Abstract
Internet and related technologies have dramatically changed the landscape of the global branding. New corporate brands (online brands) such as Amazon.com, Yahoo!, Google, eBay, Facebook have arisen in the new digital age and command immense brand equity, putting them at the top of many traditional offline companies. Online brands emerge as the result of advancements in information and communication technologies. This study examined the congruence between self-concept and brand personality and its effect on emotional brand attachment in the online branding environment. The five brand personalities (sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness) adopted from prior research were used as moderating variables. The self-congruence for consumers’ emotional brand attachment can be different by brands’ different brand personalities. The results show that brands with “sincerity”, “excitement”, or “competence” traits may have the stronger impact of actual self-congruence on emotional brand attachment than of ideal self-congruence on emotional brand attachment. On the contrary, brands with “sophistication” and “ruggedness” traits may have the impact of ideal self-congruence on emotional brand attachment be slightly weaker than the impact of actual self-congruence on emotional brand attachment.