Abstract

In this paper, it is to identify the effects of differences in interpretation levels depending on the type of brand association and the brain psychological distance on the evaluation of the product of that brand through two experiments. To test our hypotheses empirically, we conducted online survey. We addressed the hypotheses involving the general and relative impact of actual and ideal self-congruence on emotional brand attachment (H1) and explored the effect of product involvement as the moderating variable (H1-1 and H1-2). The goal of this research was to validate the results from involving our basic model and to explore the impact of two additional moderating variables (self-esteem and public self-consciousness: H2). We followed the same procedure. This finding is theoretical to the extent of the interpretation level theory in brand association research by applying the interpretation level theory to the brand association, and provides the meaning that, in practice, it is necessary to utilize the message of different types of brain psychological distance depending on the brand association characteristics that the brand has in defining the brand. In particular, it was confirmed that functional brand associations and symbolic brand annals have representational harmonization, respectively, depending on the low and high levels of interpretation levels.