Luxury fashion brands: The impact of embodied imagery on brand responses

Brand imagery is composed of user and usage imagery. User imagery describes the user of the brand with personality traits while usage imagery describes the context in which to use the brand. The traditional use of personality traits to portray the brand user has been with imagery that has a static quality. However, imagery can also have an embodied quality. It is this embodied quality in imagery that leads an individual to form images of their self-concept that is more experiential. The current focus of this thesis is (1) to identify which type of user imagery---embodied or static---leads the consumer to greater hedonic and behavioral responses and (2) whether usage imagery intensifies this relationship. Study 1 served as an exploratory study of luxury fashion consumption. Study 2 served as an experimental study that addresses the current focus of this thesis. Methodologically, participants were required to answers a series of questions relating to their mental imagery experience, hedonic responses and behavioral intentions after being exposed stimuli scenarios. Results indicated that when presented independently of each other, embodied user imagery and usage imagery can enhance consumers' hedonic impressions but is more likely to affect purchase intentions. When presented together, such combinations of brand imagery as embodied user imagery and usage imagery as well as static user imagery and usage imagery brought the consumer to greater hedonic impressions and purchase intentions. What continues to be unclear is whether the relationship between brand imagery and consumer responses is due to high or low congruity between the consumer's ideal-self-concept and the product's brand image.