I. Introduction

With the emergence of numerous brands and entering the era of infinite competition, brand differentiation is more important. Consumers exposed to indiscriminate advertising are unable to process and store huge amounts of brand information. For that reason, companies are using brand slogans that represent brand identity as short and strong messages (Jung, 2010). In particular, the brand slogan can be effectively used in fashion brands where the brand concept, image, and identity are important for brand selection, but there are not many cases of using slogans among fashion companies and related studies are lacking.

Studies related to brand slogan has focused on analyzing the influence of slogan type and slogan’s linguistic characteristics on brand attitude, purchase intention, and brand recall (Jun, Kim, Choe, & Kim, 2020;Yoh, 2013b). In previous studies, the linguistic techniques and types of slogan were classified, or revealed the effect of slogan characteristics on the attitude toward the slogan or brand, and purchase intention. However, in addition to that, consumer reactions may be different depending on how consumers accept the slogan. In many previous studies, it was found that the more the components of the brand, the congruity between the image of the product or advertisement model and the consumer’s self-image, the more positive attitudes toward the brand are formed (Chang, Lee, & Ahn, 2011;Greaff, 1996;Kwon & Choi, 2009). In other words, no matter how original or attractive the slogan is, and it describes the brand well, it will be more favorable to the slogan phrase that expresses itself and resembles one’s values or thoughts. It may be difficult to accurately grasp the concept of the brand or the image of the advertising model, but the slogan in sentences describing the brand directly conveys the message, so consumers can accurately grasp it. Therefore, if the message is a phrase that can express the consumer’s own image, it will be more appealing. However, it is recognized that there is currently no research on the brand slogan and self-image congruity, so this study intends to find out.

The effect of congruity between brand slogan and self-image on consumer response can also vary depending on self-monitoring. Self-monitoring is a tendency to pay attention to clues for socially appropriate behavior, people with high self-monitoring are sensitive to how their actions will be accepted by others (Snyder, 1974). Yang and Chae’s (2004) research shows that consumers with high self-monitoring prefer brand with high congruity between brand and self-image over those with low levels of selfmonitoring. The reaction to the brand slogan may also depend on self-monitoring. Therefore, this study investigate whether there is a moderating effect of self-monitoring in the effect of congruity between slogan and self-image on consumer response.

Ⅱ. Background

1. Brand slogan

Brand slogan defined as a phrase describing which industry the brand belongs to, what the characteristics of this product are, and what philosophy and vision it has (Lee, 2013). It is widely used as an important tool for establishing the brand’s image by expressing the characteristics of the brand descriptively (Choi & Yoon, 2008). With the recent increase in competition among companies, it is more important than anything else to build a brand’s differentiated identities to help consumers build a loyalty and affinity for the brand. The brand slogan is used as linguistics and semiotics as a role to convey the core values and identity that the brand aims for (Jun et al., 2020). Therefore, it is a means that can be effectively used to establish and inform the differentiated identity of the brand. Aaker (1991) noted that the slogan is the most effective way to enhance brand association by removing the ambiguity of the brand image. Choi and Yoon (2008) also mentioned the importance of the brand slogan, in the advertisement experiment, advertisement recall and purchase intention when there was an advertisement slogan were stronger than when there was no advertisement slogan. Yoo (2003) said that the brand slogan suggested by companies had a positive effect on both attitudes toward advertising and companies. As such, previous studies emphasized the importance of slogans, but research on slogans has been limited. Previous studies related to slogan were mainly centered on urban or university slogans, and research on brand slogans was not sufficiently conducted. In particular, in the case of fashion brands, people tend to select and use that brand to represent their own image, so brand concept and identity are important in fashion brands, but research on the fashion brand slogan is very limited. Yoh (2013a) investigated the reaction of 30 fashion brand-slogan sets to find out the consumer’s reaction according to the type of linguistic characteristics of the fashion brand slogan. As a result, overall familiarity, difficulty, novelty, playfulness, and attitude of the slogan were evaluated positively, but the brand recall rate was very low. The researcher inferred that fashion brand slogans generally have low recall rates as there are many slogans that do not have sufficient frequency of exposure through TV commercials with high concentration. Other studies on fashion brand slogan have not been found, and more research on fashion brand slogan should be conducted.

