Temporal Focus and Self-Congruence

The Role of Temporal Focus and Self-Congruence on Consumer Preference and Willingness to Pay

Teck Ming Tan, Jari Salo, Jouni Juntunen, & Ashish Kumar (2018) — European Journal of Marketing

Motivation

  • Core Puzzle: What psychological mechanism motivates consumers to pay more for a preferred brand that reflects their actual or ideal self-concept?
  • Theoretical Foundations:
    • Construal Level Theory (CLT): Links temporal distance to abstract vs. concrete mental construals.
    • Situational Self-Image: Captures how consumers choose brands to project situational identities.
  • Key Concepts:
    • Actual Self: Who you are now; concrete, proximal experiences, and current identity traits.
    • Ideal Self: The desired potential self; abstract, distal goals, beliefs, hopes, and dreams.
    • Temporal Focus: Shifting attention across present, future, and past moments alters psychological distance and shifts self-congruence needs.

Research Gap: Prior research has linked self-congruence to brand outcomes, but has largely ignored how the temporal focus of a situation dynamically dictates the need for actual vs. ideal self-congruence.

Research Hypotheses

  • Shifting the consumer’s temporal focus alters psychological distance, shifting the active self-construal (low-level/actual vs. high-level/ideal):
Hypothesis Temporal Focus Psychological Distance Active Self Expected Outcome
H1 Present Focus Proximal (Concrete) Actual Self Higher preference and WTP for brands reflecting actual self.
H2 Distant Future Distal (Abstract) Ideal Self Higher preference and WTP for brands reflecting ideal self.
H3 Distant Past Distal (Abstract) Ideal Self Higher preference and WTP for brands reflecting ideal self.

Distant past memories are reconstructed selectively as a distal psychological position, acting as an interpretive framework for success or self-improvement, thus activating the ideal self rather than the actual self.

Methodology and Research Design

Study 1: Chronic Association (Survey, N = 300) - Finnish public university students answered self-administered questionnaires. - Confirmed chronic correlation: Present focus is associated with actual self-congruence; future focus is associated with ideal self-congruence.

Study 2: Experimental Manipulations (3 Between-Subject Experiments) - Clothing brand context (Vero Ideale — high-involvement, publicly consumed category). - Self-Congruence Manipulation: Customize clothing to reflect either actual or ideal self (7 attributes). - Temporal Focus Manipulations (Writing Tasks vs. Controls, N = 60 each): - Study 2a: Present focus writing task (“I am here in the present moment”, slow pace, focus on surroundings). - Study 2b: Future focus writing task (think about and visualize life 15 years in the future). - Study 2c: Past focus writing task (recall and reflect on memories of events from a distant past).

Key Results and Findings

Significant interactions of temporal focus and self-congruence on brand evaluations:

Study 2a: Present Focus

  • Brand Preference: Significantly higher for Actual Self .
  • WTP: Higher for actual self, but statistically non-significant.
  • Insight: Present focus shifts preference to current identity, but alternative price-tag evaluations buffered the WTP effect.

Study 2b: Future Focus

  • Brand Preference: Significantly higher for Ideal Self.
  • WTP: Significantly higher for Ideal Self.

Study 2c: Past Focus

  • Brand Preference: Significantly higher for Ideal Self .
  • WTP: Significantly higher for Ideal Self.

Hypothesis Support: H1 is partially supported (preference supported, WTP directionally supported). H2 and H3 are fully supported.

Implications

Theoretical Implications

  1. Brand Usage Imagery Congruity: Explains how temporal focus acts as a situational cue shifting self-congruence expectations.
  2. CLT Extension: Proves that temporal focus serves as a temporal construal (present = low-level, future/past = high-level construals).
  3. Asymmetric WTP Effect: Consumers are willing to pay a premium to realize potential selves (ideal self) but are price-sensitive when reflecting their current state (actual self).

Managerial Implications

  • Both authentic (actual self) and aspirational (ideal self) branding are effective for publicly consumed goods.
  • Tailor the retail environment / advertising to match branding strategy:
    • Authentic Branding: Induce present focus (e.g., low-tempo background music, relaxed in-store atmosphere).
    • Aspirational Branding: Induce distal focus (e.g., ad copy encouraging dreams, future planning, or nostalgic achievement memories).

Limitations and Future Directions

  • Boundary Conditions: Publicly consumed, high-involvement products (clothing) were studied. Findings may not apply to private or low-involvement products.
  • WTP Measurement: Used price-tag selections to prevent outliers. Real payment situations or open-ended measures could be examined.
  • Sample Characteristics: Mostly young university student participants (typically highly future-focused).
  • Future Research Directions:
    • Investigate private consumption environments where authentic branding has historically dominated.
    • Study temporal focus transitions in digital channels (e.g., mobile shopping vs. desktop browsing).
    • Examine cross-cultural variations in past- vs. future-focused societies.

Citation: Tan, T. M., Salo, J., Juntunen, J., & Kumar, A. (2018). European Journal of Marketing, 52(11/12), 2395-2422. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-04-2017-0303