How Does Consumers’ Attachment to Unaffordable “Dream Brands” Affect Their Emotions and Self-Efficacy?

Abstract

This study examines how someone’s attachment to an unaffordable “dream brand” product affects his or her emotions. The authors found that when people have a strong attachment to unaffordable, dream brand products, they enjoy the same positive emotional experiences as they do when they are attached to affordable brands. Interestingly, however, the results show that not all people experience positive emotions when they are strongly attached to unaffordable dream products, indicating that people’s level of overall positive emotion varies. Applying the implicit self-theory, we found that incremental theorists experience more positive emotions than entity theorists do. Furthermore, self-theory type influences the effect of attachment to a dream brand on a consumer’s self-efficacy. Lastly, the revealed psychological mechanism explains that future attainability through the realization of a consumer’s ideal self is the mediating factor between brand attachment and positive emotions. Practical implications are provided for brand communication and advertising strategy in the context of Asian business and consumers, and theoretical contributions are provided for future research on brand attachment.