IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nms/untern/10.5771-0042-059x-2015-1-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does information about the underdog biography of company founders affect brand evaluations?

Author

Listed:
  • Stock, Carolin
  • Gierl, Heribert

Abstract

Many famous people who founded companies either recently or decades ago are associated with an underdog biography. Although they began with few resources and had to undertake strong efforts to overcome impediments, these companies are currently successful. We investigated whether references to the underdog biographies of company founders affected evaluations of these brands. We found an overall positive effect of referring to an underdog biography of founders in market communications. Our results indicate that the underdog effect results from sensations of deservingness and a strengthened customer-brand relationship.

Suggested Citation

  • Stock, Carolin & Gierl, Heribert, 2015. "Does information about the underdog biography of company founders affect brand evaluations?," Die Unternehmung - Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 69(1), pages 2-24.
    • Handle: RePEc:nms:untern:10.5771/0042-059x-2015-1-2
    DOI: 10.5771/0042-059X-2015-1-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/0042-059X-2015-1-2
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5771/0042-059X-2015-1-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sara Kim & Ann L. McGill, 2011. "Gaming with Mr. Slot or Gaming the Slot Machine? Power, Anthropomorphism, and Risk Perception," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 38(1), pages 94-107.
    2. Pankaj Aggarwal & Ann L. Mcgill, 2012. "When Brands Seem Human, Do Humans Act Like Brands? Automatic Behavioral Priming Effects of Brand Anthropomorphism," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(2), pages 307-323.
    3. Fournier, Susan, 1998. "Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 24(4), pages 343-373, March.
    4. Jennifer Edson Escalas & James R. Bettman, 2005. "Self-Construal, Reference Groups, and Brand Meaning," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(3), pages 378-389, December.
    5. Fleitas, Daniel W., 1971. "Bandwagon and Underdog Effects in Minimal-Information Elections," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(2), pages 434-438, June.
    6. Neeru Paharia & Anat Keinan & Jill Avery & Juliet B. Schor, 2011. "The Underdog Effect: The Marketing of Disadvantage and Determination through Brand Biography," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(5), pages 775-790.
    7. Pankaj Aggarwal & Ann L. McGill, 2007. "Is That Car Smiling at Me? Schema Congruity as a Basis for Evaluating Anthropomorphized Products," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 34(4), pages 468-479, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Golossenko, Artyom & Pillai, Kishore Gopalakrishna & Aroean, Lukman, 2020. "Seeing brands as humans: Development and validation of a brand anthropomorphism scale," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 737-755.
    2. Noor Hasmini Binti Abd Ghani & Mohammad Kashedul Wahab Tuhin, 2016. "Consumer Brand Relationships," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 6(4), pages 950-957.
    3. Kwak, Hyokjin & Puzakova, Marina & Rocereto, Joseph F., 2017. "When brand anthropomorphism alters perceptions of justice: The moderating role of self-construal," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 851-871.
    4. Maria Vernuccio & Michela Patrizi & Maja Šerić & Alberto Pastore, 2023. "The perceptual antecedents of brand anthropomorphism in the name-brand voice assistant context," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 30(4), pages 302-317, July.
    5. Alabed, Amani & Javornik, Ana & Gregory-Smith, Diana, 2022. "AI anthropomorphism and its effect on users' self-congruence and self–AI integration: A theoretical framework and research agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    6. Noor Hasmini Binti Abd Ghani & Mohammad Kashedul Wahab Tuhin, 2016. "Consumer Brand Relationships," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 6(4), pages 950-957.
    7. Hyun Ju Jeong & Jihye Kim, 2021. "Human-like versus me-like brands in corporate social responsibility: the effectiveness of brand anthropomorphism on social perceptions and buying pleasure of brands," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(1), pages 32-47, January.
    8. Lee, Seonjeong (Ally) & Oh, Haemoon, 2021. "Anthropomorphism and its implications for advertising hotel brands," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 455-464.
    9. Lunardo, Renaud & Alemany Oliver, Mathieu & Shepherd, Steven, 2023. "How believing in brand conspiracies shapes relationships with brands," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    10. Ahmad Daryanto & Nicholas Alexander & Gilang Kartika, 2022. "The anthropomorphic brand logo and its effect on perceived functional performance," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(3), pages 287-300, May.
    11. Justina Sidlauskiene & Yannick Joye & Vilte Auruskeviciene, 2023. "AI-based chatbots in conversational commerce and their effects on product and price perceptions," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 33(1), pages 1-21, December.
    12. Ying Ding & Sunxu Xu, 2023. "Detrimental impact of contagious disease cues on consumer preference for anthropomorphic products," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 139-153, March.
    13. Velasco, Franklin & Yang, Zhiyong & Janakiraman, Narayanan, 2021. "A meta-analytic investigation of consumer response to anthropomorphic appeals: The roles of product type and uncertainty avoidance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 735-746.
    14. Liu, Fu & Wei, Haiying & Zhu, Zhenzhong & Chen, Haipeng (Allan), 2022. "Warmth or competence: Brand anthropomorphism, social exclusion, and advertisement effectiveness," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    15. Baskentli, Sara & Hadi, Rhonda & Lee, Leonard, 2023. "How culture shapes consumer responses to anthropomorphic products," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 495-512.
    16. Selcan Kara & Kunter Gunasti & William T. Ross, 2020. "My brand identity lies in the brand name: personified suggestive brand names," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 27(5), pages 607-621, September.
    17. Lili Wang & Maferima Touré-Tillery & Ann L. McGill, 2023. "The effect of disease anthropomorphism on compliance with health recommendations," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 266-285, March.
    18. Karanika, Katerina & Hogg, Margaret K., 2020. "Self–object relationships in consumers’ spontaneous metaphors of anthropomorphism, zoomorphism, and dehumanization," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 15-25.
    19. Sandra Awanis & Bodo B Schlegelmilch & Charles Chi Cui, 2017. "Asia’s materialists: Reconciling collectivism and materialism," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 48(8), pages 964-991, October.
    20. Gretry, Anaïs & Horváth, Csilla & Belei, Nina & van Riel, Allard C.R., 2017. "“Don't pretend to be my friend!” When an informal brand communication style backfires on social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 77-89.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nms:untern:10.5771/0042-059x-2015-1-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nomos.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.