A social identity perspective on aspirational advertising: Implicit threats to collective self‐esteem and strategies to overcome them

This research explores the effects of consumers' self‐comparisons with specific social identities associated with a product‐based out‐group that are primed by aspirational advertising. We hypothesize and find that when a consumer's relevant identity is inferior to the primed social identity, product attitudes suffer. The process accounting for this effect consists of a negative social comparison between the two that reduces the consumer's related collective self‐esteem. This outcome is more (less) apparent under conditions of high comparison salience (identification with the inferior in‐group). We also demonstrate two marketer strategies that alleviate this negative effect: facilitated affiliation (i.e., making desired out‐group membership appear accessible) and indirect self‐affirmation (i.e., improving perceptions of worth associated with other self identities). The results advance theoretical knowledge of social identity processes influencing consumer attitudes.