The Influence Of Face Threat On Consumer Brand Identity Preference

Face has a long history and profound social implications in China. As an abstract concept, it is one of the most important factors of Chinese social life, which can only be realized and can't be touched. Face has effect on many aspects of people's social life, many sociologists and psychologists have done in-depth research from the perspective of sociology and psychology on it. In recent years, a growing numbers of scholars began to focus on the relationship between consumer behavior and face. The impact of face consumption on people's consumption behavior appears every hour and moment.In this paper, we study the impact of face on consumer purchasing choices from the perspective of consumer behavior. Based on previous studies, the impression management theory is this paper's backbone theory and experiment method is the main research method. We study the influence of face threat on consumer brand identity preference from the perspective of saving face, while exploring the relative influence factors.Study 1, we test the main effect of this paper, what is the influence of face threat on consumer brand identity preference, while testing the intermediary role of face consumption propensity. The results show that:when consumers face are threatened, they have stronger willing to choose the products with a clear brand identity to save their face and maintain the image of the original social status; in the control group, this effect is not significant; at the same time, the intermediary role of face consumption propensity is significant.Study 2, we test personality variables self-esteem's moderating effect from the consumer point of view. The results show that:for consumers with higher self-esteem, the effect of face threat was not significant; on the contrary, for consumers with lower self-esteem, they prefer big brand identity of products to save their own face.Study 3, we test using context' moderating effect from the situational perspective. The results show that:in the public context, face threats lead consumers to avoid using products with a clear brand identity, and in the private context, more consumers choose to use products with a clear brand identity to save face, highlight the desired character and self-identity; the control group of test results is not significant.Finally, we summarized the research findings and discussed the implications, contributions and limits of our research. Then we gave some advices on future research.