HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Commun.
Sec. Advertising and Marketing Communication
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2025.1602833
Immersed in our narratives: A study of the effectiveness of cobrand anthropomorphism
Provisionally accepted
- 1Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao, Shandong, China
- 2Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China
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Anthropomorphism strategies have been widely applied in brand marketing activities such as advertising, service communication, and word-of-mouth, and have become an important marketing strategy for many brands. However, prior research has focused on single-brand contexts, leaving the effects and mechanisms of co-brand anthropomorphism underexplored. Drawing on anthropomorphism theory and narrative transportation theory, this study constructs a model to examine how co-brand anthropomorphism influences consumers' evaluations and intentions toward co-branded products. Three experimental studies were conducted. The studies show that: Compared to non-anthropomorphism, anthropomorphism significantly enhances consumers' evaluations and purchase intentions for co-branded products, with narrative transportation mediating this effect. The type of co-branding appeal moderates the results: anthropomorphism is effective for abstract appeals but not for specific appeals. The findings offer practical insights for brands to leverage anthropomorphism in co-branding campaigns, improving ad persuasion effectiveness.
Keywords: cobrand anthropomorphism1, narrative transportation2, co-branding appeal3, product evaluation4, brand collaboration5
Received: 30 Mar 2025; Accepted: 08 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Han, Yun and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yaming Wang, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.