JRSSEM 2023, Vol. 02, No. 6, 1022 – 1034

E-ISSN: 2807 - 6311, P-ISSN: 2807 - 6494

DOI : 10.36418/jrssem.v2i06.300 https://jrssem.publikasiindonesia.id/index.php/jrssem/index

THE ROLE OF BRAND ANTHROPOMORPHISM IN

SHAPING BRAND LOVE AND BRAND LOYALTY TO

EUROPEAN CAR CONSUMERS IN INDONESIA

Pramatatya Resindra Widya

November 2022

Abstract: This study will examine the influence of brand anthropomorphism and brand experience

on brand love and its impact on brand loyalty with perceived price fairness as the moderation

on brand love. Brand love has a positive effect on brand engagement. perceived price fairness does

not moderate the relationship between brand love and brand engagement. For further research, it

is suggested to add subjective norm variables to this research model.

Keywords: Brand Anthropomorphism; Consumers; European Car; Building Brand Love and Brand

Loyalty.

Pramatatya Resindra Widya, Adi Mursalin | 1023

INTRODUCTION

must have brand experience. Brand

experiences occur when consumers search,

shop, and consume products that

consumers are exposed to when they

search for information or visit stores. When

searching for goods, consumers are

exposed to various stimuli related to a

particular brand (Kim & Yu, 2020). In

addition, it is also influenced by the brand

trust. Brand trust is defined as the

relationships with consumers and maintain

consumer trust. In order for consumers to

buy back products from the company, the

company must introduce its products well

in order to build brand trust in consumers.

Brand satisfaction (brand satisfaction) is

where the performance of a product is felt

according to the expectations of the buyer,

if the performance of a product or service

is in accordance with expectations, the

One of the things that can create

customer loyalty is brand engagement.

and its consumers in digital media, such as

social media, websites, blogs, and other

digital sites. All activity on social media has

the potential to have an influence in

enhancing those emotional connections.

The term 'engagement' or engagement can

be defined as an interest in the

representation of an object. Engagement

can also be interpreted as the result of

repeated interactions that strengthen the

media can be seen based on the results of

account analysis in general or at the level of

each content uploaded.

One of the factors that shape brand

engagement is brand love. Brand love

originated from research conducted in the

field of consumer delight and relationships

that explored the duo of consumers and

brands. The origin of love lies in the

psychology in which (Sternberg, 2018)

intense than the concept of "likes".

European Car Consumers In Indonesia

Therefore, it has emerged as a significant

construction that affects several other

constructions such as brand loyalty, brand

sacredness, and brand advocacy (Drennan

et al., 2015), (Wang et al., 2019), (Palusuk et

al., 2019), Joshi and Garg, 2020). Some

authors have outlined the antecedents and

et al., 2018) and, can turn consumers into

brand cultists. A construction with such

dynamic properties can never end

Researched. (Drennan et al., 2015) discuss a

framework that states the role of brand

trust and brand satisfaction in brand love in

the context of wine. The authors discuss

that future researchers may explore the role

of additional antecedents such as a brand

not just a brand that becomes an identity.

However, the brand has a soul that reflects

the cross-section of the brand and must be

conveyed to the public. Likewise from the

customer side. In customers who already

have experience with the brand, it may be

that they will feel that they fit the brand and

instead make the brand a reflection of

themselves. But sometimes the opposite

happens. A person wears a brand because

already has a soul. A brand is associated

with the depiction of a human being who

has senses and a soul like a human being.

