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Communicating brand biographies effectively: the role of communication source

  • Original Empirical Research
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Abstract

Although brands increasingly disseminate their brand biographies through brand sources, this research shows that this practice can decrease brand attitudes and consumer preferences. A brand source activates consumers’ persuasion knowledge, increasing negative thoughts and impeding narrative transportation into the brand biography. This research furthermore demonstrates that the negative impact of a brand source in the dissemination of brand biographies depends on self-congruence, such that a detrimental effect on consumer attitudes and preferences occurs when the brand biography is incongruent with consumer’s self-concept, but is mitigated when the brand biography is self-congruent. These findings suggest that the dissemination of brand biographies by brand sources requires consideration of source and congruence effects.

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Correspondence to Ali Tezer.

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Dipayan Biswas served as Area Editor for this article.

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Appendices

Appendix 1

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Appendix 2

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Appendix 3

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Product description (Study 3)

figure d

Sample choice task (Study 3)

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Appendix 4

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Product description (Study 4)

figure g

Sample choice task (Study 4)

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Tezer, A., Bodur, H.O. & Grohmann, B. Communicating brand biographies effectively: the role of communication source. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 48, 712–733 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-019-00689-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-019-00689-z

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