Marc Helbling

Consumer Brand Perception through Social Media

A study on the Influences of Brand Perception on Generation Y

Pro gradu-avhandling i Internationell Marknadsföring

Handledare: Dr. Nikolina Koporcic
Handledare 2: Dr. Maria Ivanova-Gongne
Fakultet för samhällsvetenskaper och ekonomi
Åbo Akademi
 Åbo 2018

ÅBO AKADEMI ABSTRACT OF THE

FAKULTET FÖR SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAPER OCH EKONOMI MASTER’S THESIS

Author: Marc Helbling (mhelblin@abo.fi)

Title: Consumer Brand Perception through Social Media: A study on the Influences of
Brand Perception on Generation Y
Date: 13.08.2018
Language: English
Supervisor: Dr. Nikolina Koporcic
2nd Supervisor: Dr. Maria Ivanova-Gongne

With the increasing popularity of social media, the concept has gained increasing focus
as a platform for branding strategies. To address the efficiency and the power of
influence of social media branding over more traditional methods, we will investigate
its effect on the brand perception among Generation Y.

We created an online survey which we tailored after the literature review. In total, we
gathered 52 valid responses from participants located in Scandinavia and analyzed the
data with the help of SPSS. We found that there is a positive correlation between the
participant’s brand perception and social media activity. Among all the investigated
brand perception elements, this correlation was most strongly pronounced regarding
the partner quality and dependence, nostalgic attachment, and intimacy.

Keywords: Digital Branding, Social Media, Anthropomorphism, Consumer Behaviour,

Brand Perception, Brand Attitude

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 7

1.1 Background ........................................................................................................ 7

1.2 Problem Discussion ............................................................................................ 8

1.3 Research Questions and Purpose ........................................................................ 9

1.4 Structure of the Thesis ...................................................................................... 10

1.5 Delimitations .................................................................................................... 12

1.6 Contribution...................................................................................................... 12

1.7 Thesaurus .......................................................................................................... 12

2. Theoretical Framework ........................................................................................... 14

2.1 Consumer Brand Perception .................................................................................. 14

2.1.1 Psychological processes of consumer brand perception ................................ 15

2.2 Influencing Brand Perception through Social Media ............................................ 24

2.2.1 Leveraging brand perception.......................................................................... 26

3. Hypotheses .............................................................................................................. 41

4. Methodology ........................................................................................................... 43

4.1 Research approach ................................................................................................. 43

4.2 Data Collection ...................................................................................................... 43

4.3 Research design ..................................................................................................... 44

4.4 Research Method ................................................................................................... 45

4.5 Sampling ................................................................................................................ 46

4.6 Trustworthiness of the Study ................................................................................. 47

4.7 Summary ............................................................................................................... 47

5. Empirical Findings and Data Analysis .................................................................... 49

5.1 Data Extraction and Cleansing .............................................................................. 49

5.2 Demographic Data ................................................................................................. 49

5.3 Social Media following of favorite brands ............................................................ 51

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 5.4 Variable Analysis .................................................................................................. 52

5.4.1 Social Media Activity .................................................................................... 52

5.4.2 Partner Quality and Dependence .................................................................... 53

5.4.3 Nostalgic Attachment ..................................................................................... 54

5.4.4 Intimacy.......................................................................................................... 55

5.4.5 Brand Loyalty and Brand Equity ................................................................... 56

5.4.6 Brand Love and Brand Affect ........................................................................ 57

5.4.7 Brand Attitude and Brand Perception ............................................................ 58

5.4.8 Anthropomorphism ........................................................................................ 61

5.5 Hypotheses Test .................................................................................................... 63

5.6 Summary ............................................................................................................... 71

6. Conclusions ............................................................................................................. 73

6.1 General Conclusion ............................................................................................... 73

6.2 Discussion ............................................................................................................. 73

6.2.1 Opportunities of Social Media ....................................................................... 75

6.2.2 Challenges of Social Media ........................................................................... 76

6.3 Theoretical Implications ........................................................................................ 77

6.4 Practical implications ............................................................................................ 77

6.5 Limitations............................................................................................................. 78

6.6 Suggestions for further research ............................................................................ 79

7. Svensk Sammanfattning .......................................................................................... 80

8. References ............................................................................................................... 86

9. Appendix ............................................................................................................... 103

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Social media activity .......................................................................................... 53

Table 2 Partner Quality ................................................................................................... 54
Table 3 Dependence ........................................................................................................ 54
Table 4 Nostalgic Attachment......................................................................................... 55
Table 5 Intimacy ............................................................................................................. 55
Table 6 Brand Loyalty .................................................................................................... 56
Table 7 Brand Equity ...................................................................................................... 57
Table 8 Brand Love and Brand Affect ............................................................................ 58
Table 9 Brand Attitude .................................................................................................... 59
Table 10 Brand Awareness ............................................................................................. 59
Table 11 Functional Brand Perception ............................................................................ 60
Table 12 Hedonistic Brand Perception ........................................................................... 60
Table 13 Human physiognomy and lineaments .............................................................. 61
Table 14 Self-Brand Congruity ....................................................................................... 62
Table 15 Social Self ........................................................................................................ 62
Table 16 Item variables overview ................................................................................... 64
Table 17 Coefficients dependent on the Social Media Activity ..................................... 65
Table 18 ANOVA Analysis for Social Media Activity .................................................. 65
Table 19 Regression Model Summary for Social Media Activity .................................. 66
Table 20 Pearson’s Correlation Variables....................................................................... 67
Table 21 Coefficients dependent on anthropomorphism ................................................ 70
Table 22 ANOVA Analysis for Anthropomorphism ...................................................... 70
Table 23 Regression Model Summary for Anthropomorphism ...................................... 71
Table 24 Hypotheses Test Summary .............................................................................. 71

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Brand related consumer psychology (Schmitt, 2012)....................................... 29

Figure 2 Deep brand relationship model, adapted from Loureiro (2013) ....................... 33
Figure 3 Age distribution ................................................................................................ 50
Figure 4 Countries of the Participants ............................................................................. 51
Figure 5 Social Media vs. Partner Quality and Dependence .......................................... 68

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Figure 6 Social Media vs. Nostalgic Attachment............................................................ 69
Figure 7 Social Media vs. Intimacy ................................................................................ 69

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1. Introduction

1.1 Background
The consumer brand perception is an essential element of brand equity, which makes it a
crucial part of nearly any marketing strategy. By being able to understand the concepts
and psychological elements that are involved in how social media can impact brand
perception and brand attitude, we can utilize and optimize the underlying cognitive
mechanisms more efficiently, and increase, modify, and leverage the perception of a
brand in the eyes of the consumer.

The topic of brand perception itself is extensive and contains a vast amount of related
research and elements such as brand knowledge (Von Wallpach & Kreuzer, 2013),
memory structures (Ng & Houston, 2009), associations (Romaniuk & Nenycz-Thiel,
2013), involvement (Piong, 2015), suggestiveness (Sen, 1999), typicality (Goedertier,
Dawar, Geuens, & Weijters, 2015), attachment (Cheng, Luo, Yen, & Yang, 2016),
congruence (Vermeir, Kazakova, Tessitore, Cauberghe, & Slabbinck, 2014) and many
more.

Research has found that social media branding can have a direct positive impact on the
perceived brand equity and brand image (Tsai & Men, 2013; Godey, et al., 2016).
However, there seems to be an informational gap when it comes to better, more condensed
sources of information with a more specific focus on the context of social media in
combination with brand perception. In recent years, such information has become
increasingly important due to the massive transformation that has taken place in the global
markets (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). It represents a research gap that offers a remaining
demand for empirical data (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016; Hudson, Huang, Roth, &
Madden, 2016) which the thesis aims contribute towards and support.

Today, the average consumer and people in general, tend to spend an extensive part of
their time on social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and
others. Not only is this applying to leisure and entertainment activities, but it also includes
the execution of consumption-related actions (Ashley & Tuten, 2015). We see social
media as an increasingly frequent replacement of more traditional media, which is
reinforced by the fact that an increasing number of consumers are migrating away from
traditional media formats such as radio, television, and magazines (Mangold & Faulds,

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2009). The result of this migration is so impactful that it led to the outcome of social
media being rated as a more trustworthy information source than traditional media by the
consumer (Foux, 2006).

As most of us know from their own experience, nearly every person, especially those of
the more recent generations (such as Generation Y) are frequenting at least one of the
many available social media networks such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram,
and others. Most importantly social media networks have altered the way consumers
behave and relate towards brands since they provided a transformation from the more
traditional one-way communication to a multidimensional matrix model (Berthon, Pitt,
& Campbell, 2008).

Companies are no longer in sole control of brand communication and observe an increase
in complexity (Li & Bernoff, 2011). Additionally, and most importantly, in social media
environments, brands are used as a significant part of the consumer’s self-identification
process (Hollenbeck & Kaikati, 2012), which provides the unique possibility for brands
to deepen their relationships with the consumer, in a way that was not possible in the past
(Sashittal, Hodis, & Sriramachandramurthy, 2014). It opens a whole new world of
possibilities in the context of brand behaviors and motivators.

1.2 Problem Discussion

With the increasing popularity of social media, we can observe increasing importance of
the use of social media as a branding tool, but there is a finite volume of information and
data available (Algharabat, 2017). Research from various sources indicates that there is a
significant chunk of potential for an improvement in branding if we utilize it in
combination with social media (Kim & Ko, 2012; De Vries, Gensler, & Leeflang, 2012).
Not only have multiple studies confirmed this indication, but they found that there is a
direct correlation between an increase in brand perception and the exposure of brand
content on social media (Gao & Feng, 2016). Nevertheless, most of the academic research
papers do not specifically aid the managerial perspective of the relationship between
social media and the general impact on more traditional elements of brand perception.

While there is a certain amount of research available that highlights the impact of social
media on the consumer brand perception, it may be difficult to isolate a clear picture from
the various research papers. Most of the theory related to brand perception has its basis
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in cognitive psychology and memory structures (Keller, 1993; Aaker, 1991), which is an
extensive and relatively complicated topic. Therefore, we aim to identify and summarize
the fundamental constructs which connect the leveraging factors of brand perception with
social media networks and allow for an integration of concepts that are linked to consumer
psychology. This form of content is currently difficult to come by, which reinforces the
usefulness of such an aim.

Based on the observations from the previously discussed research, we can conclude that
social media have shown themselves repeatedly to be a valuable part of branding, if used
appropriately. Most of the strengths that originate from the social media element are based
on the global influence and the broad exposure that includes nearly all types of consumers.
This is connected to the increasing global availability of internet access, which is
highlighting the need for a source of condensed and useful information. (Schivinski &
Dabrowski, 2016)

Commonly, the increased information flow that is enabled between brands and the
consumers leads to an expansion of trust which, in turn, creates a connection to the social
exchange theory (Roloff, 1981). The social exchange theory has its roots in sociology and
psychology and postulates that inter-human relationships are built on the grounds of a
subjective cost-benefit analysis (Lambe, Wittmann, & Spekman, 2001). If we consider
this, it is not surprising that social media networks have an increase in the potential for
success over traditional one-way communication when it comes to branding and
marketing with their consumers (Colliander & Dalhén, 2011).

The problem which this thesis aims to solve is related to the problematic dilution and
spread of data, and contribute towards the empirical data, research, and literature within
the combined field of social media and consumer brand perception. Without knowing
how the influencing factors of brand perception on social media function, it remains an
undervalued concept in the eyes of many brand managers that do not fully grasp the
indirect implications (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016).

1.3 Research Questions and Purpose

The purpose of this thesis is to understand the possible influences of social media activity
and marketing strategies on the consumer brand perception of Generation Y, and the
underlying mechanisms that act most strongly on the consumer's perception. This
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includes the psychological background concepts that are involved in the cognitive
processes, to create a better understanding of the underlying functions of consumer
behavior control through social media interactions and content. Therefore, we have
designed three separate research questions that we aim to answer with the content of this
thesis.

