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Building on associative priming, anthropomorphism and biophilia theories, this study aims to explain that a natural–organic (that shows a natural object) and an anthropomorphised natural–organic logo (that shows an anthropomorphised natural object) both act as primes and imbue specific product value perceptions, which subsequently influence willingness to pay a premium price when products have not been used by or are unfamiliar to consumers.

Two between-subjects experiments were conducted with different products (one with real, but unfamiliar to consumers brand and another with a fictitious brand). Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses.

Experimental studies showed that natural–organic logos evoked stronger utilitarian (functional and economic) value perceptions, which triggered greater willingness to pay a premium price compared to anthropomorphised natural–organic logos. The effect of hedonic (emotional and novelty) values on willingness to pay a premium price was stronger when an anthropomorphised natural–organic logo was used.

This research offers novel theoretical contributions highlighting the importance of careful logo design to imbue desired value perceptions when products have not been consumed or trialled.

Anthropomorphised natural–organic and natural–organic logos can provide different benefits to brand managers and can be used strategically to form desired value perceptions before products are consumed. Brands that wish to enhance premium pricing via hedonic values should consider using an anthropomorphised natural–organic logo. Natural–organic logos may be more suitable for brands that want to emphasise superior utilitarian values.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research provides the first empirical assessment of the differential effects of the two forms of natural–organic logos on value perceptions and willingness to pay premium price.

The purpose of this paper is to take the perspective of repairing the negative effect of social exclusion, discussing how anthropomorphized brand role (partner vs servant) releases the negative effect of social exclusion.

In this research, two behavioral studies are conducted. Study 1 uses a one-factor (social exclusion vs social inclusion) between-subjects design. The purpose of Study 1 is to test the effect of social exclusion on consumers’ WTP for the anthropomorphized brand (H1). Study 2 uses a 2 (self-esteem (SE): high vs low) × 2 (anthropomorphized brand role: servant vs partner) between-subjects design. The aim of Study 2 is to investigate that after being socially excluded, how anthropomorphized brand roles (servant vs partner) and SE interactively release individuals’ negative feelings (H2a and H2b) and how the need for control recovery mediates this interaction effect (H3).

This study proposes that when individuals are socially excluded, they are willing to pay more for anthropomorphized brands than those who are not because anthropomorphized brands provide a quasi-social relationship. This study further posits that socially excluded consumers prefer the different role of anthropomorphized brands, given a different level of SE to meet their needs for control recovery. High self-esteem (HSE) (vs low self-esteem (LSE)) consumers are willing to pay more for a servant-like brand because such brands help them recover from low control by regaining a master role. In contrast, HSE and LSE consumers have no significant differences in WTP for a partner-like brand.

Few research studies have discussed how social exclusion influences individuals’ WTP. To fill this gap, the authors used WTP as the dependent variable, showing that after being socially excluded, individuals tend to pay a higher price for the anthropomorphized brand. Also, the research not only adds a contribution to research on the need for control recovery but also indicates how HSE vs LSE individuals behave differently in socially excluded contexts.

This study aims to investigate the construal congruence of anthropomorphized brand roles and product messaging and its underlying mechanism on consumers' product attitude.

Four 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.

The 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.

This 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.

Our 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.

Anthropomorphized brands have been widely used as marketing communication tools to engage consumers on social media, especially on Twitter. Guided by the social exchange theory (SET) and the dialogic theory, this study aims to investigate how anthropomorphized brands leverage different communication strategies on Twitter and how these strategies are related to consumer engagement.

Supervised machine learning was used to identify the communication strategies (i.e. message types and dialogic principles) of 125,887 tweets from 21 brand characters. Some statistical analyses (e.g. frequency analysis, Chi-square analysis and Poisson regression analysis) were performed to explore the relationships between communication strategies and consumer engagement (i.e. retweets and replies).

The majority of anthropomorphized brands’ tweets belonged to the socioemotional category and the most adopted dialogic principles were generation of return visits and conservation of visitors. Consumers engaged more with socioemotional tweets as well as the tweets that adopted the principles of dialogic loop and conservation of visitors. There were clear relationships between message types and dialogic principles in anthropomorphized brands’ tweets, and certain dialogic principles were found to effectively improve consumer engagement with certain message types.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the communication strategies of anthropomorphized brand characters on Twitter using computational research methods. It not only provides brand managers a systematic review of how current anthropomorphized brands communicate with consumers on Twitter and what strategies work more effectively to trigger consumer engagement but also contributes to theory building in brand management by integrating the SET and the dialogic theory in brand anthropomorphism research.

This paper aims to investigate whether anthropomorphized (i.e. humanized) brands are judged less negatively for competence failures than for moral lapses and how these ethical judgments impact negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) intentions of less-lonely and more-lonely consumers.

Two scenario-based experiments were conducted, involving a total of 1,375 US mechanical turk (Amazon consumer panel) participants.

Findings show that brand humanization has an impact on ethical judgments only for less-lonely consumers. More specifically, for less-lonely consumers, a humanizing strategy backfires when the failure is moral but helps the brand when the failure is competence-related. On the other hand, more-lonely consumers judge the situation less negatively overall, and this effect is not impacted by the anthropomorphization strategy. Process tests indicate that these judgments indirectly affect consumers’ intention to spread NWOM following negative events.

Future research could examine the specific process for lonely consumers (i.e. the role of empathy) and manipulate the size of the negative events (i.e. consumer perceptions of moderate vs extreme failures).

Brand managers need to consider their specific situations, as anthropomorphization can have both positive and negative effects depending on the consumers and the failure type (moral vs competence).

