A Brief Discussion on the View of Face in Consumer Behavior

Many studies and evidence suggest that, due to traditional cultural influences, Chinese consumers tend to have a special preference for high-grade goods that symbolize power, status, and prestige, and that there is a clear tendency toward status consumption or ostentatious consumption. Contemporary Chinese consumers' individualistic consumption, however, has been largely viewed as a result of the influence of Western individualistic culture, to which traditional Chinese culture seems to be irrelevant. Thus, to date, the relationship between traditional Chinese culture and individuality consumption remains virtually unknown, and thus there is no way to know whether the effectiveness of firms' marketing efforts to shape brand personality is diminished or improved in the Chinese cultural context. In the existing literature, we find that many scholars explain Chinese consumers' luxury purchasing behavior from the perspective of "face" (Wang & Lin, 2009; Wan et al, 2009; Li & Su, 2006). Since the concept of "face" is an important value in Eastern collectivist culture (Zhou & Belk, 2004; Li & Su, 2006), this paper will also explore the relationship between traditional Chinese culture and symbolic consumption from the perspective of "face". Therefore, this paper also explores the relationship between traditional Chinese culture and symbolic consumption from the perspective of "face", and extends the focus of consumption from status consumption to personality consumption. The focus of this study is on how the traditional Chinese culture's concept of "face" and the derived concept of "status matching" influence the symbolic relationship between consumers and personality and status brands. In this study, we view the development of the consumer-brand relationship as a result of the symbolic image of the brand (including personality image and status image, etc.) being driven by the traditional Chinese cultural values (the "face concept" and the "status matching concept")****, rather than examining the role of a single force. . II.Literature Review and Evaluation 1. "Face View", Identity Matching View and Symbolic Consumption It is generally believed that "face view" and identity matching view belong to the same cultural values. The influence of values on symbolic consumption behavior has been widely verified in existing studies. For example, values influence consumers' product evaluations, attitudes and purchase intentions toward brands with certain symbolic meanings (Allen, Gupta & Monnier, 2008), their attention to the value of particular products at the time of purchase (Richins, 1994), and their final choice of products (Allen & Ng, 1999). In studies on Chinese "face" and its consumption behavior, Zhou & Nakamoto (2000) and Zhou & Belk (2004) suggest that "face" is an important cultural value that influences people's behavior in collectivist cultures. It is an important cultural value that influences people's behavior in a collectivist culture, and it may be an important reason why Chinese consumers have a strong desire for luxury goods. The evidence provided by later researchers (Jiang, 2009; Zhang, 2005; Pan, 2009) supports this assertion to some extent. Jiang's (2009) study shows that the stronger the concept of "face", the higher the consumption level of Chinese consumers, and the more they are inclined to spend on symbolic consumption for the purpose of relationship building. Similarly, Zhang Mengxia (2005) and Pan Yu (2009) demonstrated that the stronger the concept of "face", the higher the price level of goods purchased by consumers. Pan Yu's (2009) study also showed that the concept of "face" and the concept of identity matching lead consumers to pay more attention to and prefer the image value of goods. In addition, Li & Su (2006) further explained why Chinese consumers have a strong interest in branded luxury goods despite their relatively low income levels by developing the concepts of "face" and "face" consumption. Their study found that, due to the influence of "face", Chinese consumers' "herd-ness", "differentiation" and "other-orientation" are all three types of "face" consumption, namely "crowd-ness", "differentiation" and "other-orientation". The study found that due to the influence of "face", Chinese consumers' "crowdedness", "differentiation" and "other-orientation" actually all lead to a tendency to buy relatively expensive branded goods, even luxury goods. However, the two researchers still did not address the impact of "face" on individuality consumption; even the differentiated "face" consumption they discussed mainly refers to a kind of consumption aimed at establishing group or social class distinctions.2. The symbolic image of a brand and its impact on consumer behavior Since Park, Jaworski & MacInnis (1986) proposed a theoretical framework that distinguishes brand concepts/images into three categories: "functional", "symbolic" and "experiential". Since the theoretical framework of distinguishing brand concept/image into "functional", "symbolic" and "experiential" categories, the symbolic image of a brand and its impact on consumer behavior has attracted extensive attention and discussion in the academic community. However, in most of the existing studies, the symbolic image has been treated as a one-dimensional construct and equated with brand personality or luxury (Bhat & Reddy, 1998). Nonetheless, these studies have shown, directly or indirectly, that brand symbolic image has a significant impact on consumer self-brand association (Escalas & Bettman, 2003, 2005), brand loyalty (Hung, 2008; Brakus, Schmitt & Zarantonello,. 