RQ1: Which psychological background concepts influence consumer brand perception

most efficiently?

RQ2: What are the specific potentials and limitations of social media influences on
brand perception?

RQ3: How can an organization utilize psychological tools in social media to increase
their brand perception?

The concepts that are discussed in theory are not limited to a single social media
platform. Instead, they explore the general picture of social media activity. Due to the
wide variety of different platforms and their individual properties, it is crucial to
understand what platforms are most useful for which type of strategy and consumer type
before engaging in a practical implementation. Since we do not have the resources to
cover all the individual cases we decided to take a more general approach.

Furthermore, many of the elements that are explored in the thesis can also be applied to
more traditional non-digital branding channels, making this thesis a useful source of
information even if social media are not the reader’s center of attention.

1.4 Structure of the Thesis

This thesis progresses as follows: It commences the discussion of the theory and research
that has been completed to date in marketing regarding the combination of social media
and the leveraging of brand perception, its particularities, and the psychological
background concepts that are involved in them and how the consumer’s mind is working
and most efficiently targeted. The thesis relies on extant research papers, literature, and
empirical data to derive the most impactful strategies and elements to leverage the
consumer’s brand perception with the help of social media.

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Subsequently, gathered survey data are presented and analyzed based on consumer’s
feedback about the extent of perception, behavior, connection, and reflection of favorite
brands. The analysis of the data serves the purpose of identifying the most potent
leveraging strategies to increase the consumer’s brand perception with the help of social
media and isolate the underlying elements that support and lead to a strong positive
perception of each participant's favorite brands. In the conclusion, we discuss the findings
and compare them to the theoretical framework and empirical data from third party
sources. Last follows a discussion of the limitations and possibilities for further research,
and a summary of the thesis.

Chapter two provides an elemental overview of the current state of research and theory
that is available to us through journals and other forms of literature. Therefore, our focus
will lie heavily on theories that form the underlying foundation of the conducted research.
These theories consist of psychological processes of consumer brand perception
(anthropomorphism, cognitive fluency and consistency, moods and emotions, automatic
behavioral priming), and the elements that are applicable to leverage brand perception
through social media and traditional media (brand categorization, brand association, inter-
brand relations, multisensory perception, brand affect and brand love, brand participation,
brand concept, brand personality, brand relationships, brands as informational cues,
brands as identity signals, brand symbolism, brand attitude, brand attachment, and brand
community).

In chapter three, we will form our hypothesis which is followed by chapter four that
addresses the methodology and describes how we addressed the empirical research. This
chapter will also contain further details on the execution of the data collection through a
quantitative survey process and the descriptive research design. Our target demographic
regarding data acquisition were consumers in the age range of 20-30 years that belong to
Generation Y and are mostly located in Scandinavia. The participants were recruited with
the help of a convenience sampling.

Chapter five contains the empirical findings and data analysis, which is exclusively
conducted with the help of SPSS version 25 and MS Excel version 1806. In chapter six
we present our findings, the conclusions, and a discussion of the gathered data. The last
chapter number seven contains a summary of the thesis.

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1.5 Delimitations
There are several limitations regarding the execution of the empirical research and the
content of this thesis. There were no monetary resources available to support the research
and the timeframe for the execution was limited, which is also reflected in the number of
participants and size of dataset that we were able to acquire. We had to rely on
convenience sampling which has many downsides regarding accuracy and forces us to
depend on a limited generalization regarding data interpretation. It is therefore essential
to keep in mind that our findings and data are not generalizable. They serve merely as a
guide for possible outcomes. We just did not have the needed resources to conduct an
extensive amount of research. Furthermore, the number of existing research papers that
are relevant for this thesis is limited, which complicates the acquisition of secondary data
to support or contradict our findings.

1.6 Contribution
This thesis contributes to the relevant knowledge of the topics of brand perception and
the effects of social media on the brand perception of Generation Y. It explores not only
the final effects but also the underlying psychological concepts and expands on the most
effective strategies to leverage a consumer’s perception of a brand. The content and
findings are most beneficial to organizations and corporations that aim to understand the
mind of the consumer better and increase the perception strength of their brand.

Based on the data and findings, it is made simpler for brands to understand which tools
should be utilized for different scenarios and how social media can be used as a useful
element in their individual branding strategy. Academic contributions are mainly covered
in terms of additional data and insight into the current state of research and knowledge
around the topic of social media and their impact on brand perception. There still remains
a knowledge gap regarding the thematic which this thesis aims to contribute towards.

1.7 Thesaurus
Anthropomorphism: the attribution of human characteristics to non-human objects.

Cognitive: relates to the mental processes that are involved with reasoning, perception,
and memory.

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Causality: refers to the cause and effect that links one process to another.

Generation Y: refers to the population born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s
(at the time of this thesis 20-30 years of age).

Homophily: the tendency of associating bonds with something that shares similar
properties to oneself.

Priming: the situational triggering of mental constructs.

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2. Theoretical Framework
The content of this chapter focuses on different concepts and theories, as well as existing
literature and journals that are concerned with the appropriate information and knowledge
that is relevant for this thesis. Furthermore, it will provide the necessary theoretical
background knowledge that is required for a sufficient understanding of the empirical
research which was conducted by us. Existing research will be discussed, summarized,
and evaluated to allow to establish the foundation of our own research which is built on
existing theories and papers. Besides the apparent topic of brand perception and social
media, we also want to provide an understanding of the broader underlying mechanisms
that are the working elements of consumer brand perception.

Firstly, we shall expand on the topic of consumer brand perception followed by the
psychological elements and mechanisms that are at play. This leads us to the influencing
of brand perception through social media and the different ways to efficiently leverage
the consumer’s brand perception. Together they build the framework and knowledge that
is required to understand the process and results of the conducted research.

2.1 Consumer Brand Perception

Consumer brand perception has its roots in the social perception theory (Shukla, Dos
Santos, Fong, & Lu, 2017) which investigates the formation of inferences and
impressions of personalities (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2010). Brand perception
concerns itself with how the brand is perceived by the consumer. It is very closely related
to brand attitude which reflects the consumer’s brand evaluation, containing brand related
beliefs, reactions, and relations (Olson & Mitchell, 1981; Murphy & Zajonc, 1993). Due
to the similarity of those two concepts, we can utilize many of the concepts from one for
the other. Additionally, brand attitude presents itself as a beneficial, contributing element
to the more profound understanding of the influencing factors on consumer brand
perception (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016).

Perception is a topic that is integral to the concept of consumer information processing

and throws light on how different branding stimuli are processed by the consumer
(Jansson-Boyd, 2010). Many of the influencing factors that impact a consumer’s
perception are rooted in unconscious processes, such as underlying psychological and
sociological elements (Jansson-Boyd, 2010), which we will investigate in further detail

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in chapter “2.1.1” Psychological processes of consumer brand perception. In today’s
digital environment we are given a wide array of new approaches to leverage the
consumer's perception compared to more traditional branding. While we are relying on
the same concepts and ideas that are and were employed through alternative channels,
certain considerations need to be made for successful and impactful implementations with
this new way of social media exposure.

To better understand how we can influence and leverage the consumer’s brand perception,
we must first gain a solid grasp on the psychological concepts and processes that are
working parts of the perception of a brand in the eyes of the consumer. In this chapter,
we will focus on some of the most significant ones, which does not imply that other
elements that are not covered here are irrelevant or less important. The topic by itself is
rather expansive and includes a wide array of psychological, sociological, and
neurological processes that cannot be covered to their fullest extent in the content of this
thesis. We merely aim to provide the knowledge needed to create an elemental
understanding of how the consumer perception can be influenced.

2.1.1 Psychological processes of consumer brand perception

The term psychology has a broad range of definitions but essentially boils down to the
factors that are affecting human behavior. Even though social media operates on a digital
level, consumer psychologists have identified a variety of different psychological
elements in action which perform as an influencing factor in the aspect of brand
perception (Laroche, Kim, & Zhou, 1996). While there is a wide selection of different
approaches, they tend to all boil down to a few core elements that can act as a trigger for
specific cognitive processes. We can observe many of these concepts in distinctive
elements of brand-related consumer psychology.

Consumer psychologists have connected most of the psychological processes at play to

the associative network theory. Associative networks are based on cognitive models that
rely on memory associations which originate from gathered experiences. This has a direct
influence on consumer processes, such as the choice, evaluation, and perception of a
brand (Keller, 1993). Nevertheless, there are a variety of other psychological theories in
action, such as the attachment theory that is based on the dynamics of interpersonal
relationships (Thomson, MacInnis, & Park, 2005; Bowlby, 2005), and many others.

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Aaker’s “Big Five” personality research (Aaker, 1997) is a prevalent example that
highlights the influence of psychology and personality on the consumer’s brand
perception.

Besides that, we commonly find research in the fields of embodied cognition theory
(Möller & Herm, 2013), social identity theory (White & Argo, 2009), and self-theory
(Lickel, Hamilton, & Sherman, 2001; John & Park, 2016) which has gained considerable
popularity in recent years, among several others (White & Argo, 2009; Lickel et al., 2001;
Murphy & Dweck, 2016; John & Park, 2016). The goal of this chapter is to provide a
better understanding of the underlying effects within a consumer’s mind and the
correlating cognitive processes. Generally, we can differentiate between three different
types of psychological elements that are involved in the psychological branding process,
cognitive elements, sensory elements, and affective elements (Jamaluddin, Hanafiah, &
Zulkifly, 2013).

Sensory elements have a critical impact on the cognitive mechanisms and are essential
due to the continuous information flow the human brain is exposed to, which in turn
requires behavioral responses (Mayhew, Hylands-White, Porcaro, Derbyshire, &
Bagshaw, 2013). Since a big part of the sensory elements are restricted to the impact of
the physical environment on the senses, it is of limited usefulness in the context of social
media. Cognitive elements are relating to mental structures, or in other words, they cover
the field of thinking, believes and information that a person uses to process stimuli (Peter
& Olson, 2005). This is one of our primary interests due to its potential usefulness in the
context of social media. So are the affective elements, which envelop the area of emotions
and feelings (Peter & Olson, 2005).

One of the most common psychological concepts that are frequently utilized and nearly
impossible to not come by when we talk about the topic of brand perception is
anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism refers to the perception of non-human objects or
elements as humanlike entities, due to an association with human attributes and
characteristics (Guido & Peluso, 2015; Epley, Waytz, & Cacioppo, 2007). It is a
conventional approach in the field of brand psychology to take advantage of the aspects
of the imprinted cognitive information processing in humans to increase the perception
of desired aspects. We will explore this concept in detail in one of the next subsections.

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To gain an even deeper insight into the topic of psychological processes and brain activity
regarding branding, we recommend the reading of neurological research that utilizes
neuroimaging such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and others. These
technologies are essential to investigate the activity of specific brain regions and
corresponding stimuli (Al-Kwifi, 2016). A large part of neuroscience research in the field
of branding is concerned with choice environments and pricing schemes that are
influenced by the orbitofrontal cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (Chib, Rangel,
Shimojo, & O'Doherty, 2009; Plassmann, O'Doherty, & Rangel, 2007), neurological
processes in the anterior insula and medial prefrontal cortex. These brain regions have
shown to be actively involved in complex decision making during initial assessments of
a product (Tusche, Bode, & Haynes, 2010).

These findings have shown and confirmed the theory, that a significant percentage of
brand perception and purchasing decisions are occurring automatically without the direct
awareness of the consumer (Tusche et al., 2010). This knowledge and findings serve as
supportive evidence for the described psychological theories in this thesis. There is a wide
range of other neurological studies and research that explore many other concepts and
theories related to this topic. Neuroscience provides us with exciting and compelling facts
that lay beyond the basic psychological background, as long as the information is not
taken out of context. The knowledge and tools that belong to the field of neuroscience
have the power to improve the efficiency of branding and marketing strongly. It can
certainly be recommended to dive deeper into this topic if the information in this thesis is
not sufficiently detailed for the reader's purpose.

Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism proofs itself as a quite useful tool in the context of marketing and the
combination of brand perception and social media. Besides various processes, it entails
the association of humanlike characteristics and behaviors with objects, such as a brand
or product, which leads to an object humanization. One of such examples can be
commonly found in the automotive industry, where it is quite common to design cars with
certain visual appearances that are distinctively perceived as human (Guido & Peluso,
2015; Windhager, et al., 2010). While in the eyes of the consumer we do not see an

17
obvious application of anthropomorphism by many brands, it often takes effect in less
direct unconscious ways without being too visible to the consumer.

This example is supported by evidence from empirical research that has proven an
association of human facial features with the front view of cars (Windhager, et al., 2010).
There is a wide array of other areas where this effect comes into play, and we are not
restricted to purely physical elements. Even brand names themselves or mascots can
contribute anthropomorphic elements, such as is done by M&M’s or several cereal brands
that tend to have a character or figure associated with the brand (Guido & Peluso, 2015).
Most people have experienced at some point of their life firsthand the phenomenon of
brands which are associated with specific humanlike aspects, and the resulting
relationships that are formed with the brand or product by the consumers (Aaker, 1997;
Fournier, 1998).

Anthropomorphic perceptions tend to involve one of two processes which are not
mutually exclusive. One process involves the perceived similarities through the external
properties and physical attributes that are commonly associated with humanlike
morphology, such as facial elements and others. (Aggarwal & McGill, 2007; Epley et al.,
2007; Puzakova, Kwak, & Rocereto, 2009). The second process on the other hand, occurs
based on the congruity that exists between objects and the self-concept constructs of the
consumer (Fournier, Dobscha, & Mick, 1998; Aaker, Fournier, & Brasel, 2004), in other
words the consumer’s perception is influenced by the amount of self-reflection which the
consumers find, or wish to see as part of themselves in a product or brand, which in turn
leads to the desire of building a human-to-human like relationship (Belk, 1988; Escalas
& Bettman, 2005; Lam, Ahearne, Mullins, Hayati, & Schillewaert, 2013; Fournier S. ,
1998; Aaker et al., 2004).

Based on that theoretical foundation, brand anthropomorphism can be categorized as a

multidimensional construct (Guido & Peluso, 2015) which allows for the source of
interpersonal relationships with inanimate objects such as brands (Aggarwal & McGill,
2012; Fitzsimons, Chartrand, & Fitzsimons, 2008). Not only does anthropomorphism
support brand-to-consumer relationships, but it can lead to the formation of robust brand
communities that are built around the attachment of a specific brand and its humanlike
properties (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001). Many brands tend to strengthen this aspect through
a marketing approach that applies a “face” to the brand and establishes a direct first-

18
person communication, with the goal to further increase the associated human emotions
and anthropomorphism (Aggarwal & McGill, 2012).

Chandler and Schwarz (2010) have investigated a phenomenon regarding the willingness
to replace a product in the presence of anthropomorphistic preferences. While a brand in
this context is not directly identical to the subject of this study, there is proof that similar
processes occur in the context of brand perception (Levy, 1985; Plummer, 1985).
Nevertheless, research implies that there is a substantial variation based on the individual
characteristics and properties of a brand.

According to Epley, Waytz, and Cacioppo (2007) the more significant the number of
human-like traits in an object, the more likely it is to be associated in an
anthropomorphistic context. Therefore, due to the increased level of personal connection
between a brand and their consumer, which is made possible through social media, we
can assume that social media strongly supports this process and can help with an increase
of brand anthropomorphism (Epley et al., 2007; Aggarwal & McGill, 2012).
Unfortunately, up to date, there has been only a limited amount of research into this
specific area of anthropomorphism.

There are multiple paths we can take when it comes to the measuring of brand
anthropomorphism, as can be seen in the basis of previous research, such as the one of
Guido and Peluso (2015), Aggarwal and McGill (2007), Epley et al. (2007) and others.
One of the ways to further confirm and investigate the brand anthropomorphism
mechanisms is by the utilization of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) which
allows us to measure the different levels of neural activity of brain regions. While there
is an assumption that objects and persons are processed similarly in terms of neural
correlates, research has shown that the processing of descriptor judgements possesses a
stronger activation of the medial prefrontal cortex regions in the case of persons, and a
stronger activation of the left inferior prefrontal cortex for objects (Yoon, Gutchess,
Feinberg, & Polk, 2006).

We will investigate the variable of anthropomorphism closer as a part of our empirical

research in chapter “5.4.8”.

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Cognitive fluency and consistency

Cognitive fluency merely refers to the ease with which information is being able to be
processed. Based on the content of literature in the field of anthropomorphism, a common
phenomenon is the link between an increased urge of engagement in anthropomorphic
thought processes, when strong desires and interests towards the acquisition of a specific
brand or product are present, in combination with a lack of knowledge of how to do so
(Epley et al., 2007; Waytz, et al., 2010). This is commonly caused by relying on the
existing knowledge that was gathered so far, instead of searching for the lacking
knowledge that is needed. Since humans commonly possess strong knowledge in the field
of behavior, they fall back onto utilizing this knowledge, trying to understand a brand or
product, which leads to the earlier described anthropomorphic thought processes.

Humans tend to rely strongly on heuristics (methods of problem-solving which rely on

practical methods that are not optimal but sufficient for immediate results) when
approaching difficult questions without knowing how to solve them. The human mind
tends to answer a more accessible but related question in the same field instead
(Kahneman, 2011). This concept of substituting a lack of an answer, non-consciously
with a simpler questions answer can lead to an involuntary anthropomorphization. The
level to which a subject anthropomorphizes an object is directly related to the related
expertise and knowledge. In other words, anthropomorphism causes an increase in
cognitive fluency (Delbaere, McQuarrie, & Phillips, 2011).

A high level of cognitive fluency is also associated with a positive emotional feedback
for the individual, which leads to pleasant experience that is in turn associated with
anthropomorphic thinking, which creates a loop that encourages further thinking of that
form (Aggarwal & McGill, 2007; Belke, Leder, Strobach, & Carbon, 2010; Delbaere et
al., 2011). The concept of cognitive fluency further reinforces the usefulness of
anthropomorphic properties in the context of brand perception, may it be on social media
or otherwise.

The theory of cognitive consistency proposes that we as humans are driven by a

motivational factor, based on inconsistencies, and the desire to adjust and “fix” them.
Most theories surrounding brand perception evolve from the context of interpersonal
relationships (Batra, Ahuvia, & Bagozzi, 2012). Nevertheless, the perception on the level
of interpersonal feelings tends to scale with the humanity factor that is associated with an

20
object, due to the preference for cognitive consistency of the human mind (Festinger,
1957; Higgins, 1987; Awa & Nwuche, 2010; Crandall, Silvia, N’Gbala, Tsang, &
Dawson, 2007).

Regarding the consumer's mind, it is much preferred to process situations which are
coherently compatible with its individual attitudes. The more human we make an object
or in our case a brand, the more cognitive consistency we create, and the easier we make
it to generate a lead to anthropomorphic thinking, which in turn causes whatever is
thought about an object to be associated stronger with human feelings and characteristics
(Fehr & Russell, 1991). The significance of this is reflected in research cases such as the
one by Chandler and Schwarz (2010) that found that subjects who anthropomorphize
objects, in this case, cars, tend to treat the object better and keep ownership of it
significantly longer than subjects who did not fall under this category. This observation
of cognitive consistency correlates with interpersonal relations that are usually not a
default setting in person-to-object relations (Ahuvia & Rauschnabel, 2014).

A further relatable concept with strong anthropomorphic ties is homophily, which

represents an essential element of interpersonal relationships, to the extent of which a
brand is congruent with the consumer (McPherson, Smith-Lovin, & Cook, 2001; Sirgy,
1982). The more a brand matches the personality of a consumer the more attraction they
feel towards it. This represents a good example and reflection of how a strong self-
congruence in a brand can increase consumer attraction (Aaker, 1997; Malär, Krohmer,
Hoyer, & Nyffenegger, 2011).

Since the concept of homophily is perfectly mirrored in the approach of brand self-
congruity, we can see multiple possibilities for the application of interpersonal brand-to-
consumer relationships (Ahuvia & Rauschnabel, 2014). Since social media these days
often plays a significant part in the consumer's life to express the desired reflection of
themselves, the concept of homophily offers us an attractive opportunity of leverage
regarding the influencing of the consumer’s brand perception, especially in terms of
specialty products (Chuhay, 2010).

21
Moods and Emotions

Another essential cognitive element that can exert a significant impact is human moods
and emotions, which play an essential role in the field of cognitive associations.
Regarding branding and marketing, research has proven that moods are quite simple in
their creation, commonly with the help of advertising and storytelling (Wegener & Petty,
1994; Mitchell, 2000; Dillard, 2000). It was found that generated moods were perceived
as the strongest when they were delivered by means of video and stories (Westerman,
Spies, Stahl, & Hesse, 1996).

The influencing of moods, based on practical examples, seems to be strongly tied to

conditioning paradigms, such as the exposure to specific stimuli that lead to cognitive
associations (Turner, 2013). The impact of moods is observed primarily in terms of
information retrieval and memory functions (Teasdale & Russell, 1983). Social media
presents themselves as an ideal platform to conduct strategies such as emotional
advertising and storytelling due to the viral nature of the successful content, the broad
reach, easy targeting, and available media formats for distribution. While the concept
itself is not new, social media platforms offer a much more simple, direct, and cost-
effective way to conduct such actions.

One of such interesting examples is found in research which has shown that the receiving
of information in a positive mood or state, leads the consumer to perceive the information
with stronger positive associations than in a neutral or negative state (Isen, Shalker, Clark,
& Karp, 1978). This also works the other way around where a negative mood state leads
to a more negatively focused perception, due to encoding effects that are associated with
mood states (Bagozzi, Gopinath, & Nyer, 1999). An exciting aspect of this phenomenon
is that the cognitive information recall process is stronger when the conditions under
which the information was initially perceived are present again (Bower & Cohen, 1982).

A beneficial side effect that comes from a state of positive moods is the discovery by
Bohner et al. (1992), which found that the presence of a positive mood in consumers
reduces the willingness to scrutinize fed information due to a lack of motivation to
systematically process messages with persuasive intent. This reinforces previous findings
by Schwarz (1990) that a positive mood state creates a false sense of security while
negative mood states are associated with alertness. This leads us to the conclusion the that
a positive affective state has a strongly beneficial impact regarding branding and brand

22
perception. We see a potential for significant advantages if we can utilize social media
platforms and communities to establish a positive environment for the consumer and
therefore impact the long-term perception of a brand in the eyes of the consumers.

Automatic Behavioral Priming

Multiple research studies in the field of social psychology have highlighted the
importance that lays in priming, or in other words, the situational triggering of mental
constructs, proofing that they offer a powerful influence on the human behavior (Bargh,
Chen, & Burrows, 1996). Brand exposure has shown to trigger automatic behavioral
effects that are in direct correlation with the brand image (Fitzsimons et al., 2008). As an
example, consumers who are mostly exposed to low-end brand influences, prefer value
over prestige, which was the opposite of consumers with exposure to high-end brand
names (Chartrand, Huber, Shiv, & Tanner, 2008).

A similar pattern is observed commonly with social groups where an individual wants to
be associated as strongly as possible with a particular community or group (Bargh, Chen,
& Burrows, 1996). This triggering of social influence by stimuli such as brands, which
are non-human, is a relatively recent discovery, which is mostly explained by the
increasingly strong people-like perception that is generated by iconic brands, and the
anthropomorphization that comes with it (Aggarwal & McGill, 2012). As is the case with
many other psychological branding elements, automatic behavioral priming effects are
dependent on the level of anthropomorphization of a primed object.

