Research on different brand personalities in the marketing literature
| Dimensions of brand personality | Context | Dependent variable | Mechanism | Main findings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excitement and competence (Mandal et al., 2021) | Consumer-related | WOM intentions | Consumer mindsets | Fixed (growth) mindset individuals exhibit greater WOM intentions than growth (fixed) mindset individuals for motives of impression management |
| Sincerity versus competence (Youn and Jin, 2021) | Digital contexts (AI Chatbot) | CRM-related outcomes (behavioral intention, satisfaction, trust) | Parasocial interaction Ideological views | The consumer–chatbot relationship type had effects on CRM-related outcomes through competent brand personality |
| Sincerity and excitement (Choi et al., 2022) | Digital contexts (Service robot) | Customer reactions (Willingness to book, behavioral intentions, agent preference) | Robot type Perceived fit Presence of a warmth cue | Customers tend to react negatively to high-contact robots when the brand had a sincere (vs exciting) personality |
| Sincerity versus ruggedness (Deska et al., 2022) | Promotion (Advertising) | Brand judgment (ad liking, brand liking, purchase intensions) | Product category Brand positioning fit | Spokespersons with high(low) appearance‐based aspect – facial width‐to‐height ratio (fWHR) are more effective for rugged (sincere) brands leading to more positive brand judgment |
| Sincerity versus competence (Chen and Wei, 2022) | Hospitality and tourism industry | Tourist responses (Attitudes, booking intentions) | Need for autonomy Connectedness to nature | Competent(sincere) hotel brands benefit from using egoistic (biospheric) minimalistic lifestyle appeals when marketing capsule hotels to tourists |
| Sincerity (Motoki et al., 2023) | Food branding | Brand evaluations (Brand attitudes, food sales) | Perceived congruence | Sincerity is reliably associated with sweet tastes |
| Warmth versus competence (Leung et al., 2023) | Brand-related | Consumers’ preferences and responses | / | Informal(formal) address is more likely to be preferred, and elicits higher preferences and more positive responses, when used by warmer(competent) brands |
| Paradoxical personalities (Rugged yet sophisticated) (Xin et al., 2022) | Brand-related | Brand evaluation | Cognitive flexibility Construal level | Mixed emotional appeals (sadness and happiness), as compared to positive emotional appeals (happiness), can leverage favorable evaluations of paradox brands |
| Ruggedness and sophistication (Melzner and Raghubir, 2023) | Sensory marketing (Acoustics) | Brand personality judgments Brand (re-)positioning Purchase intentions | / | Timbral sound quality in audio logos (e.g. roughness/smoothness) informs abstract judgments of brand personality |
| Sincerity and excitement and competence and sophistication and ruggedness (Eyni et al., 2023; Luffarelli et al., 2023) | Corporate | Customer-based brand equity (CBBE) | / | On average, the BPDs of excitement, competence, and sincerity have more positive effects on CBBE than sophistication and ruggedness |
| Sensory marketing (Visual design) | Brand personality perceptions | Perception of brand power Perceived power of the self, visuospatial capacity | Logo thickness shape the perception of brand power | |
| Masculine versus feminine (Boeuf, 2020) | Brand-related | Consumers’ responses (Message attitude, brand attitude, intentions to recommend the brand) | Emotion Appropriateness Brand sincerity | Masculine brands can suffer from the stereotype that masculinity is typically associated with emotional control |
| Single- versus dual-personality (Wang et al., 2020) | Cross-culture (Western and East Asian) | Co-brand evaluation | Ideal social self-congruence Product type | The dialectical self negatively influences one’s attitude toward a co-brand in the dual-personality condition only |
| Naturalness (Sander et al., 2021) | Promotion (Environmental advertising) | Attitude toward the ad Brand attitude | Ad credibility | A focus on environmental aspects delivers the more impactful advertising content when promoting a brand’s sustainability |
| Pleasantness (Excitement and calmness) (Trump and Newman, 2021) | Consumer-related | Consumers’ response (Brand attitude, Purchase intentions) | Motivation | Consumers experiencing unpleasant emotions are attracted to brands with opposing, pleasant personalities to repair their emotions |
| Humorous (Howe et al., 2023) | Promotion (Advertising) | Brand attitudes Engagement | Perceptions of brand warmth and competence Need for cognition | As the cleverness of a humor attempt increases, consumers report higher brand attitudes and are more engaged with the brand |
| Context | Dependent variable | Mechanism | Main findings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer-related | WOM intentions | Consumer mindsets | Fixed (growth) mindset individuals exhibit greater WOM intentions than growth (fixed) mindset individuals for motives of impression management | |
| Digital contexts | CRM-related outcomes (behavioral intention, satisfaction, trust) | Parasocial interaction | The consumer–chatbot relationship type had effects on CRM-related outcomes through competent brand personality | |
| Digital contexts | Customer reactions | Robot type | Customers tend to react negatively to high-contact robots when the brand had a sincere (vs exciting) personality | |
| Promotion | Brand judgment | Product category | Spokespersons with high(low) appearance‐based aspect – facial width‐to‐height ratio (fWHR) are more effective for rugged (sincere) brands leading to more positive brand judgment | |
| Hospitality and tourism industry | Tourist responses | Need for autonomy | Competent(sincere) hotel brands benefit from using egoistic (biospheric) minimalistic lifestyle appeals when marketing capsule hotels to tourists | |
| Food branding | Brand evaluations | Perceived congruence | Sincerity is reliably associated with sweet tastes | |
| Brand-related | Consumers’ preferences and responses | / | Informal(formal) address is more likely to be preferred, and elicits higher preferences and more positive responses, when used by warmer(competent) brands | |
| Brand-related | Brand evaluation | Cognitive flexibility | Mixed emotional appeals (sadness and happiness), as compared to positive emotional appeals (happiness), can leverage favorable evaluations of paradox brands | |
| Sensory marketing | Brand personality | / | Timbral sound quality in audio logos (e.g. roughness/smoothness) informs abstract judgments of brand personality | |
| Corporate | Customer-based brand equity (CBBE) | / | On average, the BPDs of excitement, competence, and sincerity have more positive effects on CBBE than sophistication and ruggedness | |
| Sensory marketing | Brand personality perceptions | Perception of brand power | Logo thickness shape the perception of brand power | |
| Brand-related | Consumers’ responses (Message attitude, brand attitude, intentions to recommend the brand) | Emotion | Masculine brands can suffer from the stereotype that masculinity is typically associated with emotional control | |
| Cross-culture | Co-brand evaluation | Ideal social self-congruence | The dialectical self negatively influences one’s attitude toward a co-brand in the dual-personality condition only | |
| Promotion | Attitude toward | Ad credibility | A focus on environmental aspects delivers the more impactful advertising content when promoting a brand’s sustainability | |
| Consumer-related | Consumers’ response | Motivation | Consumers experiencing unpleasant emotions are attracted to brands with opposing, pleasant personalities to repair their emotions | |
| Promotion | Brand attitudes | Perceptions of brand warmth and competence | As the cleverness of a humor attempt increases, consumers report higher brand attitudes and are more engaged with the brand |
Sharing content requires targeting cookies to be enabled. Please update your cookie preferences to use this feature.