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Artist-brand alliances to target new consumers: can visual artists recruit new consumers to a brand?

Pielah Kim (Philadelphia University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)
Hua Chang (Towson University, Towson, Maryland, USA)
Rajiv Vaidyanathan (University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, Minnesota, USA)
Leslie Stoel (Miami University Farmer School of Business, Oxford, Ohio, USA)

Journal of Product & Brand Management

ISSN: 1061-0421

Article publication date: 14 May 2018

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Abstract

Purpose

Increasing industry interest in visual artists and commercial brand collaborations has heightened the need for research on exactly how visual art can add meaning to brands in ways that enhance brand value to existing consumers and potentially reach new consumers. Consumers are known to select brands on the basis of how well these brands reflect their own personalities. The purpose of this research is to understand whether brand alliances with artists exhibiting distinct personalities can make brands more attractive to consumers whose personalities do not currently match the brand.

Design/methodology/approach

Two experiments are used to examine the impact of artists’ personality (in)congruence on consumers’ perceptions of the brand and purchase intentions of the brand’s products.

Findings

The results show that consumers whose personalities do not match the brand’s current personality are likely to alter their view of a brand when the brand partners with an artist whose personality matches with that of the consumers’. This happens without negatively affecting the brand personality perceptions of current consumers who already identify with the brand.

Practical implications

When seeking to attract a new target segment, brands can ally with visual artists who convey a personality that matches that of the new target segment.

Originality/value

This paper adds to a nascent literature on the power of artist–brand alliances, and demonstrates that these partnerships need not only be between artists and brands with consistent personalities but can also effectively be used to target new consumers.

Keywords

Citation

Kim, P., Chang, H., Vaidyanathan, R. and Stoel, L. (2018), "Artist-brand alliances to target new consumers: can visual artists recruit new consumers to a brand?", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 308-319. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-02-2017-1412

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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