Consumer Anthropomorphism and Happiness: Analysis of the Brand Authenticity Effect

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Prof., Department of Business Management, Institute for Management and Planning studies, Tehran, Iran.

2 MSc., Department of Business Management, Institute for Management and Planning studies, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Objective
The human mind, with the help of anthropomorphism, makes every unknown thing that it knows less like the most familiar thing that it knows the most, i.e. a human being (himself). The process of anthropomorphism refers to the special desire of humans to attribute human characteristics to non-human beings, which can provide a basis for greater satisfaction. Given that people naturally tend to attribute human characteristics to beings, objects, and phenomena, and many researchers consider this tendency an essential tool for comprehending factors beyond human nature, it can serve as a foundation for enhancing customer satisfaction. This study aims to investigate the impact of brand anthropomorphism on consumer happiness, considering both emotional and cognitive aspects, and to examine the mediating role of brand authenticity across four dimensions: continuity, correctness, symbolism, and credibility.
 
Methodology
The current research adopts a quantitative approach with a confirmatory purpose. It is conducted using a survey methodology. The survey method was used to test hypotheses, and four hypotheses were developed and tested based on theoretical models derived from research literature. To gather data on the anthropomorphism of the LG brand, standardized questionnaires, consistent with quantitative research methods, were distributed to participants online. Cronbach's alpha coefficient and composite reliability were used to evaluate the reliability of the research measurement model. In this study, smart_pls software was used for data analysis.
 
Findings
The findings of the study indicate that anthropomorphism plays a significant role in shaping consumer happiness. Furthermore, the research underscores the positive and meaningful relationship between brand anthropomorphism and brand authenticity. Importantly, brand authenticity is found to have a favorable impact on consumer happiness. One of the noteworthy findings is that brand authenticity serves as a mediator, effectively explaining how brand anthropomorphism influences consumer happiness. In essence, this means that consumers' perceptions of a brand as humanlike contribute to their happiness, partially through the lens of brand authenticity. These insights provide valuable implications for businesses looking to enhance consumer satisfaction and engagement through anthropomorphic brand strategies.
 
Conclusion
Research in the literature provides compelling evidence supporting the conclusion that anthropomorphism leads to an increase in positive emotions while simultaneously reducing negative emotions. Given that authenticity is considered a positive attribute in today's society; consumers tend to rely on brand authenticity based on a communication style relying on happiness and a brand's roots (symbol). Furthermore, our findings demonstrate that brand authenticity exerts a positive influence on consumer happiness, underscoring the significance of psychological feelings of authenticity in promoting mental well-being. In a broader context, the findings of this current research provide a conclusive response to the recurrent question in the research literature: Does anthropomorphism have an impact on the mental well-being and happiness of consumers? Based on our findings, the practice of anthropomorphizing a brand, which involves attributing human characteristics to the brand, whether through direct or indirect means and facilitated by the mediating role of brand authenticity, ultimately leads to consumer happiness. The results of this study offer a fresh perspective on the dynamics of consumer-brand relationships, potentially influencing the way we approach this topic. Additionally, the study offers valuable insights that can guide future research endeavors in this area.
 

Keywords

Main Subjects


 
Aggarwal, P. & McGill, A. L. (2011). When brands seem human, do humans act like brands? Automatic behavioral priming effects of brand anthropomorphism. Journal of consumer research, 39(2), 307-323.
Agrawal, S., Khandelwal, U. & Bajpai, N. (2021). Anthropomorphism in advertising: The effect of media on audience attitude. Journal of Marketing Communications27(8), 799-815.
Aksoy, L., Keiningham, T. L., Buoye, A., Larivière, B., Williams, L. & Wilson, I. (2015). Does loyalty span domains? Examining the relationship between consumer loyalty, other loyalties and happiness. Journal of Business Research, 68(12), 2464-2476.
