The underlying social identities of a nation’s brand

This study draws on self-categorisation theory and nation branding to investigate what social identities and influences underpin consumer preferences for national brands. A survey in Mozambique, an underdeveloped African country, compared a domestic mobile phone company whose brand contains the country name against a European brand. Consumer ethnocentrism might arise identifying with the national brand or with Mozambiqan personalities endorsing the brand. Value-expressiveness might arise from consumers associating with celebrity endorsers. A dichotomy of youth versus older consumers moderated the relationships between social identities and brand preference. Bayesian structural equation modelling using Monte Carlo simulations estimated the path coefficients from a sample of 611. Across age groups, ethnocentrism was stronger than value-expressiveness in determining preference for national brands. Moreover, ethnocentrism was stronger with the older rather than younger consumers. Consumer ethnocentrism stemmed mainly from injunctive influence with both age groups. With older consumers, value-expressiveness related significantly to descriptive influence, but not to injunctive influence. With youth, neither form of social influence significantly related to value-expressiveness.