You’re so lovable: Anthropomorphism and brand love
PA Rauschnabel, AC Ahuvia - Journal of Brand Management, 2014
PA Rauschnabel, AC Ahuvia - Journal of Brand Management, 2014
The primary definition of anthropomorphism is ‘the tendency to imbue the real or imagined behavior of non-human agents with human- like characteristics, motivations, intentions, or emotions’ (Epley et al, 2007, p. 864).
First, the word ‘anthropomorphism’ usually refers to anthropomorphic thinking – that is, per- ceiving a product, brand or other object as having human characteristics (Waytz et al, 2010a), whereas anthropomorphic product features are of interest primarily as ways of stimulating anthropomorphic thinking
(Epley et al, 2007).
The prior literature has amply demonstrated that consumers have a strong tendency to engage in anthropomorphic thinking, as they mentalize brands, products and objects of all sorts (Kiesler, 2006
Furthermore, because of social media, WOM (or word- of-mouse) is even more important than it was in the past.
Prior research suggests five theoretical mechanisms linking anthropomorphism to brand love: category-level evaluation, cog- nitive fluency, cognitive consistency, close relationships as self-extension and self-con- gruence.
When objects get placed in the human category, people may evaluate them based on that category membership (Aggarwal and McGill, 2007), and see them in a positive light.
Finally, Ahuvia (1993) found that consumers fre- quently reason as follows: ‘since I desire to be an excellent person, I should construct my identity out of excellent things’. Hence, if something is viewed as excellent, people are more likely to include it within their desired self-identity.
As people havea lot of knowledge about human behavior, they use this knowledge to understand the product in question, they engage in anthro- pomorphic thinking.
Anthropomorph- ism also increases cognitive fluency (Delbaereet al, 2011), which makes consumers feel better when thinking about the brand and motivates them to use products or brands more intensively – aspects of the positive emotional attachment and passion-driven behavior dimensions of brand love
showed that consumers love brands more when they see the brand not just as a person, but also as a person like themselves.
We identified four promising ways to increase the level of perceived anthro- pomorphism of brands, some of which have extent research support and the rest of which serve as suggestions for future work:
1. Communicate in the first person: It is likely that first-person slogans such as ‘Hello, I am the brand X’ will increase anthropo- morphism, whereas third-person claims do not (Aggarwal and McGill, 2007). These finding may have influenced marketers for Lindt chocolates, who recently launched a new line of chocolates with packaging that talks in the first person (for example, ‘Hello, my name is Nougat Crunch’).
2. Use of stimuli that imitate human character- istics: This approach is already widely used in the auto industry, where manu- facturers often imitate a human face when designing the front of a car. Logos, or pictures of the product in advertising, can also reference human characteristics, or be pictured engaging in human activ- ities (Delbaere et al, 2011). Some brands, such as ‘Ralph Lauren’ or ‘Mr. Proper’consist of real or fictitious human names.
3. Createastrongbrandpersonality:Onepoten- tial way to do that is to use testimonials or celebrity spokespeople, whose per- sonality may spill over onto the brand. When doing this, the brand personality should be congruent with the target market (Sirgy, 1982; Malär et al, 2011).
4. Interact through social media: A brand can launch a brand page on Facebook, and thus directly converse with users. Posting and discussing ‘as a brand’ with consu- mers (and not, for example, as a sales representative) might be another way of increasing anthropomorphism.
1. Communicate in the first person: It is likely that first-person slogans such as ‘Hello, I am the brand X’ will increase anthropo- morphism, whereas third-person claims do not (Aggarwal and McGill, 2007). These finding may have influenced marketers for Lindt chocolates, who recently launched a new line of chocolates with packaging that talks in the first person (for example, ‘Hello, my name is Nougat Crunch’).
2. Use of stimuli that imitate human character- istics: This approach is already widely used in the auto industry, where manu- facturers often imitate a human face when designing the front of a car. Logos, or pictures of the product in advertising, can also reference human characteristics, or be pictured engaging in human activ- ities (Delbaere et al, 2011). Some brands, such as ‘Ralph Lauren’ or ‘Mr. Proper’consist of real or fictitious human names.
3. Createastrongbrandpersonality:Onepoten- tial way to do that is to use testimonials or celebrity spokespeople, whose per- sonality may spill over onto the brand. When doing this, the brand personality should be congruent with the target market (Sirgy, 1982; Malär et al, 2011).
4. Interact through social media: A brand can launch a brand page on Facebook, and thus directly converse with users. Posting and discussing ‘as a brand’ with consu- mers (and not, for example, as a sales representative) might be another way of increasing anthropomorphism.
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