Purpose By adopting a managerial perspective, this study aims to deepen how the strategic role of brand voice is conceived in the design of in-car name-brand voice assistants (NBVAs), how the brand experience based on NBVAs is designed and how the NBVA brand experience might influence customer brand engagement (CBE). The ultimate aim is to develop an interpretative theoretical framework for developing voice-based branding through NBVAs. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research approach with the analysis of a single in-depth case study is followed: the NBVA developed in-house by Mercedes, which was the first NBVA launched in the automotive market. Findings In the design of the NBVA, a key role was assigned to the brand voice in developing the brand’s anthropomorphic profile. Driving safety, consistency with the corporate identity, human-like interaction, dynamic personalisation and connectivity emerged as the strategic criteria for designing the NBVA brand experience, which was oriented towards the pursuit of multiple CBE dimensions. Research limitations/implications Although the qualitative empirical contribution of this study differs from statistical generalisations, the research insights are analytically generalisable. The insights emerging from the study could guide future research on voice-based branding. Practical implications The results may be a useful conceptual reference for managers involved in designing brand voice and brand experience based on NBVAs. Originality/value This study is the first empirical contribution to the marketing literature about voice-based branding in an innovative experiential field, a topic that, thus, far has been poorly analysed.

Consumers' increasing use of voice‐activated artificial intelligence technologies is stimulating the development of a new line of research in the field of marketing aiming to analyse the branding implications in this innovative experiential context. The spread of so‐called name‐brand voice assistants (NBVAs) is creating interesting opportunities in terms of brand anthropomorphism. The brand anthropomorphisation strategies adopted by companies are poorly studied in the academic literature, and only one contribution has been made in the experiential field of NBVAs. Therefore, the objective of our work is to begin to fill this gap by investigating the pillars of brand anthropomorphisation strategies (i.e., activities and branding outcomes) in the specific NBVA context by adopting a managerial perspective. Therefore, we followed an exploratory qualitative approach based on in‐depth personal interviews with practitioners engaged in these strategies in the automotive sector. The resulting cognitive map reveals the following three levels of strategic pillars: drivers (i.e., designing a human‐like brand voice and human‐like consumer‐brand dialogue), intermediate outcomes (i.e., brand personality and the strength of consumer‐brand relationships), and final outcomes (i.e., multidimensional brand loyalty). Our study enriches both the literature concerning brand anthropomorphisation strategies and the nascent stream on NBVAs and provides managerial guidelines in the new in‐car NBVA context.

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