So it often reflects a match when used by

customers. The belief that consumers tend

to perceive branded products as if human

objects are becoming popular among

consumers think of these things as actual

human beings. Empirical research also

supports this practice. showing that

consumers tend to associate car headlights

and grille with two human eyes and mouth

(Windhager et al., 2008); (Landwehr et al.,

products that explicitly relate to humans

(e.g., Mr. Clean) in an effort to support

anthropomorphization. In advertising,

anthropomorphization of branded

products has recently attracted the

attention of scholars. Previous studies have

examined the psychological processes that

are activated when consumers are faced

with products with a human-like

appearance (Aggarwal & McGill, 2007), and

their consequences on product evaluation

(Landwehr et al., 2011) and purchasing

behavior (Chandler & Schwarz, 2010);

Pramatatya Resindra Widya, Adi Mursalin | 1025

consumers build relationships with brands

similar to interpersonal brands (Fournier,

felt by humans, such as love (Batra et al.,

of consumers to anthropomorphization of

branded products has recently attracted

the attention of scholars. Previous studies

have examined the psychological processes

that are activated when consumers are

faced with products with a human-like

appearance (Aggarwal & McGill, 2007), and

similar to interpersonal brands (Fournier,

and to what extent consumers view brands

as 'intelligent agents' (Rijsdijk et al., 2007),

or 'deliberate agents' (Kervyn et al,2012), as

well as how consumers experience

emotions towards brands that are usually

felt by humans, such as love (Batra et al.,

and practice, little is known about the

conceptual domain of this relatively recent

construction and its measurements.

available scales are only used for

manipulation examination without being

empirically validated. This research fills this

important gap by developing a scale of

measurement of brand anthropomorphism,

which can be useful for researchers and

practitioners to ask how branded products

can be anthropomorphized, and whether

this phenomenon has an impact on

consumers' perception and evaluation of

motivations, behaviors, and basic states

typical of humans with non-human objects

and agents. Psychological research has

extensively shown how people tend to

anthropomorphize objects such as

personal computers (Waytzdkk,2010) and

cars (Windhager et al., 2008), as well as

non-human agents such as supernatural

entities (Epley et al,2008a) and pets

(Chartrand et al., 2008). Such a trend seems

anthropomorphism here is defined as the

European Car Consumers In Indonesia

extent to which a branded product is

considered an actual human being. In

particular, the anthropomorphic perception

of branded products may occur through

two different, but not mutually exclusive

processes. First, it may occur through the

perceived similarity between the external

branded products may occur through the

perceived fit between the product and

some aspects of the consumer's self-

concept (Fournier, 1998); (J. Aaker et al.,

to how the consumer perceives themselves

and consists of different, albeit related,

aspects: the 'actual' self-concept (that is,

whom he or she thinks), the 'ideal' self-

concept (that is, whom one wants to be),

product may occur to what extent

consumers perceive the product according

to how they view themselves in actual,

ideal, or social terms (for example, a

product whose image is consistent with the

actual or ideal personality traits of the

product). This reason implies that brand

anthropomorphism is a multidimensional

construction. However, hypothesizing the

specific theoretical dimensions of this

domain of marketing. One can identify at

least two main dimensions underlying

brand anthropomorphism: one dimension

about the outward appearance of a

branded product, and another dimension

based on the idea of self-brand fit, that is,

the extent to which the product reflects

anthropomorphism, according to which

products are considered anthropomorphic

entities to what extent they have a human-

like morphology. In particular, (Aggarwal &

McGill, 2007) have shown that products are

more likely to be anthropomorphic when

they are endowed with physical

characteristics (such as the depiction of

people 'smiling' in the design of the front

grille of a particular brand of car) capable of

interpersonal perception. For example, the

authors observed that the special

configuration of the lower 'mouth' button

on the phone (i.e., reverse versus lowered)

led respondents to infer 'friendliness' in

that product, in the same way a smile

directed people to use this. emotional

expression to infer happiness in a smiling

person (Ekman, 1993). As for the second

dimension of brand anthropomorphism,

Pramatatya Resindra Widya, Adi Mursalin | 1027

consumers evaluate and select products

based on the extent to which these

alignment on product choice becomes the

basis of consumers' tendency to see a part

of themselves in their favorite brands and

products (Belk, 1988); (Escalas & Bettman,

relationships with these objects similar to

those normally constructed with others

(Fournier, 1998); (J. Aaker et al., 2004). All

this is a psychological process that occurs

in the minds of consumers - that is, the

objects. In such cases,

anthropomorphization does not have to be

based on the external appearance of the

branded product, but also on the perceived

similarity between internal qualities (such

as motivation, emotions, and mental states)