2009), perceived value (Tsai, 2005), purchasing behavior (Hsieh, Pan & Setono, 2004), and brand market share (Roth, 1995) are all significant contributors. Recent research has begun to attempt to redefine the symbolic image of a brand, and has proposed a framework that encompasses "personal image", "social image", "relational image", and "collective image". A conceptual framework containing four dimensions: "personal image", "social image", "relational image" and "collective image" has been proposed (Wang, 2006; Cui and Wang, 2010). Among them, personal image refers to the "personal self-significance" represented by the brand, i.e., the personality traits, values and attitudes, and other internal characteristics possessed by individuals; social image refers to the "social self-significance" represented by the brand, i.e., the achievements, prestige, power and social status, etc.; relational image refers to the "social self-significance" represented by the brand, i.e., the achievements, prestige, power and social status, etc, Social image refers to the "social self-meaning" represented by the brand, i.e. the achievement, prestige, power and social status enjoyed by the individual; relational image refers to the "relational self-significance" represented by the brand, which is related to the interpersonal relationships valued by human beings in their lives, such as affection, love and friendship; and collective image refers to the "collective self-meaning" represented by the brand, which is related to the group members' personality traits, values and attitudes. Collective image, on the other hand, refers to the "collective self-meaning" represented by the brand, which is related to group membership and involves the characteristics, rules and standards that are enjoyed among members of a particular group. However, since the above concepts have only been proposed for a short period of time, little is known about the possible consumer responses to these different symbolic images and their mechanisms of action.3. Evaluation of Existing ResearchThrough a literature review, we find that the two research paths of the cultural values perspective and the brand image perspective mentioned above are basically independent from each other, even though there is some obvious consistency or similarity in the consumer outcomes induced by the cultural values and the brand image. certain obvious consistency or similarity. This raises a theoretical question: is a particular consumer response driven by cultural values, or by the symbolic image of the brand? Or is it the result of a combination of both factors***? Existing research does not provide an answer to this question. As far as studies from the cultural values perspective are concerned, they do not take into account the influence of the symbolic meaning of a product or brand (Zhang Mengxia, 2005; Pan Yu, 2009). As far as studies from the brand image perspective are concerned, they have explored the relationship between the symbolic image of a brand and consumer responses, but they have, again, rarely considered the influence of cultural factors, especially values, with only a few exceptions (Hsieh, Pan & Setiono, 2004). Perhaps more importantly, existing studies that have explored the impact of "face" on Chinese consumer behavior have focused mainly on explanations of conspicuous consumption, i.e., the purchase of luxury goods, and have largely ignored the potential effect that "face" may have on other symbolic consumption behaviors (e.g., personality). The potential utility of "face" for other symbolic consumption behaviors (e.g., personality consumption) has been largely ignored. In order to fill the gap in the existing literature, this paper will focus on the following two aspects: (1) Since the consumer-brand relationship generated by symbolic consumption is actually a meaning-based self-brand relationship (Fournier, 1991, 1998; Thompson, 1997; Wang Changzheng, 2006), it is important to note that, if "face" is not the most effective way to explain symbolic consumption, it is not the most effective way to explain symbolic consumption, i.e., luxury purchase behavior. 2006), therefore, if the "face view" and the identity matching view directly affect symbolic consumption behavior (Zhang Mengxia, 2005), do they contribute to this outcome? (2) If the symbolic image of a brand is a multidimensional construct, will the contribution of these different symbolic images (especially the personal and social images represented by the brand) to the self-brand relationship (Cui and Wang, 2010) be affected by the "face view" and the identity matching view? To this end, this study will adopt the multidimensional "symbolic brand image" concept developed by Cui and Wang (2010) to explore the possible effects of a brand's symbolic image on consumers' self-brand connections under the "face" and identity-matching concepts. -The conceptual framework and research hypotheses of this paper are summarized as follows Conceptual Framework and Research Assumptions The basic research framework of this paper is shown in Figure 1. We use "ego-brand connection" as a variable to measure the symbolic consumer-brand relationship. Since the focus of this paper is on personality and status consumption, we analyze and discuss the potential main effects of personal image and social image on ego-brand association, and their potential interactions with the "face view" and the status matching view on ego-brand association, respectively. We analyze and discuss the potential interaction effects of brand personal image