Asgari, N., Khademi, M., & Mehriyari, H. (2015). Studying the effects of social marketing on brand equity in non-for profit organizations. International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management3(4), 1-17.
Baker, Z. G., Tou, R. Y., Bryan, J. L. & Knee, C. R. (2017). Authenticity and well-being: Exploring positivity and negativity in interactions as a mediator. Personality and Individual Differences, 113, 235-239.
Belanche, D., Casaló, L. V. & Guinalíu, M. (2013). The role of consumer happiness in relationship marketing. Journal of Relationship Marketing, 12(2), 79-94.
Beverland, M. B., Farrelly, F. & Quester, P. G. (2010). Authentic subcultural membership: Antecedents and consequences of authenticating acts and authoritative performances. Psychology & Marketing, 27(7), 698-716.
Bruhn, M., Schoenmüller, V., Schäfer, D. & Heinrich, D. (2012). Brand authenticity: Towards a deeper understanding of its conceptualization and measurement. Advances in Consumer Research, 40.
Bryan, J. L., Baker, Z. G. & Tou, R. Y. (2017). Prevent the blue, be true to you: Authenticity buffers the negative impact of loneliness on alcohol-related problems, physical symptoms, and depressive and anxiety symptoms. Journal of health psychology, 22(5), 605-616.
Carsana, L. & Jolibert, A. (2018). Influence of iconic, indexical cues, and brand schematicity on perceived authenticity dimensions of private-label brands. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 40, 213-220.
Chandler, J. & Schwarz, N. (2010). Use does not wear ragged the fabric of friendship: Thinking of objects as alive makes people less willing to replace them. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 20(2), 138-145.
Charlton, A. B. & Cornwell, T. B. (2019). Authenticity in horizontal marketing partnerships: A better measure of brand compatibility. Journal of Business Research, 100, 279-298.
Chen, F., Sengupta, J. & Adaval, R. (2018). Does endowing a product with life make one feel more alive? The effect of product anthropomorphism on consumer vitality. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research3(4), 503-513.
Chen, K. J. (2017). Humanizing Brands: An Examination of the Psychological Process of Anthropomorphism and its Effects on Consumer Responses. Journal of Marketing Management, 5(2), 75-87.
Chen, R. P., Wan, E. W. & Levy, E. (2017). The effect of social exclusion on consumer preference for anthropomorphized brands. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 27(1), 23-34.
Choy, L. T. (2014). The strengths and weaknesses of research methodology: Comparison and complimentary between qualitative and quantitative approaches. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 19(4), 99-104.
Clark, A. E. (2016). Adaptation and the easterlin paradox. In Advances in happiness research (pp. 75-94). Springer, Tokyo.
Daneshgar, M., Abdolvand, M. A., Heidarzadeh Henzaei, K. & khoon Siavash, M. (2020). Modeling Corporate Brand Identity in the Banking Industry. Journal of Business Management12(3), 652-678. (in Persian)
De Keyser, A. & Lariviere, B. (2014). How technical and functional service quality drive consumer happiness: moderating influences of channel usage. Journal of Service Management, 25(1), 30-48.
Delbaere, M., McQuarrie, E. F. & Phillips, B. J. (2011). Personification in advertising. Journal of Advertising, 40(1), 121-130.
Delgado-Ballester, E., Palazón, M. & Peláez, J. (2019). Anthropomorphized vs objectified brands: which brand version is more loved?. European Journal of Management and Business Economics.
Delgado-Ballester, E., Palazón, M. & Pelaez-Muñoz, J. (2017). This anthropomorphised brand is so loveable: The role of self-brand integration. Spanish Journal of Marketing-ESIC, 21(2), 89-101.
DeNeve, K. M. & Cooper, H. (1998). The happy personality: A meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being. Psychological bulletin, 124(2), 197.
Desmeules, R. (2002). The impact of variety on consumer happiness: Marketing and the tyranny of freedom. Academy of Marketing Science Review, 12(1), 1-18.
