Finding a fitting endorser has proven to be one of the most delicate and critical tasks of influencer marketing. This research explores the relevance of the congruency of the influencer personality with (1) brand personality and consumers' (2) actual/(3) ideal selves. Additionally, the (4) moderating role of involvement is considered, the impacts on post attitude/belief, brand trust and purchase intention are thereby studied. The novelty of this study lies in the integral examination of the types of congruencies and involvement in the context of influencer marketing as well as the consideration of their impact on the brand-related variables. Based on an online survey with 547 participants analyzed by means of structural equation modeling in SmartPLS, partly counterintuitive findings were produced. When the involvement level rises, congruence with consumers' actual selves becomes more important. Under low-involvement conditions, practitioners should pay more attention to influencers' fit with consumers' ideal selves. An adequate fit between brand and endorser is paramount and becomes even more important under high-involvement conditions. Overall, this study reveals that the three types of congruency and involvement interact in a very unique way in the context of influencer marketing.

中文翻译：

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影响者营销中复杂的三合一一致性问题

事实证明，寻找合适的代言人是影响者营销中最微妙和关键的任务之一。本研究探讨了影响者个性与 (1) 品牌个性和消费者 (2) 实际/(3) 理想自我的一致性的相关性。此外，还考虑了（4）参与的调节作用，从而研究了对后态度/信念、品牌信任和购买意愿的影响。本研究的新颖之处在于对影响者营销背景下的一致性类型和参与程度进行了整体检查，并考虑了它们对品牌相关变量的影响。基于通过 SmartPLS 中的结构方程建模对 547 名参与者进行的在线调查，产生了部分违反直觉的发现。当参与度上升时，与消费者的真实自我一致变得更加重要。在低参与度条件下，从业者应该更加关注网红与消费者理想自我的契合度。品牌和代言人之间的充分契合至关重要，并且在高度参与的情况下变得更加重要。总的来说，这项研究表明，在影响者营销的背景下，三种类型的一致性和参与性以非常独特的方式相互作用。