Brands as Intentional Agents Framework: How Perceived Intentions and Ability Can Map Brand Perception

By Nicolas Kervyn, Susan T. Fiske, Chris Malone. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2012

654 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Building on the Stereotype Content Model, this paper introduces and tests the Brands as Intentional Agents Framework. A growing body of research suggests that consumers have relationships with brands that resemble relations between people. We propose that consumers perceive brands in the same way they perceive people. This approach allows us to explore how social perception theories and processes can predict brand purchase interest and loyalty. Brands as Intentional Agents Framework is based on a well-established social perception approach: the Stereotype Content Model. Two studies support the Brands as Intentional Agents Framework prediction that consumers assess a brand’s perceived intentions and ability and that these perceptions elicit distinct emotions and drive differential brand behaviors. The research shows that human social interaction relationships translate to consumer-brand interactions in ways that are useful to inform brand positioning and brand communications.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Marketing, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4607c1d36500e381381af46de3662f6255bed008

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Marketing

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

The influence of perceived credibility on purchase intention via competence and authenticity (2020, background): “For example, Kervyn et al. (2012) demonstrated that high-competence brands generate a higher consumer purchase intention than low-competence brands.”
Disentangling the Differential Roles of Warmth and Competence Judgments in Customer-Service Provider Relationships (2020, methodology): “Table 1 shows that of the few marketing studies examining potential mediators of warmth and competence, most examine the role of emotional reactions like contempt, admiration, envy, and pity (Kervyn, Fiske, and Malone 2012).”
You’re so lovable: Anthropomorphism and brand love (2014, background): “…with the technology and anger towards the people who produced the technology, but the common experience of being angry with the computer itself requires some anthropomorphic thinking in which the computer is an ‘intentional agent’ (Kervyn et al, 2012) deserving our wrath (Ortony et al, 1988).”
Consumer responses to functional, aesthetic and symbolic product design in online reviews (2017, background): “Kervyn, Fiske, and Malone (2012) find a link between functionality and consumer emotions; similarly Norman (2004) emphasizes the importance of product intuitiveness and usability for emotional response and offers examples of products that fail to meet these objectives because of inattention to…”
No Small Matter: How Company Size Affects Consumer Expectations and Evaluations (2019, background): “While past research has identified and delineated the content of consumers’ expectations for different types of companies (Aaker et al. 2010; Kervyn et al. 2012), our research explains why consumers develop these expectations and explores how consumers respond when these expectations are violated.”