Diener, E. & Chan, M. Y. (2011). Happy people live longer: Subjective well‐being contributes to health and longevity. Applied Psychology: Health and WellBeing, 3(1), 1-43.
Dwivedi, A. & McDonald, R. (2018). Building brand authenticity in fast-moving consumer goods via consumer perceptions of brand marketing communications. European Journal of Marketing, 52(7/8), 1387-1411.
Ebrahimi, A., Alavi, S. M. & Najafi Siahroudi, M. (2015). The effect of customer identification with brand on anti-brand activities through brand love and brand jealousy. Journal of Business Management7(3), 543-562. (in Persian)
Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V., O’ Sullivan, M., Chan, A., Diacoyanni-Tarlatzis, I., Heider, K., et al. (1987). Universals and cultural differences in the judgments of facial expressions of emotion. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 53, 712–717.
Epley, N., Waytz, A. & Cacioppo, J. T. (2007). On seeing human: a three-factor theory of anthropomorphism. Psychological review, 114(4), 864
Epley, N., Waytz, A., Akalis, S. & Cacioppo, J. T. (2008). When we need a human: Motivational determinants of anthropomorphism. Social cognition, 26(2), 143-155.
Franke, G. & Sarstedt, M. (2019). Heuristics versus statistics in discriminant validity testing: a comparison of four procedures. Internet Research.
Fritz, K., Schoenmueller, V. & Bruhn, M. (2017). Authenticity in branding–exploring antecedents and consequences of brand authenticity. European Journal of Marketing, 51(2), 324-348
Ghareche, M., Azizi, S., Askari, A., Barati, A. (2021). Developing a Conceptual Model of Brand Love Based on the Symbolic Interaction Theory. Journal of Business Management, 13(3), 744-768. doi: 10.22059/jibm.2021.321723.4093 (in Persian).
Guèvremont, A. & Grohmann, B. (2016). The brand authenticity effect: situational and individual-level moderators. European Journal of Marketing, 50(3/4), 602-620.
Guido, G. & Peluso, A. M. (2015). Brand anthropomorphism: Conceptualization, measurement, and impact on brand personality and loyalty. Journal of Brand Management, 22(1), 1-19.
Halter, K. (2016). Effects of a Brand’s Country of Origin & Longevity on Perceived Brand Authenticity in the Post-Colonial World.
Hart, P. M., Jones, S. R. & Royne, M. B. (2013). The human lens: How anthropomorphic reasoning varies by product complexity and enhances personal value. Journal of Marketing Management, 29(1-2), 105-121.
He, Y., Zhou, Q., Guo, S. & Xiong, J. (2020). The matching effect of anthropomorphized brand roles and product messaging on product attitude. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics.
Henseler, J. (2017). Bridging design and behavioral research with variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of advertising, 46(1), 178-192.
Hsee, C. K., Yang, Y., Li, N. & Shen, L. (2009). Wealth, warmth, and well-being: Whether happiness is relative or absolute depends on whether it is about money, acquisition, or consumption. Journal of Marketing Research, 46(3), 396-409.
Huang, R., Zhou, X., Ye, W. & Guo, S. (2020). Think versus feel: Two dimensions of brand anthropomorphism. Journal of Product & Brand Management.
Jian, Y., Zhou, Z. & Zhou, N. (2019). Brand cultural symbolism, brand authenticity, and consumer well-being: the moderating role of cultural involvement. Journal of Product & Brand Management.
Khademi Gerashi, M., Fakhreddin, F. Influence of emotions on purchase loyalty among child consumers: the moderating role of family communication patterns. J Market Anal 9, 298–310 (2021)
Kifer, Y., Heller, D., Perunovic, W. Q. E. & Galinsky, A. D. (2013). The good life of the powerful: The experience of power and authenticity enhances subjective well-being. Psychological science, 24(3), 280-288.
Kim, S. & McGill, A. L. (2011). Gaming with Mr. Slot or gaming the slot machine? Power, anthropomorphism, and risk perception. Journal of Consumer Research, 38(1), 94-107.
Kim, T., Sung, Y. & Moon, J. H. (2020). Effects of brand anthropomorphism on consumer-brand relationships on social networking site fan pages: The mediating role of social presence. Telematics and Informatics51, 101406.
Klein, K. I. (2021). Conversational commerce: anthropomorphic chatbots in e-commerce and their effect on consumer behavior (Doctoral dissertation).
Koydemir, S., Şimşek, Ö. F., Kuzgun, T. B. & Schütz, A. (2018). Feeling special, feeling happy: Authenticity mediates the relationship between sense of uniqueness and happiness. Current Psychology, 1-11
Lee, D. J. & Sirgy, M. J. (2004). Quality-of-life (QOL) marketing: Proposed antecedents and consequences. Journal of Macromarketing, 24(1), 44-58.
Lee, J. C., Kim, S. & Wang, P. X. (2022). Anthropomorphizing makes material goods as happiness-inducing as experiences. Marketing Letters33(1), 61-73.
MacInnis, D. J. & Folkes, V. S. (2017). Humanizing brands: When brands seem to be like me, part of me, and in a relationship with me. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 27(3), 355-374.
May, F. & Monga, A. (2014). When time has a will of its own, the powerless don't have the will to wait: Anthropomorphism of time can decrease patience. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(5), 924–942.
Mogilner, C., Aaker, J. & Kamvar, S. D. (2011). How happiness affects choice. Journal of Consumer Research, 39(2), 429-443.
Mokhtari, L., Khoddami, S. & Osanlou, B. (2021). The Impact of the Experience of Gamification Marketing Activities on the Dimensions of Brand Appeal: Focusing on the Role of Brand Value. Journal of Business Management13(1), 184-208. (in Persian)
Morhart, F., Malär, L., Guèvremont, A., Girardin, F. & Grohmann, B. (2015). Brand authenticity: An integrative framework and measurement scale. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 25(2), 200-218.
Mostafa, M. M. & Albloushy, H. E. (2021). Anthropomorphism and consumer attitudes: a cross-cultural comparison of Kuwait and the USA. International Journal of Comparative Management4(1), 71-91.
Mourey, J. A., Olson, J. G. & Yoon, C. (2017). Products as pals: Engaging with anthropomorphic products mitigates the effects of social exclusion. Journal of Consumer Research, 44(2), 414-431.
O’Keeffe, G. A. (2019). The role of anthropomorphism and authenticity in value creation: the case of artisanal luxury brands (Doctoral dissertation, Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University).
Peterson, R. A. (2000). A meta-analysis of variance accounted for and factor loadings in exploratory factor analysis. Marketing Letters, 11(3), 261-275.
Portal, S., Abratt, R. & Bendixen, M. (2018). Building a human brand: Brand anthropomorphism unravelled. Business Horizons, 61(3), 367-374.
Puzakova, M. & Kwak, H. (2017). Should anthropomorphized brands engage customers? The impact of social crowding on brand preferences. Journal of Marketing, 81(6), 99-115.
Puzakova, M., Kwak, H. & Rocereto, J. F. (2013). When humanizing brands goes wrong: the detrimental effect of brand anthropomorphization amid product wrongdoings. Journal of marketing, 77(3), 81-100.
Rauschnabel, P. A. & Ahuvia, A. C. (2014). You’re so lovable: Anthropomorphism and brand love. Journal of Brand Management, 21(5), 372-395.
Rezaee Kelidbari, H., Taleghani, M., Alavi Foumani, S. (2017). A Comparative Study of Self-congruity and Brand Personality on Customer Loyalty (Case study: Comparing Iranian Mobile Phone Brands and Chinese Mobile Phone Brands). Journal of Business Management, 9(2), 317-336. doi: 10.22059/jibm.2017.60167 (in Persian)
Rivera, G. N., Christy, A. G., Kim, J., Vess, M., Hicks, J. A. & Schlegel, R. J. (2019). Understanding the relationship between perceived authenticity and well-being. Review of General Psychology, 23(1), 113-126.
