Signaling Warmth: How Brand Warmth and Symbolism Affect Online Brand Endorsements of Non- and For-Profits (TOP PAPER)

• In Event: Advances in Advertising Research (TOP PAPER ENTRY)

Abstract

Brands often seek endorsements by consumers on social media (e.g., likes on Facebook). But what drives consumers to make online endorsements? This research investigates in four experiments the processes that underlie consumers’ intention to endorse brands on social media. We suggest that consumers aim to signal their identity by endorsing brands online. Based on the Brands as Intentional Agents Framework and related research in (social) cognition and consumer behavior, we argue that consumers on social media primarily want to emphasize their warmth rather than their competence. Experiments 1 and 2 distinguish between nonprofit and for-profit brands and show that brand warmth (and not competence) mediates the effect of brand type (nonprofit vs. for-profit) on consumers’ intentions to endorse brands on social media. Experiment 3 demonstrates that this process is moderated by brand symbolism (moderated mediation). A high level of brand symbolism increases the positive effect of warmth on consumers’ intention to endorse brands online, but only for for-profit brands. The final experiment shows that these effects are conditional upon the public vs. private distinction in consumer behavior: consumers prefer to publicly affiliate with nonprofit (vs. for-profit) brands but with regard to private affiliations, there is no difference between both types of brands.

Author

• Stefan F. Bernritter, Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam