The effect of verbal brand personification on consumer evaluation in advertising: Internal and external personification

Kyounghee Chu, Do-Hee Lee and Ji Yoon Kim

Journal of Business Research, 2019, vol. 99, issue C, 472-480

Abstract: In spite of the ubiquity of brand personification (BP) in advertising, research that examines its effects directly is limited. This study explores the effect of verbal BP on consumer response and the underlying mechanisms involved. In addition, we identified the conditions under which BP has no effect. Unlike prior research, this study focuses on the two types of verbal BP images: internal (“kind”) and external (“good-looking”). Specifically, Study 1 tests the moderating effect of Brand Knowledge (BK) between internal verbal BP and consumer's evaluation of brand and the underlying mechanisms (brand intimacy and psychological discomfort). Study 2 validates the effect—in particular, that of the need-for-cognition on the attitude toward a BP advertisement—of external verbal BP on the evaluation of advertisements and the underlying mechanisms (perceived novelty and cognitive resistance). This research could provide marketers developing headline copies and slogans for BP advertisements with useful guidelines through a better understanding of the boundary conditions and mechanisms determining the impact of BP.

Keywords: Brand personification; Internal/external personification; Brand knowledge; Need-for-cognition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296317304423
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:99:y:2019:i:c:p:472-480

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.11.004

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().