品牌故事素材来源真实性对消费者品牌态度的影响机理研究

Influence of Brand Story Authenticity on Consumers’Brand Attitude

本文聚焦于品牌故事素材来源真实性对品牌态度的作用效果及其内在机制。基于叙事传输理论,本文构建品牌故事素材来源真实性、心理距离、叙事传输与品牌态度之间关系的理论模型,并通过三个情景模拟实验对品牌故事素材来源真实性影响消费者品牌态度的相关假设进行检验。研究结果表明:相较于完全虚构的品牌故事,素材来源于真实事件的品牌故事对提升消费者品牌态度更为有效。其中,品牌故事素材来源真实性通过心理距离-叙事传输的链式中介机制对消费者品牌态度产生影响,心理距离-叙事传输起到部分中介的作用;品牌故事获取方式对品牌故事素材来源真实性与心理距离之间的关系具有调节效应。具体而言,相较于被动接收,消费者主动发现品牌故事时,消费者与故事之间的心理距离更近。研究结论揭示了品牌故事素材来源真实性对消费者品牌态度的影响机理,拓展了叙事传输理论在品牌故事营销领域的研究,为品牌故事的创作与传播提供了理论依据与管理启示。

Telling brand stories to consumers becomes a core strategy in content marketing in the era of social media.However,the brand story authenticity is a constant source of consumer concern.Stories derived from real events can resonate with consumers,while fictional stories may raise suspicions.The marketing effectiveness of authenticity is increasingly attracting attention from academia and industry.Therefore,this paper aims to explore the impact,mechanisms,and boundary conditions of brand story authenticity on consumers’brand attitudes.This paper constructs a theoretical model based on the narrative transportation theory.It then conducts three scenario-based simulations to examine the relationship between authenticity,psychological distance,narrative transportation,and brand attitudes.The findings are as follows.First,consumers have higher brand evaluations for authentic stories than for fictional stories.Second,authenticity directly influences consumers’brand evaluations by shortening the psychological distance and deepening the narrative transportation.Third,the method of obtaining brand stories has a moderating effect on the relationship between authenticity and psychological distance.Specifically,when brand stories are derived from real events,actively discovered brand stories can bring consumers closer to the brand narrative,enhance the narrative transportation and ultimately improve brand evaluations.However,when brand stories are fictional,the method of obtaining brand stories has no significant effect.The theoretical contributions of this paper are reflected in three aspects.First,it introduces the concept of brand story authenticity into the field of narrative marketing research,enriching the discussion of the authenticity mechanism based on narrative transportation theory.Second,it extends the study of narrative transportation antecedents and confirms the relationship between psychological distance and narrative transportation.Third,it explores the situational factors in brand stories and discovers the moderating effect of the method of obtaining brand stories on authenticity and psychological distance.This paper also has some practical implications.First,companies need to delve into real brand events in brand growth,brand technology development,and brand-consumer interactions from multiple perspectives,levels,and scenarios.Based on these events,they can create brand stories through various forms and means of expression.Second,companies need to create customized brand stories based on consumers’experiences.This will shorten the psychological distance between brand stories and consumers.Third,companies need to fully consider how consumers obtain brand stories in story creation and dissemination.Consumers’psychological distance from brand stories varies depending on the method of obtaining them.