As discussed earlier, the anthropomorphization opens the gates for social influences from
non-human objects, as long as the required conditions are met. Research by Fitzsimons,
Chartrand, and Fitzsimons (2008) suggests that the automatic behavior which is triggered
by brand exposure is based on motivational processes. Dijksterhuis and Bargh (2001) link
this to a predominant cognitive situation which leads to the conclusion, that priming has
a direct impact on behavior through a connection with behavior and perception that
follows the theory and principle of spreading activation. Spreading activation is a theory
from the field of cognitive psychology that relates to the ways the human brain works its
way through the nodes and connections of associated ideas, with the goal of obtaining
specific information (Anderson, 1983).

23
The idea behind the theory of Dijksterhuis and Bargh (2001) is that subjects have a desire
to obtain a characteristic or personality that is commonly associated with a particular
brand. The theory of Aggarwal and McGill (2012) expanded on this research and found
that an automatic behavior, preceding a subjects priming (exposure to a stimulus that
shows a direct unconscious impact on a subsequent stimulus) by a brand, is caused by a
motivation to be part of an interaction with an anthropomorphized brand. Not just the
element of association with a brand’s properties.

This approach is built on the work of Cesario, Plaks and Higgins (2006) who found a
direct correlation between the desire for social interaction and the priming which triggers
corresponding goals, which is related to a successful interaction. Based on the research
from Bargh, Chen and Burrows (1996) we are led to believe that a brand priming of a
consumer group is in direct correlation with the consumer's assimilation of the implied
behavior of a perceived brand image, in correlation with the individual social interaction
goals. It is important to notice that the individual behavioral responses of consumers can
result in a manifold of relationship types with a brand. This can go from a simple
commitment as a partner or friendship, up to the level of enslavement, as was found by
Fournier (1998).

2.2 Influencing Brand Perception through Social Media

Social media have altered how brands and consumers communicate with each other
(Nambisan & Baron, 2007). The increasingly dominating factors of social media and
online technology have caused a rising in the consumer’s online exposure and
networking, most significantly with the help of social media networks. Increasingly often
consumers are moving away from traditional media channels and utilize instead social
media networks and other online sources for the retrieval of information (Mangold &
Faulds, 2009; Bambauer-Sachse & Mangold, 2011). This is especially the case for
younger generations such as Generation Y. There are several ways to define social
networks on the internet, but the most common one is that social networks are a collection
of information sources which are consumed, shared, and created by the users (Chauhan
& Pillai, 2013). The influences which social media exerts on brand perception are
extensive but not limitless.

24
Firms have become increasingly aware of the importance of two-way communication
with their consumers (Li & Bernoff, 2011). Social media offers an attractive solution for
most companies since it allows for a direct and straightforward way to establish
relationships between the customers and an organizations brand, but it is not the one
magic solution for everything (Fournier, 1998; Fournier & Avery, 2011; Fournier et al.,
1998). Nevertheless, we can observe a massive boom in popularity of the medium
regarding marketing and branding. This can be explained by the viral aspect of
information spreading through the online medium, as well as the reach and other
advantages compared to traditional media channels (Li & Bernoff, 2011; Keller, 2009).
Most marketing managers aim for the utilization of social media for the communication
engagement with their customers to increase their knowledge about the consumers and
influence the consumer's perception (Brodie, Ilic, Juric, & Hollebeek, 2013).

Ideally, we would want to establish a win-win solution where the consumer and the brand
profits. This can be achieved by providing an increased state of satisfaction for the
consumer through an improved brand perception, while simultaneously benefitting from
the secondary effects, such as the elevated profitability that emerges from the generated
and increased brand loyalty (Hudson, Huang, Roth, & Madden, 2016). Furthermore, this
includes the migration and application of traditional strategies onto more modern
platforms such as social media and the extensive utilization of consumer-brand
connections.

One of the elements that make social media platforms unique in comparison to other
channels is user-generated communication. While it offers minimal control over the
communication and information that is created through this channel, it allows for an
accelerated communication between consumers (Duan, Gu, & Whinston, 2008), and the
formation and growth of strong brand communities (Gangadharbatla, 2008). One critical
disadvantage for a brand is that negative information or misinformation that is spread
with the help of social media and user-created content is difficult to stop once it starts
spreading.

User-generated content shares considerable similarities with a digital concept of word of

mouth, with the main difference that it is the consumers who create the information
(Smith, Fischer, & Yongjian, 2012). Nevertheless, we shall not forget about the
advantageous aspects, such as the generated insight in the mind of the consumer in

25
combination with the very low communication costs, and the free branding and
advertising that occurs through the brand-related user content (Krishnamurthy & Dou,
2008; Daugherty, Eastin, & Bright, 2008). Additionally, content that is created by other
consumers tends to be perceived as much more trustworthy, compared to more direct
channels such as the brand itself (Christodoulides, 2012).

Research has shown, that in the case of consumer-brand connections, the consumers
inadvertently associate their self-perceived characteristics and image onto brands that
they like (Escalas, 2004; Phau & Lau, 2001), which presents the possibility for companies
to target a specific demographic and associate itself with the desired image of its
customers. This has been reinforced by further research which investigated the
relationships of consumer-brand interactions that lead to connections and relationships
between the two entities. These relationships are comparable to regular inter-human
social connections such as friendship (Aaker, 1996). We can explain this through the
provided availability of dual channel communications such as ones offered through social
media platforms, which allows the interaction between brands and their customers to
strengthen the brand relationship. With the increased shift of social communication onto
social media platforms, brands are now served a variety of new possibilities.

There are several different elements utilizing brand and consumer psychology, that let us
impact a consumer’s brand perception directly through social media. We will have a
closer look at some of the most common ones, and their potentials and limitations in the
context of social media engagements. While most of these ways to influence the
consumer’s brand perception can benefit significantly from the symbiotic relationship
with social media platforms, they are not exclusive to the demand or usefulness for more
traditional or alternative branding channels. Generally talking, social media tends to act
as a supporting element in the branding strategy and commonly scales its power of
influence with the size of the userbase of the target demographic. The psychological
aspect of brand leverage that is exerted through social media is a complex construct, built
on a multitude of processes and perceptions.

2.2.1 Leveraging brand perception

Research suggests that the perception of a specific brand is closely connected to the
engagement of the brand with the consumer, this leads to some of the most impacting

26
factors being the brand affect and communication (Calder, Malthouse, & Schaedel, 2009).
The roots of these factors hold mainly true due to the nature of centric relationships of
social media platforms that have their basis in the concept of active engagements (Tsai &
Men, 2013).

The brand perception is not only leveraged through the content and activity that is
provided by a brand, but also the user created content that originates from the customers
and communities such as the ones commonly found on social media (Muntinga,
Moorman, & Smit, 2011). The fact that almost every consumer of Generation Y, as well
as other age groups, are progressively relying on social media makes it one of the main
areas of concern in the leveraging of brand perception. To properly engage and influence
consumers on social media platforms, it is essential to obtain an extensive understanding
of the consumer itself, and the motivations that lead to brand-to-consumer interactions
(Tsai & Men, 2013).

While the most common reasons for the consumption and contribution of social media
are based on information needs, social interactions, entertainment, and self-identity
(Boyd, 2008), we also need to consider a range of other factors. Self-identity, social
identity, and the integration that emerges from such identities, are commonly tightly tied
to the self-expression and feeling of belonging in relations to a specific group, and the
communicative connections with a said group (Papacharissi, 2007; Daugherty et al.,
2008).

One of the main strengths of social media lays in the parasocial interactions, in other
words, the consumer's illusion of having a personal relationship with a brand that is
comparable to that between humans (Horton & Wohl, 1956). The more extensive and
frequent parasocial interaction with a consumer occurs, the stronger the connection with
the brand becomes (Tsai & Men, 2013). This leads to a specific communication pattern
of brands on social media networks, such as taking on a friend-like interaction while
retaining the fundamental properties of a brand for an optimization of the brand
perception.

To be appropriately able to create leverage on the perception of a brand, we need to be

able to influence the consumer. One of the most significant factors in this context is
probably attitude, which reflects the evaluation of a brand from the consumer's point of
view and offers an attractive element for the leveraging of brand perception. Based on

27
this idea, various theories were born. One of such is the Elaboration Likelihood Model
(ELM) from Petty and Cacioppo (1983) that is a dual process theory for persuasion and
the manipulation of attitudes. An important takeaway from this and similar theories is that
their effectiveness heavily depends on the personal relevance of the information. A
second significant factor regarding the influencing power can commonly be found in
associative processing and unconscious triggers. Based on the theories such as the one of
Schmitt (2012) and others we were able to isolate a set of common factors that are crucial
in the leveraging process of brand perception, may it be on social media or more
traditional channels. (Calder, 2013)

The model of Schmitt (2012) in Figure 1 is a good example that visualizes some of the
underlying processes and their relationships to brands. Regarding Schmitt (2012), the
model does not only represent the characteristics of a brand but also visualizes the various
levels of psychological engagements. In the model, we can observe a clear distinction
between three different stages or layers. Most central of all, in the core, we can locate the
functionality and object-based engagements, while the next layer represents the self-
centered properties, followed by the outermost layer which is focusing on the social
engagement.

28
Figure 1 Brand related consumer psychology (Schmitt, 2012)

An additional aspect that is provided by the model is the representation of five unique,
brand-related processes that are all containing the three different stages of psychological
engagement. These five processes are divided into identifying, connecting, signifying,
integrating, and experiencing. We will have a closer look at some of the most relevant
elements that can be found in the model and help us with our goal. In other words, the
aspects of the model that can be engaged on the level of social media and cause an impact
on brand perception.

Many of the elements which are involved in this model are interconnected and can exert
influence on each other’s efficiency, as is visualized by the layers and segments of
Schmitt’s model (Schmitt, 2012). While the model of Schmitt (2012) covers a significant
area of generally applicable elements, they are not specifically tailored towards the use
of social media platforms. Nevertheless, we can get a good picture of some of the most
common elements that can be used if specific prerequisites are present.

29
Brand Categorization

Brand categorization has its focus on the linkage of a brand with a specific category. To
be a bit more exact, it entails the memory and stimulus-based categorization (Alba,
Hutchinson, & Lynch, 1991) which provides the essential core awareness that supports a
consumer’s choice (Hoyer & Brown, 1990). A more concrete example of this is brand
awareness which strongly relies on retrieval cues, that can be externally or self-generated
(Lynch & Srull, 1982).

When it comes to the context of social media, we can utilize brand categorization to create
a brand linkage on a target medium forcefully, may it be with paid promotion or other
methods. Furthermore, an additional observation is the recent emergence of influencer
communities, who are having increasingly significant leverage over the brand perceptions
that consumers have towards brands. This emergence of influencers seems to keep getting
fueled by the rapid growth of social media networks, through which the influencers
operate (Booth & Matic, 2011). YouTube is an excellent example for this, where content
creators are increasingly dependent on sponsorships that are sometimes directly
integrated into the content that is produced by the influencer, often so in a repetitive
manner. Nevertheless, this concept is not unique to YouTube, and can also be observed
over various other social media platforms or blogs.

We measure the concept of brand categorization as part of our empirical research in

chapter “5.4.7”, and chapter “5.4.3”.

Brand Association

Brand association entails the attributes and images which a consumer associates with a
brand (Keller, 2003). While such associations are commonly provided through external
influences, they are also developed through individual associations that are linked to
cognitive responses of the consumer towards a specific brand (Keller, 2003; Teichert &
Schöntag, 2010).

The triggering process of brand associations is commonly an unconscious process and

tends to follow an automatic nature (Dimofte & Yalch, 2011). Regarding social media
and brand perception, we can utilize social media platforms to distribute and spread
external influences, which in turn can lead to the unconscious cognitive association by

30
the consumer. The fact that most social media platforms are based on the concept of
sharing information allows for the possibility of strong influence over the exposed target
demographics and enables it to become a powerful tool to leverage our brand perception.

The topic of brand association is part of our empirical research in chapter “5.4.3” and
“5.4.7”.

