Title: Exploring brand humanisation on SNSs: brand personality and its influence on brand partner quality, brand attitude and consumer behavioural engagement

Authors: Eun Sook Kwon; Jooyoung Kim

Addresses: School of Communication, College of Liberal Arts, Rochester Institute of Technology, 92 Lomb Memorial Dr., Rochester, NY 14623, USA ' Department of Advertising and Public Relations, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia, 120 Hooper St., Athens, GA 30602, USA

Abstract: This study explored whether consumers interacting with brands on SNSs attribute human-like personalities to brands and further examined the relationships between personality dimensions and brand performance measures. Responses from 922 research participants (530 brand followers and 392 brand non-followers on SNSs) were analysed. Brand followers and brand non-followers attributed some of the same personality dimensions (sophistication, sincerity and competence) while there were differences between the two groups: excitement only among brand non-followers and agreeableness and unpleasantness only among brand followers. The personality dimension sincerity had a strong, positive influence on brand performance measures. Implications are discussed.

Keywords: brand personality; big five; brand partner quality; brand attitude; behavioural engagement; social networking sites; SNSs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMA.2022.122239

International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, 2022 Vol.16 No.3, pp.203 - 229

Received: 14 Dec 2019
Accepted: 09 May 2020
Published online: 14 Apr 2022 *

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