You are what you wear: Brand personality influences on consumer impression formation

The present study examines the role of brands in the process of impression formation. The article examines the hypothesis that brand personality traits may carry over and affect perceptions of the personality of the brand's owner. Based on the continuum model of impression formation the findings support the expectation that the impact of brand personality is stronger when the situational context embedding brand and owner is consistent with the key association that the brand evokes. Moreover, the amount of attention the perceiver can devote to the judgment task moderates this process, such that the interaction effect between brand personality and situational consistency is more pronounced when consumers are free to use as much time to the impression formation task as deemed necessary. Conversely, when under time pressure, consumers tend to resort only to brand personality as a basis for forming an impression.