Psychological switching mechanism of consumers' luxury and non-luxury brand attitude formation: the effect of store location prestige and self-congruity

This paper discusses the relationships between store location prestige, location self-congruity, brand luxury, and brand attitude. The result of structural equation modeling revealed that location prestige impacted ideal social location self-congruity positively contributing to consumers' luxury brand attitudes, while it impacted actual location self-congruity negatively contributing to consumers' non-luxury brand attitudes. The findings also implied that consumers switched referential self-concept when they evaluated different brands. This psychological switching mechanism of consumers' brand attitude formation suggests it difficult for a non-luxury company to raise its brand equity by acquiring a prestigious store location, referring to the luxury strategy.