Inter-Brand Relations

Inter-brand relations can exert a significant influence on the consumer’s brand perception.
This is mostly expressed in the form of which a brand handles its relations with
competitors and partners in the eyes of the consumer. As a result, this can lead to various
degrees of psychological influence on the consumers, in some cases, we may even
observe extreme examples such as “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”-situations
(Schmitt, 2012).

To give a practical example, a person might have a very negative perception towards a
brand. If now another brand reflects that specific dislike towards the negatively perceived
brand, it can directly leverage the consumer’s brand perception in a positive way.
Certainly, this also takes effect in cases of brand alliances that utilize synergistic
properties between one or multiple brands, as well as social groups or other elements that
possess an alignment of interest. This works just as well the opposite way if a brand has
relations with a negatively perceived company it might tarnish their image.

Similar perception-altering effects were observed by the research of Grewal, Kavanoor,

Fern, Costley, and Barnes (1997) which conducted a meta-analysis of comparative ads
and their benefits. An example of such behavior can be found when brands criticize others
for their decisions, such as when Apple decided to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack
from their phones. Brands such as Google made fun of Apple for this decision and the
consumers who were sharing this view cheered. At the same time, Google endangered
themselves with a backlash, when they later followed Apple’s example with their own
products, by removing the headphone jack from their phones (Savov, 2017). It can also
work the other way, but it remains important to remember that whatever is said and shared
on social media, might be remembered for a long time.

We touch upon this topic as part of chapter “5.4.7” in our empirical research.

31
Multisensory Perception

Multisensory perception has its focus on the experience that is provided to the consumer
by the brand. Social media offers the possibility to be used for the specific targeting of
the multi-sensory perception, which comes commonly into action with the utilization of
audio-visual properties that provide multiple forms of stimuli for the consumer (video,
audio, text, pictures). It has been found that sensory cues can have a significant impact
on the brand memory. Generally, the more senses are stimulated, the more significant the
potential impact on the brand perception (Morrin & Ratneshwar, 2003).

Psychophysical research has shown that sensory elements tend to have a rapid decay but
coupled with the encoding and coupling of the sensory elements with something as a
brand, a significant improvement in the sensory memory occurs (Hubbard, 1994; Shapiro
& Spence, 2002). Since it is beneficial to target all five senses, this is not something that
should be limited to social media as a single channel, due to the restricted sensory
stimulation of social media platforms. It should be perceived as a single medium among
others, which make up a larger mixed strategy in the leveraging of brand perception
through multi-sensory elements.

Brand Affect and Brand Love

Brand affect is the result of positive, negative, or other feelings, which are directly linked
to the perception or exposure of a brand (Chaudhuri & Holbrook, 2001). In particular
research papers, this is also referred to under the term brand love (Ahuvia & Rauschnabel,
2014). As the terms brand affect and brand love imply, they are in direct correlation with
the enhancement of emotions, passion and likewise properties that are associated with the
term (Albert, Merunka, & Valette-Florence, 2008).

Batra et al. (2012) define brand love as an extensive consumer to brand relationship,
which involves a variety of interconnected elements of affective, behavioral, and
cognitive aspects. This is visualized in detail in Figure 2. Some research papers have
suggested that a real feeling of love can arise for a brand that is identical to that in human
relationships including all the integrated dimensions (Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006; Thomson,
et al., 2005). Under ideal conditions, the consumer possesses an emotional connection
towards the brand in addition to the related cognitive brand knowledge. The idea behind

32
this concept is to provide the consumers with a reflection of their self-image (Calder,
2013).

Figure 2 Deep brand relationship model, adapted from Loureiro (2013)

Comparable to the many other elements impacting brand perception, brand love and brand
affect have their roots in anthropomorphism (Delgado-Ballester, Palazón, & Pelaez-
Muñoz, 2017) which we will explore in more detail later. In the last decade, we also
observed the emergence of the term “emotional-branding” which has its foundation in
brand affect (Thompson, Rindfleisch, & Arsel, 2006). While emotions are strongly
object-oriented, we must factor in the consumer's moods and feelings, which are much
more diffused and generic. Even though the properties are deviating from raw emotions,
it does not mean that moods are not reflecting the consumer heuristics (Pham, 2004;
Ramanathan & Williams, 2007).

An excellent example of this is the case of Harley-Davidson. The brand does not only
provide a functional brand image of good quality American motorcycles, but it provides
middle-aged men with a brand affect that reflects freedom and a rebel lifestyle (Calder,
2013). Research by Algharabat (2017) has shown that social media engagements allow
us to directly influence brand affect which in turn has a positive effect on brand perception
and brand loyalty if used correctly.

33
The term emotional branding can sometimes be a bit misleading, since it does not merely
revolve around emotions, but also moods, the earlier mentioned affect, and feelings
(Bagozzi et al., 1999). All these properties that are found under the umbrella of emotional
branding have a varying impact on a consumer’s brand perception. For example, moods
are less intense than emotions but have a longer lasting cognitive effect (Mitchell, Brown,
Villagran, & Villagran, 2001). To summarize, emotional branding allows for the creation
of deeper bonds with the consumer (Thompson et al., 2006) that ultimately leads to an
increase in positive brand perception. People tend to be loyal towards brands that they
relate to (Turner, 2013).

Chapter “5.4.6” of our empirical research will be specifically focused on the topic of
brand love and affect.

Brand Participation

Brand participation is based on the social engagement and interaction with the consumer.
In this context, the consumer is provided with a behavioral experience, where
involvement and experience are blended (Brakus, Schmitt, & Zarantonello, 2009). Most
commonly we face brand participation in the traditional brand settings and environments
that provide a high degree of immersion, interaction, and participation (Akaoui, 2007),
with an increasing focus on digital platforms such as social media (Kamboj & Rahman,
2016). Social media have their focus on brand participation mostly in the form of
spreading and sharing of brand-related information and is an essential element of most
social media branding strategies (Hoffman & Fodor, 2010).

Additionally, social media allows a considerable degree of freedom for the consumers to
contribute their input to a brand, which has shown to produce positive effects in the form
of brand satisfaction (Solem, 2016). Therefore, we can conclude a positive impact on
brand perception as an outcome of increased brand participation and satisfaction through
social media. It has been shown that the factor of personal importance and relevance of
content scales with the level of involvement by the consumer, this applies not only to the
consumer’s perception of commercial branding material but also to the social media
content that is generated and distributed by the consumers themselves (Christodoulides,
Jevons, & Bonhomme, 2012).

34
Specific insights of brand participation are reflected in the empirical part of our research
in chapter “5.4.2”.

Brand Concept

The brand concept is the psychological construct, which stands commonly in association
with a brand and is assembled from pieces of integrated and associated brand information.
It is an essential part of the brand equity and contains concepts that represent specific
properties such as innovation (Aaker, 1996). Information that is acquired through multi-
sensory perception has a significant impact on information integration in brand concepts
(Anderson, 1981). One of the most useful tools to measure the impact and
interconnectivity of brand concepts are Brand Concept Maps (Roedder, Loken, Kim, &
Monga, 2006). Social media can support the distribution and sharing of the brand concept,
especially if we consider the fact that the consumer is provided with a much closer
connection to the brand through the platform itself, it allows us to move all the right pieces
into the right places (Singh & Sonnenburg, 2012).

We can see some of the effects related to the brand concept in our empirical research in
chapter “5.4.7”.

Brand Personality

Brand personality tends to emerge in situations where the consumer integrates

experiences and information through the inferring of anthropomorphic properties (Aaker,
1997; Aggarwal & McGill, 2007). It is one of the main elements that is used for brand
differentiation in the consumer's mind when no comparison with other attributes is
possible (Aaker, 1997). We observe commonly the use of the 12 archetypes that are
described by Carl Jung as personality types (Mark & Pearson, 2001). Mark and Pearson
(2001) divide the 12 types into three main identity groups, one being the rebel, the
everyman, and the hero. Niche brands might more strongly persuade a person in the rebel
group while the everyman prefers mainstream brands, and the hero wants high-end brands
in his possession due to the self-reflection that is mirrored in the choice of brands.

Aaker (1997) developed a five-factor structure that helps the visualization of the different
perceptions of brand personality, while Aaker’s research was focused on the American
35
consumer, other research has found that we cannot apply the same model everywhere in
the worldwide markets (McCrae & Costa, 1997), since variance and inconstancy of those
factors within other cultures apply. With the help of social media, we can utilize an
anthropomorphically friendly environment to build and reinforce the brand personality to
leverage the brand perception of the consumers. We did elaborate in the previous chapter
in more detail the specific psychological elements at play.

While the chapter “5.4.8” of our empirical research is mostly focused on the measurement
of anthropomorphism, it reflects onto some of the discussed effects of brand personality.

Brand Relationships

Brand relationships represent the step where the consumers interact with a brand in the
ways that are commonly observed in social and interpersonal relationships. Research has
found a wide variety of different relationship types that are reflected in brand
relationships. Fournier (1998) identified 15 different types in total, reaching from
friendship to enslavement. Building on the brand personality, brand relationships are
susceptive towards social media engagements due to the potential level of perceived
interpersonal engagement and offer an opportunity to influence the brand perception.

It is important to mention here, that different social media networks have different types
of impact on the brand relationship (Pentina, Gammoh, Zhang, & Mallin, 2013).
Additionally, brand relationships are a crucial element in the conception of brand equity,
which has a direct impact on the consumer’s buying behavior (Keller, 2012). Before
taking any action, it is highly recommended to investigate the background regarding the
individual networks extensively before engaging in any strategy of this kind.

Our empirical research investigates the effect brand relationships of consumers closer in
chapter “5.4.2” and “5.4.4”.

36
Brands as Informational Cues

Accumulated brand knowledge acts as informational cues, building an extension to more

traditional signals such as price and quality (Zeithaml, 1988). Consumers are generally
exposed to a vast array of different cues that are involved in the perception and decision
making. Social media in this context provides a source of informational cues and acts as
a passive and interactive exposure platform. Depending on the individual situation this
can have a limited up to a significant impact on the brand perception. Most significant
benefits can be observed in the areas where the quality itself is difficult to assess, and the
reliance on informational cues is necessary for the consumer’s decision-making process
(Akdeniz, Calantone, & Voorhees, 2013).

The research of Akdeniz et al. (2013) has found that the reputation and quality related
information has a significant impact on the consumer perception regarding the quality of
the brand. Increasingly more than other marketing-based cues, if we are talking about the
quality aspect of brand perception. Many practical examples of this can be found in the
automotive industry where many consumer decisions are based on the brand perception
that has led to common brand stereotypes such as that German cars are of high quality
(Akdeniz & Calantone, 2017).

Our empirical research in chapter “5.4.7” reflects the impact of some of these
informational cues regarding brand perception.

Brand as Identity Signal

Psychological research has shown that humans utilize knowledge structures to assist with
the analyzing of their environment as well as themselves based on incoming information
(Markus, 1977). Brands can act as such signals and are able to integrate themselves into
the respective knowledge structures of the consumer (Schmitt, 2012). Consumers will
consequently make use of a congruent brand, to self-express themselves to the outside
world (Swaminathan, Page, & Gürhan-Canli, 2007). This behavior is not only valid for
adults but also kids, which tend to use brands as perceptual cues and identity-shaping
elements (Chaplin & Roedder, 2005). These facts taken together make it a powerful tool
which offers the possibility to structure, predict and design how the target consumer
perceives the brand. This is especially the case for social media, due to the ever-increasing

37
exposure times, especially in the case of younger consumers. Overall, it represents a
perfect tool to influence the consumer's perception of a brand.

These identity signals are partly reflected in our empirical research as a part of chapter
“5.4.8” which investigates the measurements of self-brand congruity and the social self.

Brand Symbolism

Brand symbolism focuses mostly on cases where a brand is used to represent a specific
group, ideology, or culture (Arnould, 2005). This allows for the exertion of influence and
provides a sense of security for the consumer base (Rindfleisch, Burroughs, & Wong,
2009). Social media networks offer the perfect environment to strengthen this aspect, due
to the willing association of the consumer with the brand for symbolic purposes, resulting
in positive leverage on the consumer’s brand perception. A result of strong brand
symbolism can also lead to an increased brand exposure through the passive creation of
brand advocates (Anisimova, 2016).

