Abstract

This research examines the effect of ethical attributes on brand personality and consumer-brand relationships--two rich marketing concepts, developed by Aaker (1997) and Fournier (1998), that have been investigated surprisingly very little to date. Specifically, it is hypothesized that: (1) ethical attributes can increase the sincerity and competence dimensions of brand personality (Aaker 1997); and (2) these personality dimensions can in turn favor the formation of strong and meaningful consumer-brand relationships such as committed partnerships, best friendships, and compartmentalized friendships (Fournier 1998). An experiment involving pairs of "ethical" and "mainstream" brands (e.g., The Body Shop and L'Oréal) was conducted to test these hypotheses. Results show that although both the sincerity and competence dimensions of brand personality can be increased by ethical attributes, only the competence dimension plays a significant role in shaping strong consumer-brand relationships. The results also suggest that the relationship between the competence dimension of brand personality and consumer-brand relationship strength is mediated by socio-emotional rewards. This research contributes to our understanding of the ability of marketers to manage specific dimensions of brand personality in order to elicit favorable consumer responses. Moreover, it allows marketing researchers and practitioners to better appreciate the phenomenon of ethical consumption, which is of increasing importance to today's firms.