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

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.