Overall, it is a very desirable trait that has beneficial influences not only for the targeted
consumers but also their personal environment. What we should not forget is that we
cannot control the actions and behavior of the advocates, which may in certain conditions
lead to a negative brand symbolism and an undesired brand perception. One of such
examples is the exclusive use of Toyota Hilux vehicles by terrorist organizations such as
ISIS (Engel, 2015), which has caused certain negative media attention. Another example
could be the use of specific clothing brands by radical groups.

The brand symbolism is partly reflected in our empirical research as a part of chapter
“5.4.8” which investigates the measurements of self-brand congruity and the social self.

Brand Attitude

Brand attitude is focused on the path of consumer interaction and engagement. As the
term implies, it concerns itself with the overall brand evaluation and attitude of the
consumer towards a specific brand. While brand attitude values are commonly based on
physical attributes of a product such as features and quality (Garvin, 1984), it is
worthwhile to mention that there are a variety of non-physical properties at play that can

38
be defined as non-measurable attributes (Srinivasan, 1979). Empirical research data
strongly implies that brand attitude exerts a significant impact on the consumer's
perception and evaluation of a brand (Aaker & Keller, 1990). It was found that the more
positive the brand attitude of the consumers is, the more strongly the market share of a
brand increases (Baldinger & Rubinson, 1996).

As it stands, brand attitude represents an essential area of consumer psychology (Mitchell

& Olson, 1981). To influence the consumer’s brand attitude, we can utilize the help of
topics such as conditioning with the pairing of sensory input of a brand (Grossman & Till,
1998), dispositions, or evaluative judgments (Park & MacInnis, 2006). With the
nowadays available platform of social media, we can stimulate those elements in similar
ways to those of traditional advertising. Social media allows for an acceleration of brand
attitude related processes, based on the increased communication factor between
customers, which offers additional exposure to unacquainted consumers (Duan et al.,
2008; Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016).

With the help of multi-attribute attitude models, Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) are coming
to the assumption, that the evaluation process of a brand is rooted in a person’s beliefs
regarding a specific attribute, in our case a brand. By injecting the factor of attitude into
the overall concept, we can gain a deeper understanding of the influence of social media
on consumer brand perception (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016).

The topic of brand attitude is addressed by our empirical research in chapter “5.4.7”.

Brand Attachment

While brand attachment provides and represents the connection the consumer has with a
brand and is closely connected to the consumer loyalty (Thomson et al., 2005), it does
not provide any direct way to leverage the brand perception beyond the concept of
attachment and other behavioral implications (Park, MacInnis, Eisingerich, & Iacobucci,
2010). Even with the help of social media, it mostly exerts indirect influence by increasing
the brand loyalty, which shares a proven connection with brand attachment (Japutra,
Ekinci, & Simkin, 2018).

We investigate the variable of brand attachment closers as part of our empirical research
in chapter “5.4.3” and “5.4.5”.

39
Brand Community

While social media networks are based on the concept of virtual communities (Wellman
& Guila, 1999), a brand community is a concept that is based on the feeling of emotional
connection and involvement within a community or group, which tends to be limited
purely on the focus of a specific brand and no other limiting factors such as geography
(Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001). According to Bagozzi and Dholakia (2006) a brand
community does not only serve the purpose of emotional bonds but it also directly
supports and encourages the engagement of joint-actions that lead the community towards
collective goals. A strong community can have a significant impact on how a brand is
perceived, may it be in a positive or negative light.

Social media platforms allow for the management and creation of virtual brand
communities, providing the additional benefit of easy monitoring, replying to consumer
input, and creating easy-access customer insight. Ultimately this advanced level of
communication that is provided through social media and virtual brand communities
offers a path to an enhanced consumer brand perception and satisfaction. Nevertheless,
we are only able to harvest those benefits if the virtual communities are adequately
managed and the issues of community members addressed in appropriate manners with a
robust communication strategy in place. (Tsai & Men, 2013)

We indirectly explore the effects of brand communities as a part of chapter “5.4.1” in our
empirical research.

40
3. Hypotheses
As is reflected by the theoretical framework, there is a wide array of elements at play that
can influence the consumer’s brand perception through social media platforms. Not only
do we have to consider common marketing strategies that are adapted for online use, but
we need to include elements from consumer and social psychology to gain a deeper
understanding of the underlying workings, psychological, and anthropomorphic
processes, and effects that impact the consumer's perception of a brand through social
media. While the effectiveness of many approaches and strategies is dependent on the
individual consumer, there are some elements that show a higher general impact than
others.

Social media add considerable complexity to the already existing online marketing
approaches. While it is possible to keep things “simple” by only engaging consumers in
traditional advertising and marketing psychology, the more complex approaches offer
increasingly powerful tools in terms of influencing the consumer's perception, mostly so
with the help of topics such as social psychology that would not be possible in the same
fashion and reach with traditional methods. Understanding what and how to influence the
consumer's perception of a brand through social media successfully, is an asset of
increasing value in today’s information society that shows a constant growth of social
media usage.

H1. Social media activity of Generation Y has a positive influence on the investigated
elements of consumer brand perception.

What interests us in this paper, is to find out how the consumer's social media exposure
and activity impacts the general brand perception and the individual areas of brand
perception that we measured as part of our empirical research. Based on the previously
discussed theory, we expect to measure a positive influence between a strong social media
engagement and the overall perception of a brand. We are hoping to be able to isolate
specific elements that are most strongly impacted, to allow for a more prosperous and
targeted branding for Generation Y with the help of social media.

H2. The stronger the anthropomorphic properties of a brand, the stronger the consumer’s
overall brand perception.

41
As we highlighted with the help of the theoretical background, it appears that
anthropomorphic properties have a significant impact on the consumer's perception of a
brand. While anthropomorphism is not bound to social media, it represents a
psychological aspect that can be implemented through a multitude of pathways. We are
interested in finding out how substantial the impact is for the age group of Generation Y,
since it would provide useful information in terms of how highly prioritized
anthropomorphism should be in terms of social media branding.

42
4. Methodology
This chapter focuses on the chosen methodology including the research approach and
design that we have put into place. Further points of discussion are the trustworthiness
and reliability of the executed research.

4.1 Research approach

While the two major research approaches can be classified as deductive and inductive,
we decided that a deductive process is most fitting for the format of this thesis. The theory
teaches us that deductive research emphasizes on scientific principles, casual
relationships between variables, collecting quantitative data, research independence,
along with others (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2015). We utilized the help of several
research papers in the field of anthropomorphism, brand perception and consumer
behavior to build a theoretical framework in which the research which is contained in this
thesis was conducted.

As mentioned in earlier chapters there is currently only a limited amount of research

available regarding the leveraging of brand perception with the assistance of social media.
With the help of our research, we aim to bridge this gap in currently available research
data. All the involved variables and their underlying concepts are introduced in the theory
part of the thesis before the empirical research and analysis take place. In summary,
secondary research builds the foundation in the form of theory, followed by the
hypotheses which is constructed on the the secondary research, the observations that were
made in the empirical stage of our own research, and as a final step completed with the
rejection or confirmation of H1 and H2 which were discussed in the previous chapter.

4.2 Data Collection

Our data collection is based on the acquisition of primary data while secondary data
serves our purpose only as the underlying theory to provide a framework for the
hypotheses and a source layout for the various data models. For the data collection with
the previously discussed deductive research approach, we utilized Google Forms which
allows for a simple and straightforward creation of online surveys with logical branching
for the activation of optional question paths depending on the participant's answers. If for

43
example, a participant does not show any social media activity we can bypass some
questions that rely on specific social media variables.

The collected primary data includes feedback about general brand perception concepts,
and the interacting element of social media, and provides us with a source of data to proof
or disproof our hypotheses and create new conclusions and correlations of the variables
at hand. For the analysis of the collected dataset, we utilized mainly SPSS and Microsoft
Excel for visual representations.

4.3 Research design

There is a varying number of different research designs that can be utilized. Our goal was
to employ the one that was most fitting in regards to advantages and disadvantages to
provide an adequate environment for the conducted research. Earlier we have discussed
the research approach which expanded on the bigger picture of the research. In this
chapter, we will dive deeper into the more practical aspects that are involved. There are
two primary approaches in terms of research, one being exploratory and the other being
conclusive.

While exploratory research aims to provide insight and understanding of unknown

territory, conclusive research focuses on the exploration of characteristics and functions
with the goal of providing a more profound insight (Blythe, 2013). With these options in
mind, we decided to utilize a conclusive, or more specifically a descriptive approach since
we are building our research on the existing theories and papers with the goal to draw
connections between different elements and the context of social media. Additionally, it
allows us to compile the various variables that are involved in the interconnecting
mechanisms at play.

Another essential element of consideration with the descriptive research method is the
available timeframe. We have two options available, one being cross-sectional and the
other longitudinal research. For our purposes, a cross-sectional approach is most fitting.
Cross-sectional research is set on the investigation of a single objective at a single point
of time from a given set of participants with the downside of sacrificing accuracy
compared to a longitudinal approach. In summary, we will engage in conclusive research
that is based on a descriptive design with a cross-sectional approach.

44
4.4 Research Method
The research method that we utilized for the collection of the required data from our
participants is following the framework of the earlier discussed research design. The
online survey that aided our data collection was designed in a way that every participant
was offered the same questions with an optional branch of social media variables that
were dependent on the factor of the participant’s following of his or her favorite brand on
social media.

No randomization of the question sequences was implemented, and there was no

additional assistance for the completion of the survey besides the instructions that were
provided within the survey. Since there is no involvement of any external parties in the
survey process, we can exclude the risk of introducing any bias that does not come from
the participant himself. This standardization is necessary to ensure an identical
environment for all the survey participants. With the survey being available through the
world wide web, we ensured a path for simple distribution to a high number of potential
participants. Therefore, we saw it as the most suitable approach for our purposes and the
given limitations regarding time and monetary resources.

Apart from the demographic information that the participants provided us as a part of the
survey, the question design relies heavily on a format that utilizes the Likert scale. With
the user-friendliness of the survey in mind, we segmented the questions into 16 steps
(Appendix A) which were assigned to subcategories that are invisible to the survey
participants. These subcategories contain some of the most critical elements that influence
brand perception and were identified as such in our theoretical framework. The link to
the defined subcategories is also marked in the corresponding subchapter of the theory
section. Altogether, the survey follows ten main steps:

1. Gather the demographic variables of the participants and ask them for their
favorite brand. This includes personal data such as age, gender, and country, to
ensure the participant is part of the Generation Y.
2. Ask if the participants follow the chosen brand on any kind of social media
platform. If the participant answers yes, we progress to the next step if the answer
is no we skip one step ahead to point number four.
3. Measure the participant's social media activity
4. Enquire about the partner quality and dependence of the chosen brand

45
 5. Gather data about the nostalgic attachment
6. Investigate the factor of intimacy that the participant has with the brand
7. Measure the brand loyalty and brand equity
8. Enquire about brand love and brand affect that the participant has towards his or
her favorite brand.
9. Gather data on the brand attitude and brand perception
10. Ask questions that are aimed towards anthropomorphistic properties and values.

Except for step one and two, all questions were based on a 10-item Likert scale. The low
values are representing the feeling of disagreement and the high values the feeling of
agreement. The main reason why we decided to utilize a 10-point scale was the increased
measurement precision and allowances for more variance compared to lower point scales
(Wittink & Bayer, 2003). In summary, the research will utilize a self-completion survey
without third-party assistance that employs nearly exclusively a scale design. We have
our priority on the measuring of social media activity, followed by the measurement of
various underlying elements of brand perception.