and social image on self-brand linkage and their potential interaction effects with "face view" and identity matching view on self-brand linkage, respectively, and put forward specific research hypotheses on this basis. Figure 1 Research hypotheses model 1, brand's personal image, social image and self-brand linkage Consumers consume brands as a symbol to realize self-construction and expression (Wattanasuwan, 2005; Schau & Russell, 2005). When a consumer purchases and owns a brand, he or she actually appropriates the brand's image (meaning), including its personal image (personal self-meaning) and social image (social self-meaning). Consumers occupy the brand's personal image in order to construct and express their own personality, establish a difference with others, thus forming a personalized consumption. Consumers occupy the brand's social image in order to construct and express his status, to show or flaunt his success, power, prestige and wealth to others, thus forming status consumption or flaunting consumption. When consumers tend to accept and appropriated the symbolic meaning from a particular brand, the association between consumers and that brand is formed (Escalas & Bettman, 2005). The "self-brand connection" as a theoretical construct expresses "the extent to which individuals absorb brands into their self-concept" (Escalas & Bettman, 2003, 2005). 2005). It is often seen as an important dimension in measuring the quality of brand relationships (Fournier, 1998). Obviously, since brand personal image and social image can satisfy consumers' "personality needs" and "identity needs" respectively, they are likely to contribute to the formation and development of self-brand connections. Based on the above analysis, we put forward the following hypothesis: H1: The personal image (H1a) and social image (H1b) of a brand will have a positive effect on consumers' ego-brand association. 2. The moderating effect of the "face view" and the view of identity matching (1) The moderating effect of "face perception". The concept of "face" is often regarded as one of the most influential cultural values on Chinese consumer behavior (Wan et al. 2009; Li & Su 2007; Wong & Ahuvia 1998). It is generally believed that "face" involves an emphasis on prestige, fame and status (Wan et al., 2009; Wang & Lin, 2009). Whether or not a person has "face" and the amount of "face" he or she possesses depends both on the wealth, status, and power that an individual acquires in society (Wan et al., 2009) and the efforts he or she makes to communicate these achievements to others (Wong & amp; Ahuvia, 1998). amp; Ahuvia, 1998). Thus, "face" is closely related to conspicuous consumption, which leads to Chinese consumers' tendency to communicate or show off their power, status and prestige through the use of luxury or branded goods. Not only that, they further enhance their real social status by boasting about their wealth, achievements, etc. (Bagwell & Bernheim, 1996). Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis: H2a: There is a positive interaction between "face" and brand's social image on the ego-brand association. In other words, the stronger the consumers' "face", the more the brand's social image enhances their ego-brand association. Although the term "face" suggests that Chinese people may place more importance on an individual's visible external characteristics than on his or her invisible internal qualities (Wan et al., 2009), we should also note that this does not mean that Chinese people neglect their personal internal characteristics. Zhu Ruiling (1987) points out that since Hu Xianjin (1944) proposed the face divide, two concepts of "face" have actually emerged: one is the "face" that meets the requirements of the external society, including status, power, and achievement; and the other is the internalized moral behavior, which comes from the self-requirement of the individual. Zhai Xuewei (2005, 2011) further discusses the difference between "face" and "face" for Chinese people, arguing that "face" is the most important element of a person's moral behavior. Zhai Xuewei (2005, 2011) further discusses the difference between "face" and "face" for Chinese people, arguing that "face" is the "self-image" presented by an individual after the impression has been refined, whereas "face" is the status, i.e., the psychological status, that the image has earned in the minds of others. Therefore, we believe that one of the most important resources for Chinese people to construct "face" must be the "personal self" in psychology, including individual personality, values, attitudes and abilities. It is only by presenting it in an appropriate way and in a socially acceptable image ("face") that an individual's psychological status ("face") in the minds of others can be maintained or enhanced. Otherwise, a person may feel "shameless" or "disgraced", and then there is no "face". It can be seen that "face" is closely related to personality consumption, which leads consumers to buy and use brands and goods with "personal image". Personalized consumption has become another way for consumers to maintain and improve their "face" in addition to status consumption. Through in-depth interviews with consumers, Wang Ning (2009) found that the pursuit of individuality in consumption and "avoiding similarity with others" have been regarded as a matter of "face" by many Chinese people today. Based on the above analysis, we propose the following hypothesis: H2b: There is a positive interaction between "face" and brand personal image on self-brand association. That is to say, the stronger the