When Coaches Become Brands: How Fitness Instructors’ Personal Brand Shapes Members’ Self-Congruity, Brand Attachment, and Purchase Intention

This study examines the effects of fitness instructors’ personal brand on members’ self-congruity, brand attachment, and purchase intention in the context of fitness services. An online questionnaire survey was conducted, and data were collected from fitness club members in Taiwan using snowball sampling, resulting in 336 valid responses. The research model was examined through reliability and validity assessments, structural equation modeling, and mediation analysis. The findings indicate that fitness instructors’ personal brand has significant positive effects on both self-congruity and brand attachment. Self-congruity also positively influences brand attachment; however, its direct effect on purchase intention is not statistically significant. In contrast, brand attachment has a significant and strong positive effect on purchase intention and plays a key mediating role in the relationship between fitness instructors’ personal brand and members’ purchase intention. The findings suggest that members’ intentions to continue purchasing or recommending fitness courses are driven not only by their cognitive identification with an instructor’s brand image, but more importantly by the emotional attachment developed through repeated interactions and accumulated trust. Overall, this study highlights the importance of personal brand management for fitness instructors and provides practical implications for strengthening member relationships, deepening emotional connections, and improving customer retention in the fitness industry.