Brand Anthropomorphism

Brand anthropomorphism is known to affect consumers' attitudes towards products. However, to date, research has treated anthropomorphized brand stimuli as unidimensional in both its design and effects. Here, we investigate two levels of brand anthropomorphism (i.e., implicit versus explicit) that generate different impacts on brand performance. Explicit brand anthropomorphism is defined as imbuing a nonhuman entity with observable and overt human characteristics, whereas implicit brand anthropomorphism is defined as imbuing a nonhuman entity with indirect and subtle human characteristics. Accordingly, we find that these two levels of brand anthropomorphisms interact with the degree of cognitive resources used and the accessibility of persuasion knowledge. In other words, we find that implicit brand anthropomorphism is liked more by consumers because it is considered more artfully deviant but that it also consumes more cognitive resources and does not work well in highly persuasive advertisements. In contrast, explicit brand anthropomorphism does not require the use of as many cognitive resources and is best used in highly persuasive advertisements.