When too much “me” is bad for “us” : the detrimental effect of selfie on self-brand connection

• Main Author: Bharti, Mehak
• Other Authors: Sharon Ng
• Format: Thesis-Doctor of Philosophy
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Business::Marketing::Social
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/142791
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The growing popularity of selfie campaigns has taken the world by storm. Such campaigns have allowed marketers to tap into consumers’ social media following and led to a common perception among practitioners that getting consumers to take a selfie with their brands helps establish a consumer-brand relationship. Although such perception is intuitively appealing, it is unclear whether it has any firm basis in truth. Do selfie campaigns really lead to a stronger self-brand connection? Contradicting conventional wisdom, this research shows that selfie campaigns actually inhibit the establishment of self-brand connection, as the act of taking a selfie shifts consumers’ attention away from the brand to themselves (i.e., it leads to greater self-focus). This does not mean selfie campaigns are detrimental to the establishment of a self-brand connection across all situations. Our research shows that selfie campaigns may lead to positive self-brand connections for brands that are linked to the consumers’ identity a priori, and for “cool” brands. Across seven studies, this research highlights the nuances in using selfie campaigns to build self-brand connections.