Open AccessPosted Content
Where the wild brands are: some thoughts on anthropomorphic marketing
TLDR
This paper conducted a content analysis of extant brand icons, which revealed that the closer an animal is to humans, the more likely it is to be adopted by marketers and advertisers, and four beastly branding strategies were identified.Abstract:
Throughout history, humankind has had a love-hate relationship with wild animals. On the one hand, we fear and detest powerful predators, especially those that destroy our crops and kill our livestock. On the other hand, we envy and admire their speed and grace, adorn ourselves in their fur and feathers, and worship them as totemic deities who symbolise our tribes, our teams, our territories. Humankind’s bestial bent is no less apparent in marketing, where brand animals, mascots and icons are all-but ubiquitous, be it the Lacoste crocodile, the Andrex puppy or Coca-Cola’s cuddly polar bears. This paper considers marketing’s anthropomorphic propensity, attempts to account for its omnipresence and conducts a content analysis of extant brand icons, which reveals that the “closer” an animal is to humanity, the more likely it is to be adopted by marketers and advertisers. An advertising icon life cycle is posited and four beastly branding strategies are identified.read more
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The influence of social media interactions on consumer-brand relationships: A three-country study of brand perceptions and marketing behaviors
TL;DR: This article conducted three studies to explore how individual and national differences influence the relationship between social media use and customer brand relationships and found that engaging customers via social media is associated with higher consumer-brand relationships and word of mouth communications when consumers anthropomorphize the brand and they avoid uncertainty.
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Consumers’ identification with corporate brands: Brand prestige, anthropomorphism and engagement in social media
Urška Tuškej,Klement Podnar +1 more
TL;DR: Zhang et al. as mentioned in this paper examined relationships between consumer-brand identification, brand prestige, brand anthropomorphism, and consumers' active engagement in brand activities on social media in corporate brand settings.
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Anthropomorphized species as tools for conservation: utility beyond prosocial, intelligent and suffering species
TL;DR: Anthropomorphism has recently emerged in the literature as a useful tool for conservation as mentioned in this paper, and people construct anthropomorphic meanings around species, through a diversity of mechanisms and with both positive and negative effects.
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Leveraging the human side of the brand using a sense of place: Case studies of craft breweries
Anne-Marie Hede,Torgeir Watne +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore how a sense of place, derived from myths, folklores, and heroes, enables marketers and consumers to co-create narratives that humanise brands.
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The role of brand authenticity in developing brand trust
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that breakdowns in trust occur when the actions of brands differ from the promises and values communicated by the consumers, resulting in decreased brand trust, and that the trustworthiness of brands is compromised.
References
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