Brands and self-determination: the roles of credibility and subjective vitality

The primary purpose of this paper was to research consumer intrinsic needs, i.e., self-determination (autonomy, competence, relatedness) concerning the consumer experience with favourite brands, given different types of perceived credibility as predictors and subjective vitality as the well-being outcome. For this study, we utilised source credibility and self-determination (SDT) theories in the novel favourite brand context. We analysed data by performing confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) on 201 Croatian respondents. The findings suggest that self-determination plays a role in the favourite brand experience, whereas different types of brand credibility exert different impacts on self-determination. Reputed brand credibility positively influenced consumer intrinsic motivation, i.e. self-determination (autonomy, competence and relatedness). Presumed credibility negatively influenced autonomy and relatedness. Furthermore, relatedness, unlike autonomy and competence, positively affected subjective vitality in the favourite brand context. Our study contributes to the source credibility theory by revealing different credibility types important for self-determination within the brand experience. Furthermore, our findings contribute to SDT by showing the connection between specific intrinsic motivation needs and consumer subjective vitality. In addition, our study contributes to self-determination theory by utilising the SDT theoretical framework in the novel favourite brand context, which has yet to be the case.