Rouholamin, A., Esfahani, K. P., Kohiyan, P., Bonakdarchiyan, A. & Abedi, E. (2022).The Effect of Brand Anthropomorphism on Customers’ Behavior (Case Study: Ofogh Kourosh Chain Stores Brand). Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, 5(S1), 65-78.
Roy, P., Khandeparkar, K. & Motiani, M. (2016). A lovable personality: The effect of brand personality on brand love. Journal of Brand Management, 23(5), 97-113.
Schweitzer, F., Belk, R., Jordan, W. & Ortner, M. (2019). Servant, friend or master? The relationships users build with voice-controlled smart devices. Journal of Marketing Management, 1-23.
Silvera, D. H., Lavack, A. M. & Kropp, F. (2008). Impulse buying: the role of affect, social influence, and subjective wellbeing. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 25(1), 23-33.
Steel, P., Taras, V., Uggerslev, K. & Bosco, F. (2018). The happy culture: A theoretical, meta-analytic, and empirical review of the relationship between culture and wealth and subjective well-being. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 22(2), 128-169.
Stone, A. A. & Mackie, C. E. (2013). Subjective well-being: Measuring happiness, suffering, and other dimensions of experience. National Academies Press.
Tabatabaee Nasab, S. M. & Mohammad Nabi, Z. (2015). Examination of the impact of brand elements on consumers’ attitude & behaviour toward extended brand (Case study: Kaleh meat and dairy products company). Journal of Business Management7(2), 445-462.
(in Persian)
Thomaes, S., Sedikides, C., van den Bos, N., Hutteman, R. & Reijntjes, A. (2017). Happy to be “me?” authenticity, psychological need satisfaction, and subjective well‐being in adolescence. Child Development, 88(4), 1045-1056.
Tou, R. Y., Baker, Z. G., Hadden, B. W. & Lin, Y. C. (2015). The real me: Authenticity, interpersonal goals, and conflict tactics. Personality and Individual Differences, 86, 189-194.
Venaglia, R. B. & Lemay Jr, E. P. (2017). Hedonic benefits of close and distant interaction partners: The mediating roles of social approval and authenticity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43(9), 1255-1267.
Wan, J. (2018). Paying the Doughboy: The Effect of Time and Money Mind-sets on Preference for Anthropomorphized Products. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 3(4), 466-476.
Wen Wan, E., Peng Chen, R. & Jin, L. (2017). Judging a book by its cover? The effect of anthropomorphism on product attribute processing and consumer preference. Journal of Consumer Research, 43(6), 1008-1030.
Wong, K. K. K. (2013). Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) techniques using SmartPLS. Marketing Bulletin, 24(1), 1-32.
Wood, A. M., Linley, P. A., Maltby, J., Baliousis, M. & Joseph, S. (2008). The authentic personality: A theoretical and empirical conceptualization and the development of the Authenticity Scale. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 55(3), 385.
Yang, L.W., Aggarwal, P. and McGill, A.L. (2020). The 3 C’s of anthropomorphism: connection, comprehension, and competition. Consumer Psychology Review, 3(1), 3-19.
Yuan, L. & Dennis, A. R. (2019). Acting like humans? Anthropomorphism and consumer’s willingness to pay in electronic commerce. Journal of Management Information Systems36(2), 450-477.
Zhong, J. Y. & Mitchell, V. W. (2010). A mechanism model of the effect of hedonic product consumption on well-being. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 20(2), 152-162.
Zhou, X., Kim, S. & Wang, L. (2018). Money helps when money feels: Money anthropomorphism increases charitable giving. Journal of Consumer Research, 45(5), 953-972.