Research On The Influence Of Personal Narrative Of Spokes-character's Story On Brand Attitude

With the advent of pictures reading,brand spokes-characters and narratives have become powerful tools for brand recognition and brand personality.Many companies have launched their own spokes-characters and gave them stories.However,there are few popular spokes-characters with stories,and they are still in the preliminary stage of how to shape the story of the preliminary.It is found that the personal narratives of real-life spokes-characters' stories are mainly concentrated in the first person or third person narrative,and the related research of the narrative shows that two main narratives is the first person and the third person.The present research focus on the different narrative person of the spokes-character's story(the first person vs.the third person narrative)influence on brand attitude.Through three experiments,the paper studied the boundary and mediated path of the impact of the personal narrative of the spokes-character's story on the brand attitude from the perspective of the consumer-brand relationship and brand trust.Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 were two parallel experiments.The main purpose of Experiments 1 and 2 was to explore the influence of the interaction between the personal narrative of the spokes-character's story and consumer-brand relationship on brand attitude.Experiment 1(N=187)manipulated the consumer-brand relationships and used the inter-group factor design of 2(the personal narrative of the spokescharacter's story: first person vs.third person)x 2(consumer-brand relationship: close vs.distant).Experiment 2(N=145)directly measured the consumer-brand relationship of real brand(Three Squirrels)and used a mixed factor design of 2(the personal narrative of the spokes-character's story: the first person vs.the third person)x 2(consumer-brand relationship: close vs.distant).The results of both experiments showed that when the consumer-brand relationship was close(vs.distant),compared with the third person(vs.the first person),the personal narrative of the spokescharacter's story used the first person(vs.the third person)could produce a better brand attitude.Experiment 3 was based on Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 to further explore the mediation of brand trust in the impact of the interaction between the personal narrative of spokes-character's story and consumer-brand relationship on brand attitude.Experiment 3(N=136)used the inter-group factor design of 2(the personal narrative of the spokes-character's story: the first person vs.the third person)x 2(consumerbrand relationship: close vs.distant).The results showed that when the consumer-brand relationship was close,compared with the third person,the personal narrative of the spokes-character's story used the first person,the participants' trust in the brand was higher,leading to a more positive brand attitude;when the consumer-brand relationship was distant,compared with the first person,the personal narrative of the spokescharacter's story used the third person,the participants had higher trust in the brand,which leaded to a more positive brand attitude.The research conclusions not only enrich the theoretical framework of brand spokes-character's story and consumer-brand relationship,but also play a guiding role in the marketing practice of designing spokes-characters' stories.