that are considered to be derived from

themselves and those that they consider

being derived from the product (Fournier &

Alvarez, 2012). Another study (Fitzsimons et

appropriate brand interaction with this

brand in a similar way to that usually

observed among humans.

the sacrifices given will also be lower

(Zeithaml, 1998). Consumers of service

goods actually value high prices because

these prices describe the prestige/image of

quality, or the acquisition of certain special

benefits (Yazid et al., 2020). Price fairness

involves a comparison of the price of the

procedure with a standard in question,

reference, or norm (Martín‐Consuegra et

al., 2007). (Martín‐Consuegra et al., 2007)

paying a reasonable price on every

purchase transaction.

2. Reference to the level of

reasonableness of the price, where

the customer feels it is reasonable if a

product or service of the same type

from different companies is set at a

different price.

3. The price fairness policy determined

by the company is reasonable and

set.

European Car Consumers In Indonesia

This research will examine the

influence of brand anthropomorphism and

brand experience on brand love and its

impact on brand loyalty with perceived

price fairness as a moderation variable

.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

the study population (Cooper, 2011).

Respondents and samples from this study

used several criteria so as to use

sampling

population in the study was European car

customers such as BMW, Mercedes, and so

on. The sample in this study amounted to

250 European car users spread across DKI

Jakarta, DI Yogyakarta, Central Java, East

Java, data collection methods are one

directly from respondents through the

dissemination of questionnaires both via

the internet and directly using the

questionnaire by making a systematic list of

questions directly on the selected

respondents into a research sample

compiled using a Likert scale. Each question

Whatsapp, and email. The secondary data

is obtained from data sourced to writings

such as books, magazines, journals, the

internet, and other data related to this

research. The variables used as operational

definitions in this study are t brand

anthropomorphism, brand experiences,

and brand love. Meanwhile, the perceived

price fairness variable is the variable

moderation. The dependent variable in this

Pramatatya Resindra Widya, Adi Mursalin | 1029

The analysis model in this study will be

divided into 3 stages analysis. The first

with a simple regression analysis tool. The

third stage is the analysis of perceived price

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4 stages. First, the KMO-MSA test to test

the adequacy of data variance, the

instrument validity test with factor loading,

and the Reliability test by looking at

Cronbach's alpha value. The results of the

data quality test can be seen in table 1.

Brand

anthropomor

phism

.853

Sample

adequacy

Fulfilled

(KMO-MSA>0,5)

BA1

BA2

BA3

.780

.843

.678

0,745

Brand Loyalty

BLT 1

.780

0,683

Perceived

Price Fairness

PPF 1

PPF 2

.734

.629

0,772

European Car Consumers In Indonesia

According to (Hair Jr, 2010) states that one

of the ways that can be used to estimate the

validity of such convergent is based on the

value of the loading factor. The minimum

loading factor limit for each indicator item is

0.35-0.40 (Hair Jr, 2010). Before conducting a

factor analysis, there are requirements that

Sphericity is statistically significant with a

significantly less than 0.05 (Hair Jr, 2010). The

KMO value in this study is 0.731, which

means KMO > 0.50. Based on these results,

the adequacy of the sample was declared to

be in the satisfactory category. Further

predictions and analysis of research variables

Table 2. Model Test 1

In testing the accuracy of this research

model, statistically it can be seen that the

ability of independent variables, namely

Brand anthropomorphism and

(>0.05) shows that this model is able to

reflect the real state of affairs in reality.

Based on the results of hypothesis tests

that have been carried out, it can be seen