The Effect Of Brand Anthropomorphized Types On Brand Attitude

Brand anthropomorphism is a marketing tool widely used by various enterprises to establish the relationship between consumers and brands.With the continuous development of television media and social networks,the means of anthropomorphism is gradually escalating.Companies do not confined to anthropomorphize the product or brand merely on the level of "likeness",but began to try more to shape the brand into a"real person" with both "mind and shape" through packaging,stories,or video advertisements.Moreover,there are two different trends in this kind of anthropomorphization.One is to design the brand as an individual with distinct brand personality(independent-anthropomorphism),and the other is to assign a specific relationship role to the brand through anthropomorphism,emphasis the close relationship between the brand and consumer(relational-anthropomorphism).However,prior studies of brand anthropomorphism have either taken an individual perspective,treating brand as an independent,individual person,or taken a relational perspective,treating brand as someone who has a relational role or identity,to explore the effect of brand anthropomorphism on consumer response.Therefore,it is impossible to answer how companies should make a more reasonable and effective relationship between personal anthropomorphization and relational personification.In this study,we attempt to synthesize these two perspectives and theoretically defined the two concepts of independent-anthropomorphism and relational-anthropomorphism,and focused on exploring and comparing the differences of effects between independent-and relational-anthropomorphized brand on brand attitude,and the moderating roles of self-construction,narcissism as well as brand status on the effect of the two anthropomorphic strategies.Through four experiments we demonstrated that:? Compared with non-anthropomorphism,the brand adopts individualized anthropomorphizing strategies or relational anthropomorphic strategies can bring more positive brand attitudes;?The independent-self consumers has a better brand attitude towards independent-anthropomorphism brand(vs.relational-anthropomorphism brand)while the interdependent-self consumers has a better brand attitude towards relational-anthropomorphism brand(vs independent-anthropomorphism brand)?Against to general intuition,high-status brands taken a relational-Anthropomorphic strategy(vs.independent-anthropomorphic strategy)can produce more positive brand attitudes;?Moreover,compared with non-narcissistic consumers,the narcissistic consumers will have a more positive attitude towards relational-anthropomorphized brand.The conclusion of this study is of great significance to the theory research on brand anthropomorphism as well as the practice for enterprises.