什么样的可爱标识可以提升产品的感知相对质量

How a Cute Logo Can Improve the Perceived Quality of a Product

越来越多的品牌采用可爱的图案作为品牌标识的一部分,之前的文献都将可爱作为单维特征来研究,而本文认为,如果目的是提升产品的感知相对质量,那么单维度的可爱并不是越高越好,而是要看可爱标识在两个维度("幼态萌"和"搞怪萌")上的表现,只有"搞怪萌"才会通过提升品牌能力感知来提升产品感知相对质量。本文通过三个组内实验和两个组间实验验证了假设。实验1a通过回归的方法发现品牌标识总体可爱程度的感知会正向影响该品牌产品的感知相对质量。实验1b在更换了实验材料后,发现总体可爱程度不能影响产品的感知相对质量,并初步探索了原因:在可爱的两个维度("幼态萌"和"搞怪萌")中,只有"搞怪萌"与品牌能力感知有显著的相关性。中介分析还发现,品牌标识的"搞怪萌"程度会通过提高品牌能力的感知来提高产品的感知相对质量。实验2重复了实验1a的现象,得到了与实验1b相同的中介机制。实验3则通过组间实验设计并采用方差分析的方法再次验证了品牌能力的中介作用。实验4则验证了在感知能力不作为购买产品的重要指标时,"搞怪萌"通过品牌能力感知来提升产品感知相对质量的现象就消失了,从而进一步验证了品牌能力的中介地位。研究结论有助于企业在设计可爱风格的品牌标识时,更精准地设计出有利于提升企业产品感知相对质量的标识。

In the modern commercial society, cute elements are more likely to be used in brand logos. Previous research investigated cuteness in one dimension, but cuteness in one dimension cannot explain the effect of cuteness on brands and products. In other words, overall cuteness of a brand logo cannot predict consumers’ evaluation of the brand. This article explores the influence of cuteness on the perception of a brand and its products in terms of cuteness being a two-dimensional concept(whimsical cuteness and kindchenschema cuteness) and reveals that only whimsical cuteness could help a brand enhance perceived relative product quality by enhancing perceived brand competence. To support the hypotheses, three within-subject designed experiments and two between-subject designed experiments were conducted. Study 1 a demonstrates the positive effect of overall cuteness of a brand logo on perceived relative product quality. However, in study 1 b, the result of study 1 a cannot be replicated after changing the experimental material. The possible reason for the inconsistent results is explored: perceived brand competence is more strongly related to whimsical cuteness than to kindchenschema cuteness, and only whimsical cuteness can predict perceived relative product quality through perceived brand competence. Study 2, a within subject designed experiment, replicates the effect of whimsical cuteness and the underlying mechanism with a different brand logo and a different product. In study 3, a between-subject designed experiment was conducted to prove the results of study 2. Study 4 employing two products from different categories(hedonic vs. utilitarian products) suggests a boundary condition that the effect of whimsical cuteness disappears when competence is not an important indicator of purchase, which further confirms the mechanism of brand competence. The conclusion of this article is helpful for enterprises to design more accurate logos that are conducive to improving the perceived relative quality of their products when designing cute brand logos.