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For years now, brands have been increasingly present in everyday life. Consumers no longer buy out of necessity but because they perceive a symbolic value in a product or brand and therefore want to express their self-concept. These changes in consumer behaviour result in the creation of a consumer-brand relationships where the brand is considered as a full member. The consumer personifies the brand and is able to describe it with personality traits as if it was a real person. For their part, companies have well understood the advantage of having a brand personality. Indeed, studies have shown that brand personality is one of the elements that generates brand preference, brand commitment and even brand loyalty. 
Based on Sirgy's theory of self-image/product-image Congruence (1982) that shows that consumers buy products the image of which is close to their self-image, it is consistent to ask whether there might be such a congruence between the personality of the brand and the personality of the consumer. This is the stated hypothesis of this research. Moreover, as brand personality is predictive of favourable attitudes and behaviours towards the brand, such as brand loyalty, it is worth considering that whether the potential congruence of personalities would have a predictive effect on the brand loyalty relationship. The research focused on green brands and more specifically organic brands in view of the strong values associated with green consumption. 
For this purpose, a quantitative survey was carried out in Wallonia among consumers around 5 organic brands: Alpro Bio, Pur Natur, Côte d'or Bio, Café Liégeois Bio and Ginette Beer. After collecting a sample of 280 people, statistical analyses (factor analysis, Student t-test and regression analysis) were carried out.
The results show a very strong congruence of consumer/green-brand personalities on different personality dimensions and more particularly on Conscientiousness and Fallaciousness dimensions. However, this personality compatibility has only a very weak direct predictive power on the different stages of brand loyalty. 
The contribution of this research is twofold. First, it reinforces previous researches in the field of congruence. It confirms the importance of the personality congruence perception on the purchase decision. On the other hand, with regard to brand loyalty, it gives a more nuanced picture of the personality congruence predictive effect.
Then, in a managerial way, it highlights the dimensions of personalities that are most salient for the consumer to help green brand managers in their decisions.

brand personality --- brand loyalty --- personality congruence --- green brands --- organic brands --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Marketing

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In order to improve the autonomy and the productivity of its new consultants, Consultis asked me to formalize a step-by-step guide that would escort them during their projects about strategic planning and alignment using the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) framework. The goal of this type of mission is to implement the BSC system in the client’s organization in order to improve their strategic thinking process, their performance management system and their performance appraisal process so as to provide a better goal congruence among human resources. Moreover, Consultis gave me the task to put the guide into practice by using it for the organization Arwem Food Group, an international commercial agent, specialized in bakery and pastry products, that act as an intermediary between industrials and retailers.
The guide consists of six consecutive phases that could be summarized as follows. The first step gathers some classical project management activities that initiate the project by identifying the project management triangle, the specific risks and the planning of the project. During the second phase, the values, the mission and the vision of the organization are defined, and the strategic diagnosis is undertaken and summarized into a SWOT matrix. In the third phase, the group project starts the design of the Strategy Map by identifying strategic themes and their corresponding strategic objectives that tell the story of the organization’s strategy. The fourth phase consists of selecting the indicators, targets and initiatives that will support the achievement of the strategic objectives. During the fifth phase, the human resources are aligned with the strategy by firstly identifying the operational units’ objectives, and secondly the individual objectives by determining the criteria and the appraisal method used to evaluate the employees. In the last phase, the terms and conditions of the appraisal process are analyzed in order to check the alignment with the best practices and finally the project ends with the technical implementation, and finally by the establishment of a reviewing plan used to continuously improve the system as prescribed by the PDCA methodology.

Performance Management --- Strategic Management Framework --- Balanced Scorecard (BSC) --- Performance measurement system --- Performance appraisal --- Alignment --- Goal congruence. --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Stratégie & innovation