Humanizing brands: When brands seem to be like me, part of me, and in a relationship with me

The role of self-determination theory in marketing science: An integrative review and agenda for research

Key personal inputs to decision making reside in expectations about whether a purchase or nonpurchase will make one feel better. Integrating several theoretical approaches, this research proposes a holistic framework formed by four kinds of anticipated emotions (AEs) resulting from the crossing of positive- or negative-valenced emotions with action or inaction. Specifically, this research proposes that consumers under a purchase scenario tend to consider positive and negative AEs of both purchase and nonpurchase in their decisions. Research in this area to date has been sparse and focused mostly on AEs with regard to purchase, but not nonpurchase. The results of four studies confirm that AEs influence purchase decisions in a coordinated way depending on their instrumentality, motivating purchase or nonpurchase. AEs also partially mediate the effect of outcome valence on purchase decisions. Taking the status quo bias as a theoretical basis, this work proposes that the amount of information of favorable and unfavorable outcome messages has a greater influence on AEs motivating purchase than AEs motivating nonpurchase. Finally, future research lines are proposed to expand the use of this fourfold framework and more generally to understand the role of forward-looking emotions in decision processes.

/pdf/the-role-of-anticipated-emotions-in-purchase-intentions-4cpw00jqg8.pdf

The Role of Anticipated Emotions in Purchase Intentions

Humans' attachment to their mobile phones and its relationship with interpersonal attachment style

Although virtual reality (VR) has been found to be more effective in tourism marketing compared to traditional methods, few scholars have explored whether VR has any negative effect on tourism marketing. Based on extrinsic and intrinsic motivation theory, tourists' perceptions of a VR device and VR content are distinguished to explore whether VR could be a double-edged sword. Using a scenario-based questionnaire survey and an experiment, the study found that perceived enjoyment of VR mediates the positive effects of tourists' perceived ease of use and the usefulness of VR on their travel intention. However, the positive relationship is moderated by tourists' expected enjoyment of the destination. When the expected enjoyment of destination is low, higher perceived enjoyment of VR actually leads to lower travel intention. The findings of this study provide evidence that VR will inhibit tourists’ travel intention under certain conditions and offer a new perspective for technology-related tourism studies.

Will virtual reality be a double-edged sword? Exploring the moderation effects of the expected enjoyment of a destination on travel intention

Focusing on the motivational processes underlying consumer attachments to brands, this research examines how competence enhancement and anticipated emotion (anxiety and joy) contribute to attachment. Personal attachment style (attachment anxiety) and type of motivation (intrinsic vs. extrinsic) are included as individual differences. Employing two field studies across different contexts indicates that competence enhancement leads to stronger attachments with anticipated anxiety (avoidance) and joy (approach) mediating this relationship. Analyses of moderated mediation further show that the effect mediated through anticipated emotion is stronger under conditions of high extrinsic and low intrinsic motivation, and when individual attachment anxiety is low. Implications for brand attachment research and management are discussed.

Competence Enhancement and Anticipated Emotion as Motivational Drivers of Brand Attachment

This research investigates the formation of consumer attachments to brands contingent upon their attachment anxiety and security. An experiment utilizes a consumer sample and real brands across four product categories (apparel, body care, consumer electronics, and soft drinks) to test the relations between consumer–brand identification and brand attachment dependent on attachment anxiety and attachment security. Consistent with previous research, the findings initially confirm that consumer–brand identification relates positively to brand attachment. Prior work is extended, however, by demonstrating that attachment anxiety has a strong influence on this relationship by moderating the effect of consumer–brand identification on brand attachment but only under low attachment security and with women. Implications relate to attachment research and brand management. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Disentangling the influence of attachment anxiety and attachment security in consumer formation of attachments to brands

The proliferation of social media resulted in less control over who shares brand content. While brand content sharing by micro-influencers is sought by many firms, the effects of such an activity on brands’ personality remains unknown. This study combined context effects and schema theories to demonstrate that assimilation occurs for novice brands, while contrast and ceiling effects take place for established brands due to micro-influencer-brand (in)congruence against the existing brand schemas. Currently, managers target consumers under an assumption that a match between a brand and an influencer is beneficial. We demonstrate that such targeting is advantageous only for novice brands. Established brands paired with congruent micro-influencers experienced no boost in brand personality (ceiling) with a boost occurring only when micro-influencers and brands were incongruent (contrast). Our results raise questions about the effectiveness of current branding strategies and caution about novice brands assimilating undesirable personalities.

Michael Proksch

Papers

Competence Enhancement and Anticipated Emotion as Motivational Drivers of Brand Attachment

Disentangling the influence of attachment anxiety and attachment security in consumer formation of attachments to brands

How Micro-Influencers’ Personality Influences the Personality of Novice and Established Brands