Are you talking to me?: Product anthropomorphized messaging and persuasion

Purpose This research applies perceived interestingness and psychological closeness as the basis to investigate how consumers respond to product advertisements featuring anthropomorphized messages that differ in interactional style, while also identifying salient personal factors that may moderate these effects. Design/methodology/approach Three between-subjects experiments were conducted. Study 1 examined the persuasive impact of product anthropomorphized messaging, with effectiveness indicated by more favorable product perceptions. Studies 2 and 3 tested how variations in message style, operationalized as interaction-oriented vs. non-interaction-oriented formats through the use of questions and dialogue respectively, influence consumer responses depending on individual levels of psychological reactance. Perceived interestingness and psychological closeness are assessed as mediators for all studies. Findings Results show the power of product anthropomorphized messaging in persuasion. Consumers tend to perceive anthropomorphized messaging as interesting and experience psychological closeness towards the advocated product, driving evaluation. Furthermore, anthropomorphized messaging framed in question or dialogue terms (interaction-oriented communication) is more persuasive than non-question or non-dialogue variants (non-interaction-oriented communication) respectively, for those apt to demonstrate psychological reactance to promotional messages. The same patterns are not evident for low-reactance individuals. Originality/value This paper contributes to understanding the influence on persuasion of product anthropomorphized messaging, with important applications to promotional messaging strategies.