consumers' view of face is, the more favorable the brand's personal image is to enhance their ego-brand association. (2) The moderating effect of identity matching view. The concept of identity matching can be regarded as a kind of regulation or constraint on the behavior of how to gain "face". Huang Guangguo (2004) points out that for traditional Chinese, people's "face" behavior must meet the requirements of "etiquette", match their roles or identities in specific relationship situations, and comply with relevant social norms. Xu Huoliangguang (2002) also suggests that people with a strong sense of face will pay attention to wearing appropriate clothes on appropriate occasions, having appropriate attitudes in appropriate situations, and general deference between inferiority and superiority, or else they will be criticized and ridiculed for being "impolite". In other words, Chinese consumer behavior is context-centered. In order to maintain or enhance face, an individual's behavior must be adapted to a particular relational context in order to remain consistent with an external social identity or role, rather than an internal personal self. Thus, the identity-matching view does not encourage, but even rather represses or reduces, the need for personal self relevance, which is likely to limit the development of self-brand associations between consumers and brands with a personal image. Based on this, we propose the following hypothesis: H3a: Identity-matching perceptions and brand's personal image have a negative interaction effect on self-brand association. That is, the stronger consumers' identity match perception is, the less favorable the brand's personal image is to the development of their self-brand association. Although Chinese tend to emphasize that an individual's behavior should match his or her identity status, their identity status in a particular or the same social interaction situation is not viewed as fixed and unchangeable. On the contrary, there is often "status competition" among Chinese peers, and what and how they consume often becomes an important resource that can be utilized in this competition (Wang & Lin, 2009). This raises the possibility that the more widespread the emphasis on status matching, the more likely it is that individuals will successfully engage in opportunistic behaviors to enhance, or at least maintain, their personal status in interactions through the use of various status-symbolic resources, including status brands. It is perhaps for this reason that the Chinese market is characterized by a unique consumer landscape "filled with people chasing luxury that does not match their status". Based on the above empirical observations and reasoning, we propose the following hypothesis: H3b: There is a positive interaction between the perception of identity match and the brand's social image on the ego-brand association. In other words, the stronger consumers' identity matching view is, the more favorable the brand's social image is to enhance their self-brand association. Research Design 1. Sample Selection and Sample Characteristics We used a questionnaire to collect data. The respondents were mainly students from universities in Wuhan (including undergraduates and MBA students), and the brands surveyed were the top 20 cell phone brands in the ZOL list. The selection of products and brands was based on the following three main considerations: (1) cell phones are socially visible products, and consumers generally pay more attention to the symbolism of the brand when purchasing and selecting them; (2) most of the subjects were familiar with the top 20 brands on the ZOL list, and they generally had the experience of using two or more of these brands; and (3) there were large variations in the symbolism and prices of the brands, with both expensive and high-end brands that symbolize status (including undergraduates and MBA students), High-end brands that symbolize status (e.g., iphone4), as well as brands that offer multiple price brackets and are considered to be rich in personality (e.g., Sony Ericsson, Samsung, etc.). This study*** distributed 350 questionnaires and recovered 298 valid questionnaires. Of these, 43% were male subjects and 57% were female. The age of the respondents ranged from 18 to 36 years old.2.Measurement of VariablesThis study*** involves seven variables, namely, the brand's "personal image", "social image", "relational image", "collective image", "social image", "social image", "collective image" and "social image". This study involves seven variables, namely, the brand's "personal image", "social image", "relationship image", "collective image", "face", "identity matching" and "self-brand association". brand association", all variables were measured using a 7-point Likert scale. The symbolic brand image was measured using the scale developed by Cui, Nan and Wang, Changzheng (2010). Among them, the measurement of personal image contains three items with a Cronbach α value of 0.856; the measurement of social image contains three items with a Cronbach α value of 0.893; the measurement of relational image contains four items with a Cronbach α value of 0.916; and the measurement of collective image contains four items with a Cronbach α value of 0.897. The self -brand association was measured using a scale developed by Escalas & Bettman (2003, 2005). The original scale*** had seven items, of which five statements were retained after item analysis, namely, "The brand reflects who I am," "I feel a personal connection to the brand," "I use the brand to show others who I am," "I think the brand helps me to be who I