Effects of brand anthropomorphism on consumer-brand relationships on social networking site fan pages: The mediating role of social presence

Taeyeon Kim, Yongjun Sung, Jang Ho Moon

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    54 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This study aimed to investigate the effects of brand anthropomorphism on consumer-brand relationships in a social media marketing context. We hypothesized that anthropomorphism on a brand's Facebook fan page can strengthen the relationships between brands and consumers by yielding both social presence and a positive inference regarding the brand's quality as a relationship partner. Our longitudinal experiment confirmed the effects of brand anthropomorphism on consumer-brand relationships on social media and the mediating role of social presence. The results suggest that when the anthropomorphized brand had relationships with consumers, a favorable attitude was shown toward the brand. Further, the participants perceived the anthropomorphized brand as a trustworthy relationship partner, giving more “Likes” for the posts from the anthropomorphized brand than those from the non-anthropomorphized brand. Further, the results confirmed that these favorable relationships were maintained even after the participants became aware of a brand transgression.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number101406
    JournalTelematics and Informatics
    Volume51
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2020 Aug

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea ( NRF-2019S1A3A2099973 ).

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

    Keywords

    • Brand anthropomorphism
    • Consumer-brand relationships
    • Fan page
    • Social networking sites
    • Social presence

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Computer Networks and Communications
    • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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