The Effects of Anthropomorphized Brand Relationships and Power-distance on Consumers’Brand Preference

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责任编辑：林英泽

（1.School of Economics and Management，Tsinghua University，Beijing 100084，China；2.School of Management, Minzu

University of China，Beijing 100081，China；3.Business School，Renmin University，Beijing 100872，China） Abstract：With the development of we-media and social media，more and more brands employ anthropomorphized commu⁃ nication style to communicate with consumers. On the one hand，the anthropomorphized language of brand in advertisement usual⁃ ly implies the different relationship between brand and consumers，which can be divided as the type of partner and servant；on the other hand，consumers’different personality and peculiarity leads to the different preference to different relationship. With the help of one pre-test and three formal tests，the authors carry out studies on the interaction effect of anthropomorphized brand rela⁃ tionship and power-distance believe on consumers’brand preference. It is found that：first，when consumers’power-distance be⁃ liefs are low，brand preference to partner brand is higher than that to servant brand，and when consumers’power-distance beliefs are high，this effect is attenuated；and second，consumers’perceived appropriateness of communication style mediates the inter⁃ action effects of anthropomorphized brand relationships with consumers and power-distance beliefs on brand preference. In mar⁃ keting communication activities，the enterprises should adopt different anthropomorphized language that can express different re⁃ lationship according to the different level of power-distance believe of different group of people or region to improve consumers’ perceived appropriateness of communication，which will in turn enhance consumers’brand preference.

Key words：anthropomorphized brands；brand relationship type；power-distance belief；perceived appropriateness of communi⁃