You're so lovable: Anthropomorphism and brand love

Brand love has been found to predict brand loyalty measures better than conventional attitude models that rely on the brand's perceived quality. Hence, marketers are interested in factors that lead to brand love. This study investigates the influence of anthropomorphism on brand love in the context of defensive marketing. We identified five possible theoretical mechanisms through which anthropomorphism may influence brand love: category-level evaluation, cognitive fluency, cognitive consistency, self-extension and self-congruence. The results reveal that the level of quality and anthropomorphism that a consumer perceives the brand has are important antecedents of brand love. Moreover, anthropomorphism's predictive power differs between evaluative and relationship-specific dimensions of brand love.