HOW INTERDEPENDENT AND INDEPENDENT SELF-CONSTRUAL

AFFECTS CONSUMER PERCEPTION

OF GAP’S BRAND ADVERTISING STRATEGY:

THROUGH TRADITIONAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Generation Y Consumers

Social Media

Listen – Interact – React – Sell

“You can’t buy attention anymore. Having a huge budget doesn’t mean anything in social media…The old media paradigm was PAY to play. Now you get back what you authentically put in. You’ve got to be willing to PLAY to play.”

-Alex Bogusky, chairman of Crispin Porter and Bogusky

H1: Shoppers with interdependent self-construal will place higher value on other people’s advice than those with an independent self-construal.

H2: In trying to target socially interdependent Generation Y, US retailer Gap is reaching out to these consumers through its use of social media advertising campaigns to increase purchase intention.

n=200 Traditional Media

Social Media

Independent Shoppers 100 0

Interdependent Shoppers 0 100