4.5 Sampling
Due to limited access to participants in the given timeframe, we utilized an online survey
which was targeted to a consumer group of the age range of 20-30 (which approximates
to Generation Y) in Scandinavia and the DACH region for the acquisition of the required
data. This decision was mostly based on the ease of access to said demographic. We aimed
to have a balanced gender distribution to avoid any unforeseen deviations that are gender-
based. While this age group was the most accessible through existing social connections,
it simultaneously represents attractive sample demographics regarding social media usage
and purchasing power.

For the sampling itself, we chose to select the non-probability approach of a convenience
sampling, since it was most appropriate in the given circumstances. It allows us to remain
cost and time effective, and utilize participants who are easily accessible, which all
together provides an easier execution of our research. Unfortunately, this sampling
method is sensitive to the weakness of the underrepresentation of subgroups which cannot
be measured and calculated. Additionally, it is susceptible to sampling errors.

46
Considering our limited sample size these are not ideal conditions, but at the time of
execution, it was the only reasonable choice.

4.6 Trustworthiness of the Study

The survey was conducted in a standardized manner, and with English as the single
language option for the participants. While the single choice of a language helps the
standardization, it also introduces a potential flaw due to the varying factor of English
skills among the participants. None of the participants have English as their native
language. With the online survey being answered without any third-party supervision, we
made sure to eliminate any external bias from affecting the responses. At the same time,
this method leads to an increased risk of the participants misunderstanding specific
questions due to their complexity and the individual perspective.

Additionally, the interpretation of the questions requires a certain adjustment from the
participant's side, if the chosen brand is purely digital or strays in other ways from the
patterns of a physical product. To eliminate potential problems, we executed multiple
iterations of test surveys with a hand full of participants with various English skill levels.
The gathered feedback was then used to improve the questions and make them more
comprehensive.

We removed, to the best of our efforts, all responses that seemed to contain invalid or
falsified data, such as cases where people responded to every single question with an
identical answer or used an unlikely age. Data cleansing affected 5% of all collected
entries. Due to the limited sample size, we can only partially generalize the results that
were concluded based on the survey. We cannot assure that the findings apply to a broader
population set, they serve only the purpose of providing an idea or picture of the effects
in place for the examined target demographics that belong to Generation Y.

4.7 Summary
We are utilizing secondary data for the formation of our hypothesis, which is reflected in
the design of the primary data collection through an online survey. The primary data
acquisition is built on a descriptive research design. The survey itself utilizes a 10-point

47
Likert scale for nearly all variables, except for the demographic data request and a single
fixed response alternative question for the participant's social media usage.

The structure of the survey contains 16 individual steps which are assigned to 10 major
logical separations that are not visible to the participant. For the data sampling, we
decided to utilize a convenience sampling approach due to resource and time limitations.
We targeted the Generation Y which occupies an age range between 20-30 at the time of
the writing of this thesis. While the gathered data may not apply to the general population
due to its limited number of participants, it shall still contribute new conclusions and
findings to its respective field.

48
5. Empirical Findings and Data Analysis
In this chapter, we provide an overview of the findings that were the result of the data
analysis of the conducted online survey. A significant part of the analysis utilized the help
of tools such as SPSS and Excel to proof or disproof our two suggested hypotheses.

5.1 Data Extraction and Cleansing

For the data extraction, we utilized the help of a survey which was published through
Google Forms, a free online survey tool. A hyperlink to the said survey was distributed
through personal contacts and their social circles. When a sufficient amount of data was
collected, the survey was removed from public access and the data extracted through
Google Docs. The next step was to import the data into SPSS and Excel. Both are software
solutions that support the statistical analysis of the gathered results.

The total number of responses that we gathered was 58. After a first inspection, a total
number of six responses had to be removed because they either exceeded the age range
of Generation Y or appeared to have an invalid input pattern. With the data cleansing
completed, we remained with 89.66% of the original data sample. While the original aim
was to collect at least 100 responses we were struggling to find a sufficient number of
respondents to participate in the survey in the set timeframe. The estimated number of
invitations for participation equals 350-400 persons and leaves us with a response rate of
14.5%-16.6%.

5.2 Demographic Data

Our focus was aimed primarily at the Nordic region of Europe with an extension to
Germany and Switzerland, mostly due to the access through our social circles that
populate those specific areas. While we originally planned to only focus on Scandinavia,
a lack of participants forced us to expand to the DACH region, which does not deviate
too far in terms of personality and behavior patterns from Scandinavia. As one of the first
steps in the surveying process, we collected data on demographic properties such as the
age, gender, and country of the participants. We utilized the help of descriptive statistics
and a frequency distribution to compile the data. Details of this and all other collected
data can be found in Appendix B.

49
The gender distribution of all valid responses equated to an equal split of 50%. Regarding
the participant's age, we observed a mean of 25.9 years with a standard deviation of 2.47.
As can be seen in Figure 3, most of the participants were between 23 and 25 years old,
closely followed by the 26 to 28 range. Taken together, 72% of all respondents were
between 23 and 28 years old. Only a small minority of 10% was between 20 and 22 years
old, followed by the slightly larger group of 29-30 years with 18%.

Figure 3 Age distribution

Regarding countries, we have most of all participants located within Scandinavia with a
value of 86.53%. The strongest concentration can be found in Finland with 65.38%. The
DACH region contains 11.54% of all participants, and 1.92% are from other countries
within Europe.

50
Figure 4 Countries of the Participants

5.3 Social Media following of favorite brands

One of the first questions that was asked after the collection of the demographic data in
the surveying process was if the participant follows his or her favorite brand that they
picked for the survey on any social media platforms (such as YouTube, Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter, Google Plus, Tumblr, Reddit, Pinterest, and others). We assumed that
a high percentage of participants would be exposed to one or several social media
engagements of their favorite brands. While the social media usage of Generation Y is
high, only 59.6% of all participants responded that they are following in some way their
favorite brands through social media channels. There seems to be no statistically
significant correlation between the age and social media following among participants in
the collected data sample. A more extensive study will be required to draw a conclusion
for this specific situation.

Nevertheless, the question of social media following was only applying towards the
favorite brands that the participants selected for the survey. It does not imply that the
participants do not follow any other brand’s social media content. The primary purpose
of this question was to isolate responses that involve social media exposure from those
that do not. Furthermore, an additional branch of questions was added for participants
who gave a positive response towards social media following.

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5.4 Variable Analysis
Before we can connect the different influencing factors of individual variables, we must
concern ourselves with the variable analysis. This analysis is focused on the underlying
question categories of all the gathered results that were collected in the form of Likert
scale values. These values range between one and ten, one being the weakest and ten the
strongest and most agreeing. Each variable is listed with its Cronbach’s alpha coefficient
(cutoff value of 0.7), mean, standard deviation, and the factor loading through a principal
component analysis (cutoff value of 0.5).

5.4.1 Social Media Activity

As discussed earlier, while most of the participants follow their favorite brand on social
media (59.6%), not everyone did do so and therefore qualify for the questioning branch
of social media activity. The results are showing that the perception of the participant's
favorite brand’s social media usage is strongly positive, but most participants did not feel
a strong urge to engage in word of mouth distribution of the information acquired through
the consumed social media content. With the alpha value being above 0.7 and each factor
loading being above 0.5 we can assume an acceptable convergent validity. While we can
conclude that positive social media activity is related to strong brands, it appears to be
not a necessary factor for strong brand perception. Later, we will investigate in more
detail the correlation between brand perception and social media following.

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Table 1 Social media activity

5.4.2 Partner Quality and Dependence

The gathered data related to partner quality and dependence had the underlying goal to
help us measure the strength of the brand relationship of the participants and their favorite
brand. Additionally, we can gain precise insight into the significance of the elements of
brand participation. The very high alpha value and good factor loading numbers show us
a good convergent validity for both, partner quality, and dependence.

We can observe a comparatively stable response pattern for all the questions under partner
quality, showing relatively high values for the favorite brands that were chosen by the
participants. This aligns with secondary research, such as the findings of Solem (2016),
Christodoulides et al. (2012), and Keller (2012).

53
Table 2 Partner Quality

The dependence category shows a much higher standard deviation and a lower certainty
from the participant's side, this is especially visible for question 4.2. It appears that the
dependence does not carry the same significance in terms of perception as partner quality.

Table 3 Dependence

5.4.3 Nostalgic Attachment

By measuring the nostalgic attachment, we can get an idea of the impact of brand
attachment, and secondary aspects of brand association and brand categorization. We
observe a relatively high standard deviation for most of these questions. The most
significant element that stood out here was question 5.4 and 5.3, implying that the early
exposure and connection to personal memories can carry a strong weight in the selection

54
of a favorite brand. While the alpha value was over 0.7, the factor loading showed
considerable variances. This is especially visible for the question 5.1 which has a factor
loading below 0.5 and is therefore not convergently valid with the other parameters.
Question 5.4 was barely above the minimum and might not be convergently valid either.
Based on the earlier discussed theory we know that attachment-based variables are an
indirect influencer, and not directly tied to a high brand perception (Park et al., 2010).

Table 4 Nostalgic Attachment

5.4.4 Intimacy
The intimacy data relates to the brand relationship that the participant has with his or her
favorite brand. While question 6.3 did not appear as impactful to the survey participants
as 6.1 and 6.2 and showed a high standard deviation, we observe an overall high alpha
(0.871) and factor loading that hint towards a good convergent validity.

Table 5 Intimacy

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5.4.5 Brand Loyalty and Brand Equity
Question 7.1 through 8.3 assist us in the measurement of brand loyalty and brand
attachment. The questions in table six were purposely used to push the limits and see how
far the participants are willing to go for their brand, with the questions of table seven
being slightly more conservative and reasonable. While the average participant is willing
to make certain sacrifices, only a minority would go as far as to rather do without than
buying an alternative brand (Q7.4). This is reflected in the convergent validity that spans
across the whole table six with the exclusion of question 7.4 which has shown a factor
loading of below 0.5. Question 7.1 through 7.3 show a relatively high standard deviation
and a lower mean than question 7.5 and 7.6 that directly ask about the participant's loyalty.
This aligns with the theoretical background that found brand loyalty as an indirect
influencer of brand perception (Japutra et al., 2018; Park et al., 2010).

Table 6 Brand Loyalty

The closely related category of brand equity showed a much higher consistency in terms
of answers and convergent validity. The mean of all participants prefers to stick with their
brand even if there is a comparatively or even wholly identical alternative available.

56
Table 7 Brand Equity

5.4.6 Brand Love and Brand Affect

The participant’s brand love and brand affect for the respective favorite brands were
measured with the help of table nine. While specific questions have a factor loading that
is not far above 0.5 the questions remain convergently valid and possess a high alpha
value of 0.935. While the mean of the participants does not feel disturbed or is willing to
make sacrifices to keep using their favorite brand, the overall brand love was above
average and the standard deviation conservative. The relatively direct question which was
inquiring about the feeling of love towards the brand (Q 9.3) was reasonably strong with
a mean of 7.48 and a standard deviation of 2.45. This goes along with the secondary
research that sees brand love and brand affect as a powerful element in the concept of
brand perception (Algharabat, 2017).

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Table 8 Brand Love and Brand Affect

5.4.7 Brand Attitude and Brand Perception

With the goal of measuring the participant’s brand awareness, we created four
subcategories which are directly related to the concept. The first one is brand awareness,
the second is brand attitude, and the third and fourth are the functional and hedonistic
brand perception. While table nine shows a high mean and low standard deviation and a
high factor loading, the contained questions also possess a low alpha value (0.432) which
is far below the cutoff value of 0.7. Therefore the convergent validity remains
questionable. Nevertheless, the participants appear to perceive their favorite brand in a
good light with a positive reputation, fame and associate the brand with other positive
attributes and characteristics. This aligns strongly with the earlier discussed theory which
assigns a significant impact on brand perception to the variable of brand attitude (Aaker,
& Keller, 1990).

