Matthew Thomson

Human Brands: Investigating Antecedents to Consumers' Strong Attachments to Celebrities

This article explores recent advances in self-determination research to address why consumers develop strong attachments to “human brands,” a term that refers to any well-known persona who is the subject of marketing communications efforts. Study 1 uses a survey that is analyzed with structural equation modeling. Study 2 is qualitative and offers corroborating evidence for the proposed theoretical model. Study 3 extends the model with a more naturalistic sample and tests several alternative hypotheses using hierarchical regression. The results suggest that when a human brand enhances a persons feelings of autonomy and relatedness and does not suppress feelings of competence, the person is likely to become more strongly attached to it. This article documents that strong attachments are predictive of satisfied, trusting, and committed relationships and proposes that attachment strength may be a parsimonious proxy for consumer–brand relationship strength. The results imply that benefits would accrue to organizations such as entertainment firms and political parties that establish direct and routine interaction between human brands and consumers, that human brands to which consumers are attached offer significant potential as endorsers, and that organizations should address how to make the human brands they manage more authentic.

A Coal in the Heart: Self-Relevance as a Post-Exit Predictor of Consumer Anti-Brand Actions

This article extends theory around consumer-brand relationship quality by exploring conditions under which such relationships may be transformed into exceptionally negative dispositions toward once-coveted brands. Survey and experimental results indicate that the more self-relevant a consumer-brand relationship, the more likely are anti-brand retaliatory behaviors after the relationship ends. These anti-brand behaviors are diverse: from complaining to third parties, to negative word of mouth, to illegal actions such as theft, threats, and vandalism. In contrast, post-exit consumer-brand relationships that were low in self-relevance but were high in trust, commitment, and satisfaction are less likely to result in anti-brand actions. The role of a discrete product or service failure is also explored, and results suggest that self-relevance may motivate retaliation even in the absence of a so-called critical incident. Ultimately, this research illuminates previously unexplored mechanisms--including self-conscious emotional reactions--that motivate consumer hostility and retaliation.

What Does Brand Authenticity Mean? Causes and Consequences of Consumer Scrutiny toward a Brand Narrative

Abstract Purpose Brand narratives are created to differentiate brands, and consumers base their assessments of a brand’s authenticity on this narrative. We propose that the default consumer position is to accept a brand’s narrative, and we find that consumers maintain belief in this narrative even when explicitly reminded that it is manufactured by firms with an underlying profit motive. Because belief seems to be the default position adopted by consumers, we investigate what factors act as disruptors to this default position, thereby reducing assessments of authenticity. Methodology This research uses a series of studies to investigate when and why consumers view some brand stories as authentic and others less so. In addition, we examine the impact of changes to authenticity assessments on managerially important brand outcomes. Findings Only when one or more authenticity disruptors are present do consumers begin to question the authenticity of the brand narrative. Disruption occurs when the focal brand is perceived to be nakedly copying a competitor, or when there is a gross mismatch between the brand narrative and reality. In the presence of one or both of these disruptors, consumers judge brands to be less authentic, report lower identification, lower assessments of brand quality and social responsibility, and are less likely to join the brand’s community. Implications Creating compelling brand stories is an important aspect of any marketing manager’s job; after all, these narratives help drive sales. Care must be taken when crafting narratives however, since consumers use these as the basis of their authenticity assessments, and brands deemed inauthentic are penalized.

A Synthesis of the Consumer-Brand Relationship Domain: Using Text Mining to Track Research Streams, Describe Their Emotional Associations, and Identify Future Research Priorities

We conduct a text-mining analysis of 287 articles representing the consumer-brand relationship (CBR) literature from 1999 to 2015. We propose that the CBR domain is reflected by 71 constructs, of which less than half can be considered important. We structure the domain by identifying its seven major research streams as well as demarcating their respective evolution and emotional features. Using the original data and incorporating a second corpus based on the articles included in the current Journal of the Association for Consumer Research issue on “Brand Relationships, Emotions, and the Self,” we outline a collection of insights that define opportunities for future research.