The matching effect of anthropomorphized brand roles and product messaging on product attitude

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the construal congruence of anthropomorphized brand roles and product messaging and its underlying mechanism on consumers' product attitude.Design/methodology/approachFour experimental studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. Study 1 investigated the framing effect of anthropomorphized brand roles (servant vs partner) in consumers' minds. Study 2 examined the matching effect of anthropomorphized brand roles and product messaging on product attitude. 132 students were randomly assigned to a 2 (anthropomorphized roles: servant vs partner) × 2 (product messaging: higher-level construal vs lower-level construal) between-subject factorial design. Study 3 tested the mediation effect of processing fluency underlying the construal congruence mechanism. Study 4 replicated the results of study 3 and further examined the boundary conditions by introducing product innovation locus as a moderator. A total of 218 students were randomly assigned to a 2 (anthropomorphized role: servant vs partner) × 2 (product messaging: higher-level construal vs lower-level construal) × 2 (innovation locus: core innovation vs peripheral locus) between-subjects design experiment.FindingsThe results demonstrate that a construal match between product messaging and anthropomorphized brand roles –anthropomorphized “servant” with higher-level construal messaging and anthropomorphized “partner” with lower-level construal messaging – can positively influence consumers' attitude via enhanced processing fluency. Furthermore, this construal matching effect on product attitude is moderated by the innovation locus of the product.Practical implicationsThis study reveals that anthropomorphized brand roles with compatible product messaging in the associated construal levels lead to more favorable product attitudes. Furthermore, the matching effect of anthropomorphized brand roles and product messaging is stronger for products with peripheral innovation than with core innovation.Originality/valueOur study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it provides new insights into the construal matching effect of anthropomorphized brand roles and product messaging. Second, it investigates the boundary conditions of the above-mentioned construal fit mechanism.

The incorporation of Mainland Chinese tourists' experiences into the Taiwan hotel branding process

“…Fifth, this study's results on the effects of brand image on nonfinancial performance are significant, and product attributes on nonfinancial performance are non-significant. Past studies have stated that when a positioning strategy is implemented at the elaboration stage, a brand's performance is eventually influenced (Hu and Trivedi, 2020;Akbari et al, 2021;Li et al, 2021;Liu et al, 2021;He et al, 2021). Although their findings were inconsistent with those of this study, they did suggest that management could deliver an accordant valued image and isolate their product from competitive brands to increase overall nonfinancial performance.…”

“…When hotel guests want to make purchase decisions, they constantly evaluate products by considering general product attributes (Jang et al, 2018). A product message can help consumers know the product's benefits and intangible values (He et al, 2021). Generally speaking, hotel product attributes provide specific information regarding guests' experiences (Zhang and Verma, 2017).…”

“…Understanding how brand positioning affects customer perception is critical, as it is a driver of nonfinancial brand performance (Hu and Trivedi, 2020;Akbari et al, 2021;Li et al, 2021;Liu et al, 2021;He et al, 2021). Within the tourism industry, the extant literature suggests that Hotel branding through tourists experiences cognitive and affective images positively affect tourists' intentions to revisit a destination (Hallmann et al, 2015).…”

“…, 2018). A product message can help consumers know the product's benefits and intangible values (He et al. , 2021).…”

Implicit vs explicit expression on advertising in a cross-cultural study: the mediating role of processing fluency and number of alternatives

“…The results support the findings by Nisbett et al (2001) that Asians have relatively higher tendencies for holistic thinking style than Westerners. Product attitude, which is a dependent variable of this study, is defined as the respondents' attitude toward the product after encountering the statements of the presented stimuli, and the three questions ("I am fond of it," "I like it" and "I am positive of it") used in the study by Homer (1990) and He et al (2020) were measured on a seven-point Likert scale (α 5 0.913).…”