Creating brand attachment is a critical branding issue in today’s marketing world. One way to achieve this is by virtual brand community participation. Some key questions, however, are what motives of virtual brand community participation are the most powerful drivers of brand attachment and how these motives of virtual brand community participation influence brand attachment. On the basis of one empirical study of 593 virtual brand community participants, this research show that the implications of the hedonic and utilitarian movies of brand community participation for consumer’s brand attachment are complex and differ by type of self-congruence (ideal self-congruence and actual self-congruence) after controlling public self-consciousness. On a general level, hedonic motive of brand community participation has the greatest positive impact on brand attachment. Ideal self-congruence plays the partial mediator between hedonic motive of brand community participation and brand attachment. However, actual self-congruence does not explain the positive relationship between utilitarian motive and brand attachment. This research discusses significant academic and managerial implications of these findings.
