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If brands are people, then people are impulsive—assessing the connection between brand personality and impulsive buying behaviour

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Abstract

Given the importance of branding on one hand, and pervasive nature of impulsive buying on the other, efforts were made to explore the possible impact of brand personalities on impulsive buying behaviour. For this, two studies were conducted. In the first study on 522 respondents, analysis using structural equation modelling revealed significant positive impact of “aggressive” and “activity” brand personality dimensions on impulsive buying behaviour. In the follow-up study on 1028 respondents across four different product categories, similar results were obtained with brand personality dimension of aggressiveness found to be significant impacting impulsive buying behaviour across all four product categories, while the brand personality dimension of “activity” was found to have significant positive impact in three out of the four product categories. Additionally, the results also revealed acceptable reliability and validity of brand personality measurement scale by Geuens et al. (Int J Res Mark 26(2):97–107, 2009). Findings from these studies provide a new perspective to brand management, and marketers equipped with this additional insight about the ability of “aggressive” and “active” brands to instigate impulsive purchase will have an opportunity to assess and utilise the short-term worth of brands as well.

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Acknowledgements

The authors want to extend their gratitude and heartfelt thanks towards the Editor and the anonymous Reviewers for their indispensable and invaluable suggestions and comments. Their inputs brought about significant improvement to the overall quality of this research article.

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  1. VIMR, Satna, MP, India

    Anant Jyoti Badgaiyan

  2. The NorthCap University, Gurugram, India

    Saumya Dixit

  3. IMT, Ghaziabad, India

    Anshul Verma

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  1. Anant Jyoti Badgaiyan
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Correspondence to Anant Jyoti Badgaiyan.

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Badgaiyan, A.J., Dixit, S. & Verma, A. If brands are people, then people are impulsive—assessing the connection between brand personality and impulsive buying behaviour. J Brand Manag 24, 622–638 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-017-0060-6

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