The Influence Mechanism Of The Consumers’ Sense Of Power On The Evaluation Of Anthropomorphic Unique Brand

Consumers use the symbolic interests of the brand to establish,strengthen and maintain their self-image,and use the brand to express their own identity,personality,achievements or obtain social support.In other words,people can express their personal identity through the objects they own.When expressing their distinctive uniqueness,consumers tend to choose rare,customized or exotic products.Recent marketing practice shows that enterprises increase the attractiveness of products by anthropomorphizing unique products.Swatch,for example,features a human face on its surface;Many of the unique products developed by the Hammacher Schlemmer Institute feature anthropomorphic designs.Unlike most previous studies on anthropomorphism,the positive effects of anthropomorphism have been explored,such as improving brand attitudes or increasing the emotional connection between products and people.This study found that personification of unique products can lead to negative effects.Because people choose unique products to express their differences with others,and consumers perceive human attributes to anthropomorphic products,just like real people,therefore,anthropomorphic brands are perceived to have human consciousness,which has a negative impact on the expression of their own uniqueness or differences with others.In addition,the moderating role of perceived power in the influence of anthropomorphic unique products on product evaluation is explored.The sense of power is an individual’s ability to perceive his or her own control over others,which is realized by offering or refusing to provide valuable resources.The sense of power exerts a subtle influence on people’s cognition,emotion and behavior.The influence mechanism and boundary conditions of the interaction between perceived power and anthropomorphic unique products on product evaluation were investigated through four experiments.The results of experiments 1a and 1b showed that the interaction between perceived power and anthropomorphized unique products had an impact on product evaluation.Specifically,high power subjects rated anthropomorphic(vs.non-anthropomorphic)unique products less favorably,while low power subjects rated anthropomorphic(vs.non-anthropomorphic)unique product evaluations did not differ significantly.In addition,Experiment 1b excluded the alternative explanation of information processing fluency in the product evaluation by the interaction between perceived power and anthropomorphic unique products.The results of Experiment 2 showed that agency in identity expression mediated the influence of perceived power on the evaluation of anthropomorphic unique products,excluding the alternative explanation of social distance,perceived space invasion and perceived efficacy caused by brand.The results of Experiment 3 showed that product role positioning played a moderating role in the relationship between perceived power and anthropomorphic unique products.Specifically,high-power subjects rated the "supporter"(vs."agent")products more highly.This paper expands the research context of the sense of power,explores the influence of the sense of power on the evaluation of anthropomorphic unique products,proposes a new explanatory mechanism of the influence of the sense of power on the evaluation of anthropomorphic unique products,and introduces the boundary conditions of the role of product positioning.It provides a theoretical reference for enterprises to adopt different personification strategies for consumers with different sense of power.