Exploring the changing role of brand archetypes in customer-brand relationships: Why try to be a hero when your brand can be more?

For over 20 years, managers have been encouraged to leverage archetypal meaning to strengthen their brands. Prior research has studied archetypes as universal patterns present in the collective unconscious that trigger an instinctive response in customers, arguing that brands should evoke one archetype at a time. However, recent evidence seems to suggest that the single archetype view proposed in previous work may have lost its relevance in the marketplace. This article responds to calls for further research into brand archetypes by analyzing more than 2,400 brands and the archetypes they evoke in their marketing communications. The current findings support the continued relevance and importance of brand archetypes in marketing, showing that brands connect with customers by consistently evoking specific archetypes. Critically, however, strong brands tend to leverage multiple archetypes at a time rather than just one as previously believed. We explore key implications of our findings for theory and management, discuss avenues for future research, and provide actionable guidelines for managers wishing to leverage archetypal meaning to build strong brands.     

Sponsorship portfolio as a brand-image creation strategy

The meanings held by events are sometimes transferable to a brand through sponsorship. The perceived sponsor-property fit affects brand evaluations. This research hypothesizes that in the case of a sponsorship portfolio, the source of image transfer can be composite, and brand image association may depend on the perceived fit between sponsorships. Building on theories of social cognition and categorization, this research proposes two dimensions of fit: sponsorship category relatedness and event personality fit. Two experiments show that categorical relatedness between sponsorships not only leads to the creation of a unified brand personality for the sponsor, but also enhances brand meaning consistency and clarity. Central category-related traits cue a category membership framework that integrates sponsorships in the portfolio. Under conditions of category ambiguity, the impact of event personality fit emerges. Interestingly, the findings suggest that sponsored properties having a “spiky” brand personality (having both high and low performance on dimensions) may communicate most clearly in a portfolio.     

Sponsorship portfolio as brand image creation strategies: A commentary essay

This essay discusses Chien, Cornwell, and Pappu's (forthcoming) paper, “Sponsorship portfolio as brand image creation strategy.” Although Chien et al. (forthcoming) seek to enhance understanding of the impact of a brand's sponsorship portfolio on its brand image they are not completely successful in this endeavor. One of their key constructs, the event personality fit (EPF) construct, has no significant effect on brand meaning. This essay suggests that this finding is because of limitations in the brand personality metrics in the study and because of the tautological nature of the hypotheses proposals. Their sponsorship category relatedness (SCR) construct, however, is a useful construct for those seeking to assemble a portfolio of sponsored products that builds positive brand meaning for the sponsor's brand.     

The impact of brand personality and sales promotions on brand equity

This research assesses the relative impact of a long-term brand management instrument (brand personality) and a short-term marketing mix instrument (sales promotions) on brand equity formation. The authors measure consumer perceptions of promotional intensity and brand personality and model their impact on brand equity. They find a positive impact of brand personality and a negative impact of sales promotion intensity on brand equity at the aggregate level. In line with research that identifies varying consumer responses to promotional deals, this study posits that the relative impact of the two elements varies across consumer groups. Three homogeneous consumer groups differ according to the relative impact of brand personality and consumer promotions on brand equity, following an application of a finite mixture partial least squares procedure.     

“New and old”: Consumer evaluations of co-branding between new brands and Chinese time-honored brands

Nowadays, rejuvenation of Chinese time-honored brands, a symbol of Chinese traditional culture, is manifested in their co-branding with new brands. With focus on sincerity and excitement, two fundamental dimensions of brand personality, the authors explore this co-branding strategy which remains unexplored by the extant literature. Based on the integration of brand personality and Stereotype Content Model, a new mechanism is constructed from the perspective of consumers, with brand admiration being the underlying mechanism, as well as product category—hedonic vs. utilitarian—being a boundary condition. Through three experimental studies, the results show that the exciting (vs. sincere) personality of new brands increases consumers’ admiration for both allied brands, which in turn enhances co-branding evaluations, and that the advantage of the exciting personality holds for the hedonic co-branded product, but disappears for the utilitarian one. The research contributes to the co-branding literature and provides implications for brand partner selection and co-branded product design.     

An investigation of determinants of counterfeit purchase consideration

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the determinants governing the likelihood of considering the purchase of counterfeit branded products (CBPs) in the context of non-deceptive counterfeiting. The study anticipates and explores the effects of consumer-perceived brand image (i.e., brand personality, product attributes, and benefits/consequences), perceived risk, product knowledge, product involvement, and consumer demographic variables. Focus groups generated the criteria that consumers use to evaluate the studied brands; the main study then collected data from interviews. The results show that among the tested variables, brand personality performs best in determining consideration of the CBP. In general, demographic variables and product involvement do not appear to be significantly influential. The results also provide empirical evidence for Plummer's (Plummer, J.T. How Personality Makes a Difference. Journal of Advertising Research 1985; 24 (6): 27-83 (December/January), Plummer, J.T. How Personality Makes a Difference. Journal of Advertising Research 2000; 40 (6): 79-83 (November/December)) notion of brand image components; furthermore the results also suggest that perceived risks should not be part of the benefit/consequence component of the brand image concept.     