2. Effect of the congruity between brand slogan and self-image on the slogan attitude and brand attitude

Consumers tend to purchase products based on symbolic meanings, such as the image they have for the product or brand, in addition to the functions or attributes of the product itself according to the value pursued (Kwon & Choi, 2009). This is to establish self-identity by using a particular brand and informing others of its use, and to consume the brand for this reason (Shavitt, 1990). At this time, consumers can select a brand that is similar to their own image and can express their self-image. Self-image refers to the totality of thoughts and feelings that individuals have about themselves and regard themselves as an object (Rosenberg, 1979). Self-image can play an important role in the purchasing decision process because people tend to grasp or determine the person’s disposition by looking at the products or brands that others use (Kwon & Choi, 2009). When selecting products and brands in this symbolic meaning, they are more interested in what meanings they give rather than what practical functions they have. Especially, fashion brands can have more symbolic meaning than practical functions and choose more as a means of expressing themselves, so self-image can be more important. A number of studies have been conducted to analyze the effect of congruity between consumer’s self-image and product or brand on the product or brand attitude and purchase intention (Chang et al., 2011). Graeff (1996) showed that the more similar the brand image to the consumer’s self-image, the more positive attitude toward the brand emerges. Park, Choi, and Chang (2001) also confirmed that the congruity between personality of the brand and the consumer’s self-image can have a positive effect on the brand attitude and product attitude. Rhee (2015), Ahn and Li (2006) demonstrated that the higher the congruity between the parent brand and the consumer’s self-image when expanding the brand, the more favorable the attitude toward the expanded product is. In addition, Nam, Jang, and Suh (2013) proved that when the degree of congruity between the brand’s advertising model image and the consumer’s self-image is high, the advertising attitude, brand attitude, and purchase intention increase. Looking at the research on self-image congruity in fashion brands, Choi (2005) revealed that the congruity between the personality of clothing brands such as Beanpole, Hazzys, and Polo and the consumer’s selfimage have a positive effect on the brand attitude. Kim and Kim (2020) said that the congruity between the sports clothing brand that consumers like and the consumer’s self-image positively affects brand trust and brand fanship, which in turn affects brand loyalty. These previous studies focused on the effect of the congruity between brand image or personality and consumer’s self-image on brand attitude or the intention of purchasing the product. However, in fashion brands where the brand’s image or symbolic meaning may be more important, research on self-image congruity has not been widely conducted, and there is no research on the brand slogan and self-image congruity. Since the brand slogan plays a role of explaining the brand through a short message as a sentence, it is less abstract than the brand personality, concept, or image of the advertising model, and consumers can easily perceive it. Therefore, when consumers accept it, it is considered that a more accurate judgment of the selfimage congruity is possible. Based on this, this study attempts to find out how the slogan and self-image congruity affect the attitude toward slogan and brand.

3. Moderating effect of self-monitoring

Self-monitoring refers to the tendency to control and manage oneself by paying attentions to situational clues that require appropriate actions to be socially recognized (Snyder, 1974). People with high selfmonitoring are sensitive to social cues, and express themselves using these cues, while those with low self-monitoring are less sensitive to social cues and tend to maintain a consistent self-expression depending on the situation (Snyder, 1974). This theory was initially used primarily in research in the field of psychology, and since the 1980s, self-monitoring has been used as a variable influencing consumer behavior in that it includes sensitivity to personal social information (Nam & Lee, 2019). In particular, it can be a very important factor in determining the interest in the image and use of a fashion product that shows an individual’s desired appearance (O’Cass, 2000).

Looking at the research on the effect of selfmonitoring on consumer behavior, Jung and Hwang (2015) investigated the effects of self-monitoring, the awareness of the pioneer brand which is a brand already in the market, and the type of endorsers on the quality perception of the Me-Too brand that copied the pioneer brand. As a result, only the group with high self-monitoring showed difference according to the type of endorsers. Specifically, when the typical consumer endorsers was used compared to the professional expert endorsers, the perceived quality of the Me-Too brand was evaluated low when the awareness of the pioneer brand was low. Nam and Lee (2019) studied the relationship between advertisement appeal and self-monitoring, consumers with low self-monitoring had a positive attitude toward advertising for attribute appeals, and consumers with high self-monitoring had more positive attitudes toward advertising for benefits. In response to this result, the researcher interpreted that when self-monitoring is low, it is favorable to attribute messages with a tendency to pursue consistent self-image and rely on internal conclusions that it pursues. On the other hand, people with high self-monitoring showed a favorable attitude to the benefit message, which seems to be because they felt the need for social motivation and image improvement. Lee (2000) studied cosmetics purchasing behavior according to self-monitoring, and woman with high self-monitoring valuse intrinsic characteristics when purchasing cosmetics, more fashion and package design than women with low self-monitoring, and more frequnet purchase of cosmetics. Self-monitoring can be related to the congruity between brand and self-image, because people with high self-monitoring think how they will be seen by others is important, so they will try to choose a brand or product that expresses their image. Some studies have been conducted on self-monitoring and congruity between brand and self-image, Chang et al. (2011) said the group with high self-monitoring is more willing to buy products with high self-image congruity than the group with low self-monitoring, also this effect was stronger in females than in males. Yang and Seo (2004) also demonstrated that consumers with high self-monitoring prefer brands with high self-image congruity over consumers with low self-monitoring, but consumers with low self-monitoring have no significant impact on brand preferences. Based on these previous studies, the following hypothesis was proposed to examine the role of moderating effect of self-monitoring in the influence of the congruity between brand slogan and self-image on consumer response.