want to be," and "I think the brand is 'me' "Face perception was measured using three items selected from the "Face Awareness" scale developed by Wan et al. (2008), which were "Don't look at the face of the monk, look at the face of the Buddha", "People rely on clothes, Buddha relies on gold" and "People need face, trees need skin", with a Cronbach's α of 0.780. Measurement of the concept of identity matching The scale was selected from the Confucian Cultural Values Scale developed by Mengxia Zhang (2005), *** There are three items, namely, "An individual's behavior should match his/her social status", "A person's dress should match his/her status" and "Consumption behavior should match a consumer's status", with a Cronbach's α value of 0.871.3. Reliability and validity analysesWe used a validated factor analysis (CFA) to measure the reliability and validity of all the variables in the model. The fully standardized results generated using the AMOS 7.0 maximum likelihood method showed that all measures had loadings greater than 0.7 on the corresponding latent variables, with t-values ranging from 10.08 to 21.52, indicating that the variables had sufficient convergent validity. In measuring the overall goodness of fit of the model,=361.48, df=254, /df=1.42,GFI=0.91, AGFI=0.89, CFI=0.98, TLI=0.97, PGFI=0.71, PNFI=0.79, RMSEA=0.038, these indicators suggest that the overall model has a good good goodness of fit. The Cronbach α values of the seven latent variables in the model are all above 0.7, indicating that their internal consistency is acceptable (Peter, 1979). The composite reliabilities of the individual scales computed based on the factor loadings in the CFA model ranged from 0.78 to 0.92, which all exceeded the recommended critical value of 0.7 (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994); and their average variance extracted (AVE) was above 0.54, which also met the recommended critical value of 0.5 ( Johnson, Anderson & Fornell, 1995). These data indicate that the scales used in this study have good structural reliability and validity. In addition, we examined the discriminant validity between the constructs using the mean variance extraction measure. The square root of the AVE for all seven constructs measured in this study was greater than the correlation coefficients between it and the other constructs, which suggests that there is good discriminant validity among the constructs (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). V. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION We used multiple regression analysis to test the research hypotheses presented in this paper. In order to accurately estimate the main and interaction effects of each variable, we conducted the analysis by means of the following three regression equation models: in order to reduce the problem of multiple **** linearity and to obtain unbiased parameter estimates, we mean-centered all the variables taken in the models (Jaccard & Turrisi, 2003). In terms of the degree of model explanation, the adjusted R[2] of the three models were 0.555, 0.597, and 0.623, respectively, and the degree of explanation of the dependent variable by the independent variables of each model was significantly greater than 0. The parameter estimates for Models 1 and 2 are shown in Table 1, and the parameter estimates for Model 3 are shown in Table 2. The parameters of Model 1 indicate that personal image, social image, relational image, and collective image of the brand all have main effects on self-brand association, and that both personal image and social image are significant at the 0.01 level; therefore, Hypothesis H1 (including H1a and H1b) is supported. Although this study did not propose hypotheses about the main effects of face view and identity matching view affecting the self-brand linkage, we tested their main effects through Model 2. The parameters of Model 2 indicate that there is a significant main effect of Face View at the 0.01 level and Identity Matching View at the 0.05 level on Self-Brand Connection. The reason for this may be that consumers with a strong face view pay more attention to self-construction and expression, they have a stronger need for symbolic resources such as commodities and brands, and they are prone to perceive the self-relevance of the brand, and thus they are prone to develop stronger ego-brand associations. Model 3 tests the possible second-order interaction effects of the "face view" and the identity matching view with the four dimensions of symbolic brand image. From the data in Table 2, we find that the positive interaction effect of "face view" and brand's personal image on self-brand association is significant at the 0.01 level, and hypothesis H2b is supported. However, the interaction utility of "face" and social image on ego-brand association is negative, with unstandardized and standardized regression coefficients of -0.077 and -0.105 (t=-2.335, p<0.05), which is exactly the opposite of what we expected from hypothesis H2a, suggesting that when consumers' personal image of a brand is not significant, the positive interaction utility is significant at the 0.01 level, and hypothesis H2b is supported. This is contrary to our hypothesis H2a, suggesting that when consumers have a strong sense of "face", the social image of a brand may reduce consumers' ego-brand association. This result implies that, although there is evidence that Chinese consumers may be inclined to show-off and status consumption under the influence of the concept of face, the concept of face may weaken the ego-brand linkage between them and the status brands they