The impact of interpersonal traits (extraversion and agreeableness) on consumers’ self-brand connection and communal-brand connection with anthropomorphized brands

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of consumers’ personality traits on self-brand connection and communal-brand connection with anthropomorphized versus objectified brands for high- versus low-involvement product categories. This study contributes to the understanding of human interactive personality traits on self-concept and their behavioral outcomes. Additionally, this study expands the elaboration likelihood model by depicting how personality traits can have different effects in high- versus low-involvement contexts. The results of this study show that consumers higher in extraversion and agreeableness exhibit more favorable behavior toward anthropomorphized brands (compared with objectified brands). Additionally, the effect of extraversion on purchase intention is mediated by self-brand connection and communal-brand connection, whereas agreeableness shows a direct effect on purchase intention. These findings benefit marketers by helping them choose the most appropriate product categories when marketing anthropomorphized brands. Moreover, these findings will help marketers choose the appropriate consumer traits in advertising to increase the level of self-brand connection, communal-brand connection, and purchase intention among their target market.