which is not salient enough is perceived quality. Perceived quality is t at a higher level of abstraction of attributes, benefits and values , and it is more akin to a global attitudinal assessment of a brand. But, because Information Dissymmetry and consumers lack of professional knowledge, they can not rate it accurately.Consumers who wish to express themselves by brand personalities must go through three phases: comprehension, self-matching and consideration of others, and then they will enter into high involvement of the brand personalities they wish to express. In light of this the author proposed three hypothesis. Hypothesis one: the consumer will be able to understand the brand personality he wish to express, and hypothesis two: he will think this kind of brand personality is very important to himself, and then hypothesis three: the Halo Effect will take place when he continue to rate other facets and the whole brand.This proposal is an Empirical Study ,it went through phases as follow in order: confirming objects of the study and testing brand, scale development, primary test, scale examination and revision, final test and result and discussion. Finally, a questionnaire survey of 175 undergraduates was hold, and then the data were collected. The author draw the conclusions by contrast analysis, T test, parameter examination and correlation analysis. The conclusions are as follow:(1) The Halo Effect will take place when consumers who wish to express themselves by brand personalities rate the brands. The rating of the personality on the basis of consumer self-expression will affect the rating of other facet of the brand, and this leads to a higher score in every facet of the brand than fair judgment.(2) This Halo Effect can be explained by the salient dimension model. The salient dimension is the brand personality on the basis of consumer self-expression and a dimension which is not salient enough is perceived quality, the rating of the salient dimension will affect the rating of other dimensions which are not salient enough.Taking the establishment of brand personality is an important method of enterprise to obtain and maintain the unique of the brand, the author drew conclusion (3) as to consumers who wish to express themselves by brand personalities, this kind of brand personality can affect the perceived quality and unique of the brand in their mind, finally this may lead to a willingness to pay the brand premium and the brand purchase.The largest limitation of this proposal lies in that it has not introduced the perceptual attitude about the Halo Effect explanation. Systematical studies are needed to make sure whether this perceptual attitude affects the Halo Effect, and if it does how it affects the Halo Effect. For the limitation of manpower and money, this proposal didn't establish structure equations like Beckwith and others, so successors of this field should establish the structure equations on the basis of introduction of the perceptual attitude to explain this kind of Halo effect clearly, and these works will be important to makes up the gap of this proposal.