| dc.description.abstract | The universal mantra, “The customer is our king”, has led to considerable focus on the servant-anthropomorphized brand. The literature largely focuses on the well-established effect of the role of ‘partner’ and ‘servant’ in brand anthropomorphism. Prior studies have merely covered bottom-up orientation (the servant role) or equality (the partner role) in the relationship between anthropomorphic brands and consumers. Top-down oriented relationships (superior roles) in brand-consumer relationship hasn′t been discussed yet. However, does your “king” want to be served as a “king”? Do consumers mind picking off their “crown”? It is also true that not everyone wishes to lead nor to feel in control all of the time. Individuals with an interdependent self-construal, who tended to follow instead of leading, performed better when working with those they felt to be superior to themselves rather than for those on a similar level.Given this gap, this research focus on examining how anthropomorphic brand role, self-construal and consumer responses to brands interact.
The result supported our central premise-“Picking off the ‘crown’ effect” that individuals with an interdependent (independent) self-construal respond more favourably to an anthropomorphised brand playing superior (servant) roles than toward those acting out subservient roles. We further distinguish between two types of superior role (master and mentor) based on behaviour and communications. We also explore the underlying psychological mechanism of followership, as demonstrated through emotional followership of someone in a master role and rational followership of someone in a mentor role.
Besides, we explored moderation influence on “picking off the ‘crown’ effect” from three aspects (individual characteristics, environment, and interaction process).The result showed not all of the moderate factors that we observed had effects.
In terms of individual characteristics, narcissism and materialism moderate “picking off the ‘crown’ effect”. The result showed narcissism moderate the “Picking off the ‘crown’ effect”. Specifically, for consumer who are in high narcissism and independent self-construal, they respond more positive attitude to master anthropomorphic brand roles than mentor or servant role. And for consumer who are in low-narcissism condition, participants express more positive attitude on servant role than mentor and master role among independent frame. And participants express more positive attitude on superior role than servant role among interdependent frame. The result proved that “Picking off the ‘crown’ effect” only exists in low- narcissist’s participants instead of high-narcissist’s participants.
Also, the result showed “Picking off the ‘crown’ effect” affect non-materialists consumer whose attitude of superior versus servant role depends on the consumer′s self-construal (independent or interdependent). However, when consumer is materialists, servant brand roles is likely to be more positive attitude, no matter the type of self-construal.
Additionally, he result showed narcissism moderate the “Picking off the ‘crown’ effect”. Specifically, for consumer who are in high narcissism and independent self-construal, they respond more positive attitude to master anthropomorphic brand roles than mentor or servant role. And for consumer who are in low-narcissism condition, participants express more positive attitude on servant role than mentor and master role among independent frame. And participants express more positive attitude on superior role than servant role among interdependent frame. The result proved that “Picking off the ‘crown’ effect” only exists in low- narcissist’s participants instead of high-narcissist’s participants.
In terms of interaction process, the result showed gift-recipient did not moderate “picking off the ‘crown’ effect”.
In terms of environment, only risk-perception moderates “picking off the ‘crown’ effect”, while anthropomorphized form and social crowding do not have moderate effect. The result showed when consumer perceived high-risk, superior brand roles is likely to be reported more positive attitude, no matter the type of self-construal. “Picking off the ‘crown’ effect” only occurs when consumer perceived low-risk, the positive attitude of superior versus servant role depends on the consumer′s self-construal (independent or interdependent).In general, the fear of the unknown will affect consumers′ judgment of the brand.
Limitations and future avenues for research are also discussed in this research. | en_US |