buy to a certain extent, which is detrimental to the ego-brand linkage between them and the status brands they buy. However, the concept of "face" may somewhat weaken the self-brand association between them and the status brands they buy, which is not conducive to the development of symbolic brand relationships. The reason for this may be related to the Chinese ego's unique "hidden-self-exposed-self" structure (Xu Bing, 2005). The status consumption of Chinese consumers under the effect of the "face concept" is often motivated by the need to "show oneself", i.e., to comply with secular pressures such as power and ethics, and to "show others"; while their real status is to "show others"; the real brand relationship is to "show others", i.e., to "show others". "The emotions, values and attitudes represented by their real "hidden selves" are likely to reject this kind of consumption and disapprove of status brands, especially when their actual social status and ability to pay are relatively low. The parameters of Model 3 in Table 2 also clearly show that there is a negative interaction effect between the perception of status match and the brand's personal image on the ego-brand linkage, which is significant at the 0.01 level, and Hypothesis H3a is supported. Identity matching view and brand's social image, on the other hand, have a positive interaction effect on self-brand association and are significant at the 0.05 level, and hypothesis H3b is also supported. Conclusion, Implications and Directions for Further Research This paper focuses on the influence of brand's personal image and social image on consumers' self-brand association under the role of "face view" and identity matching view. The results of the data analysis show that brand's personal and social image, consumers' "face" and identity matching concepts generally have a positive effect on self-brand association. These variables not only have significant main effects on ego-brand bonding, but also contain more complex positive and negative interaction effects. The theoretical contribution of this study is that it enriches our understanding of how traditional cultural values influence Chinese consumer behavior. First, the facilitating effects of the "face view" and the identity-matching view on self-brand associations suggest that traditional Chinese cultural values are generally beneficial to the cultivation and development of positive and stable symbolic brand relationships; second, although previous research has demonstrated that the Secondly, although previous studies have proved that the "concept of face" leads Chinese consumers to tend to show off their consumption and purchase high-priced status brands, it can weaken the self-connection between consumers and status brands, and has a certain negative impact on the development of high-quality brand relationships; thirdly, the "concept of face" of contemporary Chinese consumers is likely to have already undergone a significant change. Third, it is likely that contemporary Chinese consumers' concept of "face" has changed in some ways, one of which is that the expression of one's own personality is regarded as a matter of face, and is no longer limited to boasting about external status, power, and achievements; fourth, this study treats the concept of status matching as a separate concept from the concept of "face. Fourth, this study treats the identity match concept as a separate concept from the "face concept", and the role of the identity match concept in symbolic brand relationships is not entirely consistent with the role of the "face concept". As far as marketing management practices are concerned, the significance of this study lies in the following three aspects: (1) Symbolic positioning of brands in the Chinese market is generally advantageous for companies. Whether the brand is positioned as a personality brand or a status brand, it will be conducive to the development of the brand relationship; (2) Enterprises can take the "face view" of the target consumer group and the view of status matching as two important references in the symbolic positioning of the brand. For example, when the target consumer's "view of face" is strong and the view of status match is weak, it will be more favorable to locate in the personality brand; when the target consumer's "view of face" is relatively weak and the view of status match is relatively strong, it will be more favorable to locate in the status brand; (3) Enterprises can also consider choosing and injecting multiple symbolisms into their brands at the same time, rather than just choosing between personal image, social image, collective image and relationship image. For example, as many luxury brands do, a company can give its brand both a social status symbolism and a unique personality. Since this study focuses on the impact of "face" and status matching on brand relationships based on personality or status symbolism, we do not examine specific brand personalities (e.g., innocence, excitement, competence, upbringing, strength, etc.) and how a brand's relationship with a brand is affected when it is characterized by both personality and status signals. the effect of the "face view" and the status match view on symbolic brand relationships. This could be a direction for future research. In addition, our research subjects are college students, who have similar social status, so whether the findings of this study are applicable to other status groups, and whether an individual's social status itself could be an influencing variable, etc., is also something we need to explore further in future research.