I’m “KFC”: How brand-exclusive digital human influences brand intimacy

IF 10.5 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Journal of Business Research Pub Date : 2025-05-16 DOI:10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115451

Wen Qi Zhang, Dong Hong Zhu

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The commercial value of digital humans in social media marketing has been widely recognized. As a result, many companies have started to create their own brand-exclusive digital humans. However, existing literature mainly focuses on the impact of third-party virtual influencers. To fill this gap, Study 1a and Study 1b first employs netnography and in-depth interviews, respectively, to gain insights on brand-exclusive digital humans from the consumer perspective. Then, Study 2 develops a conceptual model of the effect of brand-exclusive digital humans on brand intimacy and tests the model using structural equation modeling. The results show that physical attractiveness, image congruence and perceived expertise of brand-exclusive digital humans affect brand-digital human connections. Perceived human-likeness and brand-digital human connections promote brand anthropomorphic perception and ultimately increase consumer-brand intimacy. This study extends research on digital humans, brand anthropomorphism and brand intimacy, and provides guidance for companies to create exclusive brand digital humans.

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我是“肯德基”：品牌专属数字人如何影响品牌亲密度

数字人在社交媒体营销中的商业价值已得到广泛认可。因此，许多公司开始创造自己的品牌专属数字人。然而，现有文献主要关注第三方虚拟网红的影响。为了填补这一空白，研究1a和研究1b首先分别采用网络摄影和深度访谈，从消费者的角度获得品牌专属数字人的见解。然后，研究2建立了品牌专属数字人对品牌亲密度影响的概念模型，并使用结构方程模型对模型进行了检验。结果表明，品牌专属数字人的身体吸引力、形象一致性和感知专业知识影响品牌-数字人际关系。感知到的人的相似性和品牌数字化的人际关系促进了品牌的拟人化感知，最终增加了消费者与品牌的亲密度。本研究对数字人、品牌拟人化和品牌亲密度的研究进行了延伸，为企业打造专属品牌数字人提供指导。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Business Research BUSINESS-

CiteScore

20.30

自引率

10.60%

发文量

956

期刊介绍： The Journal of Business Research aims to publish research that is rigorous, relevant, and potentially impactful. It examines a wide variety of business decision contexts, processes, and activities, developing insights that are meaningful for theory, practice, and/or society at large. The research is intended to generate meaningful debates in academia and practice, that are thought provoking and have the potential to make a difference to conceptual thinking and/or practice. The Journal is published for a broad range of stakeholders, including scholars, researchers, executives, and policy makers. It aids the application of its research to practical situations and theoretical findings to the reality of the business world as well as to society. The Journal is abstracted and indexed in several databases, including Social Sciences Citation Index, ANBAR, Current Contents, Management Contents, Management Literature in Brief, PsycINFO, Information Service, RePEc, Academic Journal Guide, ABI/Inform, INSPEC, etc.