من، خودم، و Ikea: اثرات تعیین کلی خودارجاعی در قضاوت برند  Me, myself, and Ikea: Qualifying generic self-referencing effects in brand judgment

1. Introduction We frequently like occupations, partners, cities, streets, birthdays, and a host of other objects, events and entities because, essentially, we like ourselves (Nuttin, 1985; Pelham, Carvallo, & Jones, 2005). This intriguing phenomenon is known as ‘implicit egotism’–the latent attraction to things that are linked to the self (Pelham, Mirenberg, & Jones, 2002). Although abundant research in numerous contexts has shown its pervasive existence (Jones, Pelham, Carvallo, & Mirenberg, 2004; Kitayama & Karasawa, 1997; Knewtson & Sias, 2010; Nelson & Simmons, 2007; Nuttin, 1985; Pelham, Carvallo, DeHart, & Jones, 2003; Pelham et al., 2002), research in the consumer sphere is surprisingly scarce and has mainly focused on name letter branding (Brendl, Chattopadhyay, Pelham, & Carvallo, 2005; but see Perkins & Forehand, 2012). This is all the more surprising given that recent trends indicate that the use of personal pronouns in branding such as ‘I’ and ‘my’ (e.g., iTunes and MySpace) shows a marked surge in recent years, even up to the point that the number of registered self-referencing trademarks has tripled over the past decade (BOIP, 2014). The present research will address this void and extends previous findings on implicit egotism and name letter branding by examining whether and when more generic references to the self as integral components of brand names (i.e., brand names starting with I, or My) affect brand judgment, under which conditions this generic self-referencing effect is most pronounced, and when the self-referencing effect might turn from positive to negative. In particular, we build on work on the name letter effect and implicit consumer cognition–which suggests that the attraction effect of objects directly associated with the self (i.e., by sharing initials with the owner) is the result of people’s default self-view being positive (Baumeister, 1989; Greenwald & Banaji, 1995; Pelham et al., 2002)–and propose that more generic references to the self in brand names may similarly produce an attraction effect and thus promote favorable brand responses. More specifically, and aligning with previous research, we examine the notion that the extent to which consumers feel attracted to more generic self-referencing brand names is dependent on the valence of both their chronic and temporary self-view. Additionally, we extend this work and test a logical implication of this reasoning by examining whether the implicit attraction to generic self-referencing brand names may turn into avoidance when consumers’ self-view is negative, rather than positive. Finally, we examine an extension particularly germane to the marketing and consumer field by arguing that the impact of consumers’ self-view valence on generic self-referencing brand judgment is particularly pronounced for products that have a more salient link with the consumer’s self and may express that property and thus are deemed to be particularly self-relevant, i.e., for self-expressive, rather than non-self-expressive products.