Human-like underdog brands: How brand personality affects self-service technology adoption

This research explored the effects of service delivery types (conventional face-to-face service vs. self-service technologies; SSTs) and brand personality (underdog brand vs. top-dog brand) on consumers’ brand attitudes. Study 1 revealed that consumers perceived more anthropomorphic features in underdog brands than in top-dog brands (Hypothesis 1). The anthropomorphic brand personality of an underdog affected consumers’ preferences for service type. The results of Study 2 indicated that consumers preferred face-to-face service to SSTs for underdog brands (Hypothesis 2). The underlying mechanism to explain this phenomenon was revealed by the perceived increased discomfort when using SSTs (Hypothesis 3). These findings offer practical implications for marketing managers in deciding when brand personality should be considered when adopting a new service type.