Ⅲ. Methods

1. Research hypotheses and research model

A research model as shown in <Fig. 1> was set up to investigate whether the effect of the congruity between the brand slogan and the self-image on the attitude toward the slogan and the attitude of the brand depends on self-monitoring.

2. Data collection and analysis

The survey was used as a method of this study. In order to select the brand slogan that will be used to measure the congruity between brand slogan and self-image, previous studies were referred. As a result of conducting a preliminary survey of the fashion brand-slogan set for 100 male and female university students in Yoh’s (2013a) study, the top five slogans were selected for each of the six categories for men’s wear, women’s wear, children’s wear, sports wear, inner wear, and imported luxury goods. Among them, 5 brand slogans sets in the sportswear category suitable for both men and women in their 20s and 30s, which are the subjects of this study, were used. Five sets of ‘Nike - Just do it!, Nepa - Nepa is freedom, Lafuma - Mountain for whom, stage for Lafuma, Adidas - Impossible is nothing, North Face - Never stop exploring’ were presented, and the brand-slogan set that they liked or attracted the most was selected. Respondents answered the question about the congruity between brand slogan they chose and their image. In order to measure the congruity between brand slogan and self-image, the items used in Chang et al.’s (2011) research were revised and supplemented and presented as 4 questions. For the question to measure the level of self-monitoring, 5 items of Yoh’s (2007) measuring tool, which were made based on Snyder (1974)’s scale, were used. For the slogan attitude and brand attitude, Fishbein and Ajzen’s (1975) questions were revised and supplemented with 6 questions each of 3 questions. Other questionnaires included demographic questions asking gender, age, and monthly income, and all items except demographic questions were measured on a 7-point scale of 1 (not at all) to 7 (very yes).

A survey was conducted on men and women in their 20s and 30s, and 177 responses were used for the final analysis, excluding 8 unfaithful responses out of a total of 185 responses collected from the week-long survey conducted from December 11 to 18, 2020. The data analysis of this study analyzed frequency, and verified the relationship between variables through exploratory factor analysis, simple regression analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis using SPSS statistics 25.

Ⅳ. Results and Discussion

1. Demographic characteristics of respondents

The demographic characteristics of the participating subjects are as follows. Among the total 177 participants, there were 66 (37.3%) males and 111 (62.7%) females. As for the age group, there were 116 (65.5%) people in their 20s and 61 (34.5%) people in their 30s. As for the job, there were 112 (63.3%) university students, 24 (13.6%) office workers, 14 (7.9%) self-employed, 10 (5.6%) housewives, and 17 (9.6%) others. The average monthly household income was 45 (25.4%) people with less than 2 million won, 53 (29.9%) people with less than 2 million won and 4 million won, and 79 (44.6%) people with more than 4 million won (Table 1).

2. Validity and credibility of measures

Prior to the empirical analysis, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the questions of self-image congruity, self-monitoring, slogan attitude, and brand attitude to verify the validity of the component items. As a result of the analysis, the four questions of self-image congruity were extracted with a total of one factor, with the lowest factor loading at .86 with high reliability (α=.94). As a result of the self-monitoring factor analysis, one question that reduces the number of variable explanations among the five questions was deleted, and a total of four questions were extracted as one factor, with the lowest factor loading at .83 with Cronbach’s alpha of .88. The three slogan attitude questions are extracted as one factor in total, with the smallest factor loading of .93, which is generally high, and the values of Cronbach’s alpha is .94. The three brand attitude questions are extracted as one factor in total, with the smallest factor loading of .95, which is generally high with high Cronbach’s alpha of .95. The validity and reliability of all the above questions have been confirmed (Table 2).