Extant research indicates that a humanizing strategy backfires when the market has negative information about the brand. This research introduces types of negative information, as well as consumers’ loneliness as moderators and contributes to the literature in branding, business ethics and word-of-mouth.

The purpose of this paper is to deal with the role of the human metaphor (anthropomorphism) and consumers’ liking for the humanized version of the brand as antecedents of three key components of brand love: self-brand integration, positive emotional connection and feelings of anticipated separation distress.

A sample of 399 consumers provided information about a brand from a stated list of 16 brands of clothing.

Both anthropomorphism and consumers’ liking for the humanized brand have positive effects on specific components of brand love. The results confirm that brand anthropomorphism is only desirable when the humanized version of the brand is attractive for consumers.

A potential shortcoming is the qualitative technique employed to observe anthropomorphic thought. Collecting ratings of anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic traits could be viewed as a method more easily applied in market research surveys.

Managers have to control how consumers imagine the brand as a human entity because it affects brand love. For example, by tracking consumers’ opinions and traits of those people associated with the brand and brand user stereotypes can condition consumers’ imagination of the humanized brand.

Compared to the limited number of studies about the relationship between anthropomorphism and brand love, this study focuses on the effects of anthropomorphism as a process, and not as a personal trait, on brand love. It also relies on consumers’ imagination instead of brand personification strategies to stimulate anthropomorphism.

Brand love is perceived as one of the main objectives in brand management. Nevertheless, research into the factors influencing brand love are scarce. This paper aims to apply the theory of planned behaviour to the context of brand love and investigate the influence of several factors on brand love, including attitude towards loving a brand, subjective norm and perceived control factors, namely, the propensity to anthropomorphise and the affordability of the brand. Further, the influence of brand love on brand forgiveness is proven. Additionally, this research investigates the influence of involvement with the product category on the proposed relationship.

A survey (N = 274) was used to test the model in the context of fashion industry with the help of a convenience sample. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and (multi-group) structural equation modelling techniques assessed the proposed model.

Results show that the proposed model gives valuable insights to brand love, where involvement serves as a moderator. While the attitude towards loving a brand has a strong influence on brand love for both high and low involved consumers, affordability only plays a minor role for experiencing brand love. Subjective norm is found to facilitate brand love for high-involved consumers, while propensity to anthropomorphise leads to higher brand love for low involved consumers.

This paper demonstrates the applicability of the theory of planned behaviour to a consumer–brand relationship context. This adds to a deeper theoretical understanding of the managerially relevant construct of brand love. Further, the study demonstrates that brand lovers are more forgiving in times of disappointment. Introducing involvement into the research model provides valuable insights into the processes underlying brand love.

This study aims to understand consumers' attitudes towards luxury products based on the stereotype content model, brand anthropomorphism and the psychological ownership theory.

The authors collected data from Indian consumers using the online questionnaire survey method. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS AMOS version 24 and PROCESS SPSS macro, using both mediation and moderated mediation models.

The findings suggest that increasing brand anthropomorphism and stereotypes enhance consumers' attitudes through a significant mediating role of brand credibility. The results also show that consumers' psychological ownership positively moderates the mediating path via brand credibility from low to high levels.

In doing so, this study contributes to the literature on luxury retail by examining how brand stereotypes and brand anthropomorphism impact consumers' attitudes towards luxury brands through the mediating role of brand credibility and the moderating role of psychological ownership. In the process, the study provides an understanding of Indian consumers' attitudes in the context of the Indian luxury retail sector.

This paper aims to clarify an important nuance by proposing that people attribute human mind to brands on two distinct dimensions: think and feel.

Eight studies were conducted to first develop and validate the 14-item Brand Anthropomorphism Questionnaire, and then to investigate how the two subscales, think or feel dimensions, influence consumer moral judgment of brands.

This research developed a 14-item Brand Anthropomorphism Questionnaire with two subscales, which are psychometrically sound and show discriminant validity with regard to existing brand constructs. Furthermore, think or feel brand anthropomorphism dimensions can predict consumers’ moral judgment of brands.

The present research offers preliminary evidence about the value of distinguishing between think brand and feel brand in consumer moral judgment. Further research could investigate other potential impact of the two dimensions, and possible antecedents of think/feel dimensions.

Managers can use the scale for assessment, planning, decision-making and tracking purposes. In addition, in the event of brand scandal or brand social responsibility activities, public-relations efforts can use the findings to earn or regain the trust of consumers, as this research demonstrates that marketers can shape (tailor) the feel or think dimensions of brand perception to change consumers’ moral judgment of the brands.

This research makes theoretical contribution to the brand anthropomorphism literature by differentiating the two dimensions and exploring the influence of anthropomorphism of consumer moral judgment.

There are vast opportunities for nonprofit organizations (NPOs) globally to find support for international humanitarian causes. However, donors/consumers are not always willing to contribute for such causes. This study aims to investigate how potential donor perceptions are shaped to gain wider support and aims to build a model that could guide managers of NPOs in their communication strategy.

Two scenario-based experiments with the participation of graduate students from an Indian university were conducted.

Cosmopolitan people have the higher moral judgment of the international causes championed by NPOs. However, anthropomorphizing the NPO’s message elevates the moral judgments among non-cosmopolitans. Process tests indicate that these moral judgments indirectly impact donation intentions for these causes.

The paper only investigates donation intention for poverty and not humanitarian causes such as access to drinking water. Moreover, the campaign chosen takes place only in Africa (e.g. not in Asia or Latin America).

NPOs could tailor their marketing messages for international humanitarian causes by targeting cosmopolitan donors/consumers and using humanization as the branding strategy.

This research contributes to theory by showing how consumers who would otherwise not contribute to an out-group could be influenced positively by the NPOs’ branding strategy.