The effect of a green brand story on perceived brand authenticity and brand trust: the role of narrative rhetoric
- PDF / 937,419 Bytes
- 17 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 27 Downloads / 230 Views
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The effect of a green brand story on perceived brand authenticity and brand trust: the role of narrative rhetoric Chaohua Huang1 · Rui Guo1 Revised: 21 February 2020 / Accepted: 10 October 2020 © Springer Nature Limited 2020
Abstract This study aims to empirically investigate the influence of a green brand story strategy on perceived brand authenticity (PBA) and brand trust. The theory of narrative rhetoric is adopted to examine the effect of three rhetorical strategies—anthropomorphism, reversal, and symbolism—on narrative immersion and its effect on PBA. The impact of PBA on brand trust is also examined. The study proposes a research model and conducts two independent online experiments with the aid of a survey research company to observe participant response to stories written with or without the rhetorical strategies. Data collected via the post-experimental survey are used to test the proposed model. Results show that the green brand story with narrative rhetoric positively affects immersion, which in turn enhances PBA, and brand trust is also positively affected. In particular, reversal and symbolism positively impact immersion, but no significant effect is identified between anthropomorphism and immersion. This study provides a new perspective from which the relationships among brand storytelling, PBA, and brand trust may be explored. Keywords Green brand story · Immersion · Perceived brand authenticity · Rhetorical strategies · Brand trust
Introduction The academic research related to corporate branding has recently focused on the concept of a brand story (Janssen et al. 2012). As opposed to advertising, which is designed to promote sales in the short run, a brand story refers to true brand content that can affect consumers’ perceptions and build long-term consumer relationships and trust (Hollebeek and Macky 2019). Studies show that a good brand story can serve as a critical marketing strategy through which differentiation may be achieved (Ryu et al. 2019). It can also function as a medium through which consumers can understand, communicate, and emotionally connect with a brand (Woodside 2010; Escalas 2007). The cognitive and emotional connection is mainly drawn from immersion in a well-designed plot (Laurence and Valentina 2019). Immersion can prompt narrative persuasion, elicit an attitude change consistent with the story, and promote the perception of brand authenticity * Rui Guo [email protected] 1
Department of Business Administration, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), 388 Lumo Rd., Hongshan District, Wuhan, China
(Warren forthcoming; Petraglia 2009; Richardson 2013; Wissmath et al. 2009). Brand authenticity ensures the protection of a brand’s heritage and has the potential to yield performance values, thus facilitating higher levels of brand credibility, consumer trust, and willingness to pay (Leigh et al. 2006; Portal et al. 2019; Napoli et al. 2014). Therefore, authenticity has been employed by marketers as a critical strategy in the tourism and hospitality industri
Data Loading...
