Title: It’s Nice to See a Familiar Face: Consumers’ Response to Anthropomorphized New Products"

Speaker: Lan Jiang, Assistant Professor, Marketing Lundquist College of Business,

University of Oregon

Time: 1:30-3:00pm, Sep.7, 2011

Location: Room 217, New Building of GSM, Peking University.

abstract:

This paper presents four studies to examine consumers’ ratings and adoption intentions of anthropomorphized new products. We show that anthropomorphic presentation increases consumers’ liking and adoption intention of products entailing high level of uncertainty but not those low in uncertainty. We argue and find that the perceived familiarity generated by anthropomorphism underlies its positive effects. In addition, we identify the nature of the product usage as a moderator of the outcomes. When normal product usage violates interpersonal norms of human behaviour, the positive effects of anthropomorphism can be lost or even reversed.

Welcome to attend!