Cuteness Or Coolness

An important concept in environmental protection behavior is green consumption,and more and more attention has been paid to the study of anthropomorphism in green consumption.However,previous studies focused on the effect of personification of green consumption beneficiaries(such as nature and earth)on promoting green post-purchase behaviors like recycling and energy saving,while few researches had examined the impact of anthropomorphic green products/brands on promoting green consumption,especially green product purchase.At the same time,previous studies mainly focused on comparing the different impact of the "presence" VS."absence" of anthropomorphized messenger on green consumption,while researches on the effect of different types of anthropomorphic image were very limited.As green products are produced by enterprises,consumers' willingness to buy green products will obviously be affected by the enterprises' brand images.In fact,in the field of brand marketing,anthropomorphic image is also an important factor affecting the effect of brand's marketing communication.So,what kind of anthropomorphic brand image is better in the context of promoting green product? What is the mechanism of this effect? What are the possible boundaries of this effect? These are the questions to be discussed in this research.Based on the related theories and previous research on "cuteness" and "coolness",current research focused on the matching effect of advertising appeal and anthropomorphic brand image and its influence on green product purchase.Also,current research tried to explore the underlying mechanisms of this influence.Three experiments were designed to test the hypothesis of this research.The results of experiment 1 indicated that anthropomorphic brand image and advertising appeal had a joint effect on green product purchase intention.Experiment 2 used different stimuli to replicate the results of experiment 1.The experimental results of experiment 2 replicated the findings in experiment 1.Again,the experimental results showed that advertising appeal and anthropomorphic brand image had a joint effect on green product purchase intention.And this joint influence was mediated by two different kinds of brand trust.In particular,when consumers are exposed to self-interest advertising appeal,the "cool" anthropomorphic brand image(VS." cute ")can lead to a higher brand capacity trust,and then consumer would have higher product purchase intention.For consumers exposed to altruistic advertising appeal,the “cute” anthropomorphic brand image(VS."cool")can lead to higher brand goodwill trust,which can lead to higher willingness to buy green products.Experiment 3 used different stimuli and replicated the results of experiment 2 and experiment 1,increasing the robustness of the findings of experiment 2 and experiment 1.In terms of theoretical implications,this study analyzed the role of different types of anthropomorphic brand images and advertising appeals in the context of green product purchase,and offered some new insights to the research on anthropomorphic brand images in the context of green consumption and the relationship between brand elements and green consumption.At the same time,the conclusion of this study also provided corresponding enlightenment for the practice of enterprises' green marketing.