3. Descriptive statistics and correlations of variables

This study is to investigate the effect of the congruity between slogan and self-image on the slogan attitude and brand attitude, also to analyze the moderating effect of self-monitoring. Before verifying this, the frequency of the slogan selected by the participants was first examined. The number of participants who chose ‘Nike -Just do it’was the most with 117 (66.1%) people, ‘Nepa- NEPA is freedom’ with 20 (11.3%), ‘Adidas-Impossible is nothing’ with 19 (10.7%), ‘North Face-Never stop exploring’ with 15 (8.5%), and ‘Lafuma-Mountain for whom, stage for Lafuma’ with 6 (3.4%) (Table 3).

Descriptive statistics analysis and correlation analysis were conducted to examine the characteristics and correlations of major variables (Table 4). Looking at the average value (7-point scale) of each variable, the congruity between slogan and self-image is 4.94, the self-monitoring is 4.78, the slogan attitude is 5.77, and the brand attitude is 5.52. In the correlation analysis, all of the major variables showed positive correlation, and the absolute value of the correlation coefficient was between .154 and .626. In particular, the correlation coefficient value (r=.626) between slogan attitude and brand attitude was somewhat high. Since the correlation coefficients were all less than .7, no problem of multicollinearity among variables was found (Park, 2019).

4. Test results of hypotheses

In order to analyze the effect of the congruity between slogan and self-image on the slogan attitude and brand attitude, and the moderating effect of selfmonitoring, hierarchical regression analysis was conducted using SPSS Statistics 25. Congruity between slogan and self-image, self-monitoring, slogan attitude, and brand attitude were input as a single variable by calculating the average of the factors. As a result of checking the multicollinearity between independent variables, the regression equation is significant because all the Tolerances of the final model including all the interaction terms are 1 or less, and all VIF values are 2 or less. In Model 1, the independent variable, the congruity between slogan and self-image, and the moderator variable, self-monitoring, were entered. Model 2 was entered with an interaction term multiplied by an independent variable and a moderator variable.

The analysis results are presented in <Table 5>. In model 1, the effect of the congruity between slogan and self-image on the slogan attitude was statistically significant(β=.23, p<.01), and the hypothesis 1 was supported. In other words, the more participants feel that the slogan and the self-image match, the more positive their attitude toward the slogan is. Hypothesis 2 was rejected because there was no interaction effect(β=–.04, p=.26) in the effects of the congruity between slogan and self-image and self-monitoring on the slogan attitude in Model 2. In the influence of the congruity between slogan and self-image on the slogan attitude, there is no moderating effect of the self-monitoring, but to see concretely according to the self-monitoring, a graph was presented by dividing into two groups based on the average of the congruity between slogan and self-image (M=.4.94) and the self-monitoring (M=.4.78) (Fig. 2). When the congruity between slogan and self-image is low, the slogan attitude of the group with high self-monitoring (M=. 6.03, SD=.1.02) is more positive than the group with low self-monitoring (M=.4.74, SD=.1.07). Likewise, it has been shown that the slogan attitude of group with high self-monitoring (M=.6.45, SD=..59) was more positive than that of the group with low self-monitoring (M=.5.01, SD=.1.12).

Next, a hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to verify hypothesis 3 and 4, the effect of the congruity between slogan and self-image on the brand attitude and the moderating effect of self-monitoring. In Model 1, the independent variable, the congruity between slogan and self-image, and the moderator variable, self-monitoring, were entered, and Model 2 was entered with an interaction term multiplied by an independent variable and a moderator variable.

The analysis results are presented in <Table 6>. In Model 1, the effect of the congruity between slogan and self-image on the brand attitude was statistically significant ( =.47, p<.001), and the hypothesis 3 was supported. This means the higher the participants regard the congruity between the slogan and the self-image, the more positive the brand attitude. The interaction effect (β=.81, p<.05) of the congruity between slogan and self-image on the brand attitude is statistically significant in Model 2, the hypothesis 4 was also supported. The variance of R² increased from 28.2% in Model 1 to 30.4% in Model 2, it can be said that there is a moderating effect of self-monitoring in the effect of the congruity between slogan and self-image on the brand attitude. In order to see the moderating effect in detail, a graph was drawn and presented by dividing it into two groups based on the congruity between slogan and self-image and the self monitoring average (Fig. 3). When the congruity between slogan and self-image was high, the brand attitude of the group with high self-monitoring (M=. 6.38, SD=..63) was higher than the group with low self-monitoring(M=.5.62, SD=.1.13). Similarly, when the congruity between slogan and self-image was low, the brand attitude of the group with high self-monitoring (M=.5.22, SD=.1.34) was higher than the group with low self-monitoring (M=.4.77, SD=.1.17), but the difference was small compared to the group with high congruity between slogan and self-image (Fig. 3). In other words, when the congruity between slogan and self-image is high, consumers with high self-monitoring attitude toward slogan are not different from those with low self-monitoring, but consumers with high self-monitoring have a more positive brand attitude than consumers with low self-monitoring for brands with slogans similar to self-image.

These results support the findings of Chang et al.’s (2011) research that the high self-monitoring group showed higher purchase intentions for product brands with high self-image congruity compared to the low self-monitoring group.

Ⅴ. Conclusion

This study investigated the effect of the congruity between the sports clothing brand’s slogan and the consumer’s self-image on the slogan attitude and brand attitude, and whether this effect could be changed according to the level of consumer’s self-monitoring. The main results are as follows.

The congruity between slogan and self-image had a significant positive effect on the slogan attitude. In other words, the more participants considered the slogan and the self-image to match, the better they evaluated the slogan.

The congruity between slogan and self-image was found to have a significant positive effect on the brand attitude as well. This means that the congruity between slogan and self-image affects not only the attitude toward the slogan but also the attitude toward the brand that presents the slogan. Consequently, it can be helpful for a company to identify the personality of its major customers and present a slogan that can regard the brand’s personality as being similar to the customer’s self-image. Namely, rather than a slogan phrase describing a product or a company, a slogan revealing the brand’s personality and presenting the brand’s identity would be more effective.

There was no difference according to the level of self-monitoring in the effect of the congruity between slogan and self-image on the slogan attitude. Both the low self-monitoring group and the high self-monitoring group showed a more positive attitude toward the slogan when the congruity between slogan and self-image was high. However, in the effect of the congruity between slogan and self-image on the brand attitude, there were differences according to the level of self-monitoring. Specifically, in the group with high congruity between slogan and self-image, the brand attitude was more positive when the self-monitoring was high than when the self-monitoring was low. Therefore, it is necessary to consider consumers with high self-monitoring when creating a slogan representing a brand. Because they are very interested in how they look to others, so they can easily change their thoughts about the brand by external stimulus compared to those with low self-monitoring, and their thoughts about the brand once firmly recognized do not change easily and is likely to become loyal customers to the brand (Kang, 2012). Therefore, it is important to carefully grasp the personality and characteristics of consumers to create a brand slogan. In order to form a favorable attitude toward the brand, it is effective to identify the personality of consumers with high self-monitoring and present a brand slogan similar to their image. It is believed that this can be a strategy to build a close relationship with the brand through communication with consumers, and ultimately to increase brand loyalty.

Through this study, the congruity between brand personality, advertising model image and self-image, which was revealed in previous research, could not only affect consumer response, but also the congruity between the brand slogan messages that explain the brand and the self-image can affect the slogan and brand attitude. In addition, it is meaningful that the research was conducted mainly on fashion brands, which were somewhat lacking in research. In addition, it was revealed that consumers with high self-monitoring, one of the characteristics of consumers, have a relatively more favorable attitude to the brand with a slogan that similar to their self-image. Such results can provide ideas for creating slogans reflecting their personality and characteristics by segmenting consumer groups.

This study shows that self-image congruity is important in fashion brands. We also learned that brand slogans give good feelings to consumers by delivering images of brands in the form of ‘words’ to consumers and ultimately make brand attitudes favorable. Companies should consider the brand as an object and develop an identity that reflects the customer’s image and develop a slogan to express it well. In paricular, it would be effective to expose and promote slogans that can more represent their image to consumers with high self-monitoring.

The suggestions for subsequent studies are as follows. Although in this study, the meaningful results were obtained in fashion brands that are important of self-image in brand selection, it would also be meaningful to study whether there is a difference compared to practical product brands where self-image is not very important. In addition, in this study, only sports brands were studied among fashion brands, but we expect follow-up studies that consider various brand types and consumer charcteristics.