Using Lexical Semantic Analysis to Derive Online Brand Positions: An Application to Retail Marketing Research

This paper provides an innovative approach to brand tracking in the context of online retail shopping by deriving meaning from the vast amount of information stored in online search engine databases. The method draws upon research in lexical text analysis and computational linguistics to gain insights into the structural schema of online brand positions. The paper proposes a simple-to-use method that managers can utilize to assess their brand's positioning relative to that of their competitors’ in the online environment.     

Store-evoked affect, personalities, and consumer emotional attachments to brands

This research examines how store-evoked affect, human personality, and brand personality influence consumers' emotional attachments to brands. A field study (in wine tasting rooms) demonstrates that satisfaction mediates the effects of store-evoked pleasure and arousal on brand attachments, which further affects brand loyalty and willingness to pay a price premium. Attachment is consistently stronger in positive affective environments (i.e., when pleasure, arousal, and satisfaction are high) and when the brand possesses positive dimensions of brand personality. These effects are stronger for consumers scoring high (rather than low) on extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness and weaker for individuals scoring high on neuroticism. A follow-up experiment (in juice bars) supports the findings of the field study and provides further insight into the three-way interaction between store-evoked affect, brand personality, and consumer personality.     

人格特质与职业成功的关系研究

论文首先对大五人格模型和职业成功的相关理论进行了简单的概述。之后对以前关于人格特质与职业成功的研究文献进行了回顾,并根据我国文化情境,对人格特质与主、客观职业成功的关系进行了分析和总结,提出了人格特质与职业成功之间的关系模型。最后简单介绍了研究这个问题的理论意义和实践意义。     

Shaping Retail Brand Personality Perceptions by Bodily Experiences

Customer experiences play an important role in retail brand management. This research investigates how bodily experiences in retail environments influence customers’ perceptions of retail brand personalities. Based on research on human personality perception, we propose that bodily experiences transfer metaphoric meaning to customers’ brand perceptions. In a field experiment and a lab experiment we manipulated participants’ bodily experiences (feeling of hardness and temperature) and consistently found a metaphor-specific transfer of experiences to retail brand personality perceptions (on the dimensions “ruggedness” and “warmth”). A third study reveals the mechanism behind the effect and demonstrates concept activation elicited by bodily experiences in customers’ minds.     

Preference for a career in retailing: a question of personality

Drawing on previous findings from the field of brand personality research and employer branding, this paper aims to explore the symbolic attributes of the retail industry image in South Africa and to identify those personality traits that distinguish preferred industries from the retail industry. The research provides a contemporary overview of the current image of the retail industry in South Africa from the perspective of young university students and allows retailers to strengthen their joint communication effort accordingly. Therefore, a quantitative survey study with 1426 participants from five South African universities was conducted. Participants assessed personality characteristics of the retail industry as well as their most preferred industry. The main results suggest that retail and non-retail students hold different personality perceptions of the retail industry and that prior retail involvement accounts for this difference to some extent. Moreover, the analysis shows that retailing performs significantly worse on those personality attributes that are of major importance for future job seekers. Additionally, the study identifies those attributes that exert a strong effect on students’ preferences for the retail industry. The findings provide useful communication themes for educational institutions, retail companies, and industry associations in order to foster positive personality perceptions associated with the retail industry.     

Building a human brand: Brand anthropomorphism unravelled

Brand anthropomorphism has been found to enhance the ability of consumers to recognize the inherent value of brands. However, there is limited knowledge among practitioners on how to build a brand with humanlike characteristics. After a literature review of brand anthropomorphism in general and the theory of warmth and competence in particular, we present the Human Brand Model of how to build a brand that is perceived to be human. There are four steps in this process; the first three indicate the brand inputs and the last indicates the results of those inputs. This model guides brand managers on how to make their brand more human. The use of this model should result in the organization having an excellent brand reputation; stronger, more meaningful relationships with its customers; and improved brand loyalty.     

Brand origin and country of manufacture influences on brand equity and the moderating role of brand typicality

This research investigates how country macro and micro images associated with both brand origin (BO) and country of manufacture (COM) impact two main dimensions of brand equity-brand image and brand quality. Whereas BO images relate positively to both dimensions of brand equity, COM images exert an impact on brand quality, not on brand image. The typicality of the brand as a representative of the country of origin moderates the impact of BO on brand equity, such that the effects of BO on brand equity are stronger when the brand is more typical. The authors explore implications for theory and practice.