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Table 9 Brand Attitude

Table 10 served the purpose of measuring the participant’s brand awareness regarding
their favorite brand. It appears that the general awareness of the selected brands is high,
and the participants have a clear picture of their chosen brand. The alpha value of 0.824
remains above 0.7, and the factor loading is far above 0.5 except for question 11.2 which
deviated from the rest. Other than that, we can confidently say that the section possesses
a good convergent validity. This confirms the findings of secondary research that
assigned a significant relation between brand awareness and brand perception (Akdeniz
et al., 2013)

Table 10 Brand Awareness

The functional brand perception that was measured with the help of table 11 shows that
the mean of all participants has a highly positive perception of their selected brands

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reliability and credibility, in combination with a high level of trust. The factor loading
(>0.5) and alpha value (0.824) show strong convergent validity.

Table 11 Functional Brand Perception

Table 12 that is aimed at the hedonistic brand perception follows a similar pattern as was
seen in table 11. We have a good convergent validity with a reasonable factor loading
(>0.5) and high alpha value (0.865) combined with a reasonably high mean and low
standard deviation. We see both, the functional brand perception, and the hedonistic
brand perception, being in alignment with the secondary research from Keller (2003) and
Teichert and Schöntag (2010).

Table 12 Hedonistic Brand Perception

Tables nine to 12 show a very high mean and low standard deviation across the board,
compared to other variables that were discussed in earlier subchapters, hinting at an
especially high correlation with the status of the favorite brands that were picked by the
participants for this survey.

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5.4.8 Anthropomorphism
The last element that we investigated was aimed at the anthropomorphism and its
underlying elements of each participant’s chosen brand. With the help of table 13, we
gathered data on the anthropomorphic properties that apply to the human physiognomy
and lineaments. We were aware that this might be a difficult variable to measure due to
the inconsistent usage of such elements throughout different brands (Chandler, &
Schwarz, 2010). As expected we were not able to gather any conclusive results and the
questions received a very low mean with an average standard deviation. While the factor
loading remained at over 0.5 the alpha value was only 0.527, and we do not see a
convergent validity.

Table 13 Human physiognomy and lineaments

Regarding self-brand congruity, the data shows that the participants possess self-brand
congruity with a standard deviation of below 3.0 when it comes to their respective favorite
brands, as can be seen in table 14. The convergent validity is confirmed by the factor
loading which remains above the cutoff value of 0.7 and a high alpha value of 0.953.

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Table 14 Self-Brand Congruity

Table 15 builds upon the variables of table 14 and explores the factors of the social self.
While it follows a similar response pattern to the self-brand congruity, it shows lower
means and slightly higher standard deviations. Besides that, the gathered data remains
convergently valid with a factor loading greater than 0.5 and an alpha of above 0.7.

Table 15 Social Self

Table 14 and 15, show a mediocre representation of the secondary research that we
discussed in the theoretical framework (Aaker, 1997; Rindfleisch et al., 2009;

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Swaminathan et al., 2007). Nevertheless, we would have expected the results to be more
strongly pronounced.

5.5 Hypotheses Test

To test our hypotheses, we utilized a combination of the various variables available to us
through the gathered survey data. All variables that are part of the hypotheses test are
covered in more detail in the previous subchapter (table 1-15). Individual sub-variables
that have shown a factor loading of below 0.5 have been excluded for the execution of
the hypotheses (table 16).

The first hypothesis has the aim to measure the influence of social media on the remaining
consumer brand perception categories that were part of the survey.

H1. Social media activity of Generation Y has a positive influence on the investigated
elements of consumer brand perception.
H0. There is no measurable influence of social media activity on consumer brand
perception.

Our second hypothesis focuses on the influence of anthropomorphic properties on the

other tested elements of consumer brand perception.

H2. The stronger the anthropomorphic properties of a brand, the stronger the
consumer’s overall brand perception.
H0. There is no measurable influence of anthropomorphism on consumer brand
perception.

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Table 16 Item variables overview

To test our hypotheses and the corresponding null hypotheses we utilized the help of a
regression analysis. This enabled us to test how strongly the tested elements of brand
perception are related to social media activity and anthropomorphism.

For H1 we used a multiple regression analysis to investigate the multicollinearity with

the purpose of finding the individual characteristics regarding relationships with the
participant's social media following of their chosen brands. For the next step, we
calculated the bivariate correlations based on Pearson’s correlation coefficient.

As we can observe in the regression analysis of table 17, the coefficients of the association
between the dependent variable of social media activity, vary from case to case and show
a t-value of <±1.679. The coefficient value helps us to measure change that occurs in the
dependent variable when committing adjustments to the independent variable, keeping

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the remaining variables stagnant. The unstandardized beta coefficients have shown to be
highest regarding the partner quality and dependence (0.404), followed by the nostalgic
attachment (0.234) and brand loyalty and equity (-0.274).

Table 17 Coefficients dependent on the Social Media Activity

The ANOVA analysis in table 18 shows that there is a statistical significance present
regarding the difference between the means of social media activity and the predictors.
With the significance value (Sig.) being 0.047 we are just below the cutoff value of 0.05.

Table 18 ANOVA Analysis for Social Media Activity

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Moving on to the model summary (see table 19), the predictors have shown an R2 value
of 0.431 which indicates a moderate confidence level regarding the likelihood of
predicted future outcomes. After adjusting the R2 to compensate for inaccuracies in the
coefficient of determination, we measure a value of 0.257.

Table 19 Regression Model Summary for Social Media Activity

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Table 20 Pearson’s Correlation Variables

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Table 20 shows us the results of Pearson’s correlation coefficient in a matrix format. We
assume a good to strong correlation for values between ± 0.50 and ± 1. The social media
activity seems to correlate best with the participant's partner quality and dependence
(0.538), while there was only a moderate correlation with the nostalgic attachment (0.476)
and intimacy (0.404). The correlation is also represented in the scatterplots of figure 5-7,
which gives us an excellent opportunity to visualize the variance and how strong the
correlations are. The remaining variables did not show any statistically significant
correlation (<±0.191).

Figure 5 Social Media vs. Partner Quality and Dependence

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Figure 6 Social Media vs. Nostalgic Attachment

Figure 7 Social Media vs. Intimacy

For H2 we engaged in an identical approach to H1, by using a multiple regression analysis

to investigate the multicollinearity with the purpose of finding the individual
characteristics regarding the relationships with anthropomorphism. This includes the
calculation of the bivariate correlations based on Pearson’s correlation coefficient. As can

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be observed in the regression analysis of table 21, the coefficients of the association
between the dependent variable of anthropomorphism show a t-value of <±1.346. The
unstandardized beta coefficients have shown to be highest in terms of the brand love and
affect (0.308), followed by the nostalgic attachment (-0.302) and intimacy (0.228).

Table 21 Coefficients dependent on anthropomorphism

The ANOVA analysis in table 22 shows that there is a statistical significance present
regarding the difference between the means of anthropomorphism and the predictors.
With the significance value (Sig.) being 0.022 we can reject the null hypothesis.

Table 22 ANOVA Analysis for Anthropomorphism

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The model summary in table 23 shows that the predictors have an R2 value of 0.476 which
indicates a moderate to good confidence level in terms of the likelihood of predicted
future outcomes. After adjusting the R2 to compensate for inaccuracies in the coefficient
of determination, we measure a value of 0.316.

Table 23 Regression Model Summary for Anthropomorphism

If we go back to table 20, which shows us the Pearson’s correlation coefficients, we can
see that anthropomorphism correlates best with brand attitude and perception (0.499),
intimacy (0.494), nostalgic attachment (0.456), and brand love and affect (0.434). While
these values are of moderate strength, it is worth to mention that anthropomorphism has
similar correlation variables as social media activity, such as nostalgic attachment and
intimacy.

5.6 Summary
The results from the analysis show an indication that H1 has reasonable ground to
conclude a correlation between social media usage and a stronger impact on brand
perception in terms of other brand perception variables. H2 has proven to possess a similar
correlation with brand perception as with social media.

H1. Social media activity of Generation Y has a positive influence on the Supported
investigated elements of consumer brand perception.
H2. The stronger the anthropomorphic properties of a brand, the stronger Supported
the consumer’s overall brand perception.
Table 24 Hypotheses Test Summary

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Nevertheless, the measured effects are not exceedingly strong, and considering the small
sample size, it is difficult to assign causality to the measured variables. The reflections
from the gathered results can be used as a basis for further research or as an extension to
current findings in topic related research. In the following chapter, we will explore the
impact of our findings in more detail.

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6. Conclusions
In this chapter, we will draw our conclusions based on the previously discussed theory,
as well as our analyzed data, and compile it into the implications that can be drawn for
today’s brand perception. Furthermore, we will discuss the challenges and opportunities
that are existent based on the gathered data, and the limitations of the research itself.

6.1 General Conclusion

The aim of this thesis was the search and compilation of theoretical and empirical
evidence that contributes to the existing research in the field of branding and social media.
In other words, we pursued the objective of exploring the implications of the social media
activity of Generation Y on the most common elements of brand perception and the
interconnecting relationships. The exploration of the theoretical background has shown
that all the investigated branding elements and their underlying concepts can have a
varying impact on the overall brand perception. Based on this background we defined our
goal to find out the correlation and relationship of social media activity with the most
affected brand perception elements. To acquire the data for our empirical research and
measurements, we utilized an online survey that was distributed through digital channels.

As was indicated by the previously discussed data in the hypotheses test and regression
and correlation analysis, the social media activity of the participants did show a positive
impact on the other elements of brand perception. A similar observation was made for
anthropomorphism. Unfortunately, with the limited scope in terms of participants who
were available to us, it is challenging to declare a statistically significant causality
between social media activity, anthropomorphism, and overall brand perception. After
computing a correlation matrix, we can say that the impact of social media activity itself
is not as strong on the bigger picture as we expected from the theoretical background, but
due to the limited sample size more data will be required to make a more certain
conclusion.

6.2 Discussion
To answer our first hypothesis (H1. Social media activity of Generation Y has a positive
influence on the investigated elements of consumer brand perception) and the question of

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how social media activity influences the overall brand perception, we will discuss the
individual findings of our data analysis. The participants of our online survey had varying
responses in terms of their answers. This might be due to the variance in individual
perception levels and the given freedom to choose a favorite brand as a focal point of the
survey. We can see an example of this in the reflection of the scatterplots of figure 5-7
that show a relatively wide distribution.

Only 59.6% of all participants did show any social media activity when it comes to their
favorite brand, leaving the remaining 40.4% as a control group. In terms of correlation,
the most significant impact of social media activity could be measured for the variables
of partner quality and dependence, nostalgic attachment, and intimacy. Therefore, we can
conclude that social media are a valuable tool in terms of correlation with some aspects
of brand perception, but not uniformly necessary for strong brand perception, nor
excessively stronger in terms of leverage. It appears that some of the secondary research
in the earlier discussed theory oversells social media as an almighty solution. An
important detail which we must mention here is that these measurements apply only to
the data of the participants who provided us with data regarding their social media activity
and responded that they are following their selected brand on a social media platform.

On further investigation, we were able to observe that the participants who did not follow
their favorite brand on social media did show only a 2.35% lower value in terms of the
summarized mean of the total brand perception values with the exclusion of social media
activity. We can assume that overall positive brand perception is not necessarily bound
to the consumer's social media activity, but it is difficult to know how the individual
perception of these individuals would have been altered if a social media activity would
have been present.

Other interesting findings were in the data concerning the brand affect and brand love.
We see particular interest in this thematic because it appears to be influenced by social
media activity and has a significantly high correlation with the remaining elements of
brand perception that were part of our research. The most affected categories are the brand
loyalty and equity, brand attitude and perception, and partner quality and dependence.

After we have discussed the major findings of H1, we are now able to answer our research
question (RQ2) “What are the specific potentials and limitations of social media

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influences on brand perception?” based on our empirical data. We will explore those
details in the following subchapters “Opportunities” and “Challenges”.

For our second hypothesis (H2. The stronger the anthropomorphic properties of a brand,
the stronger the consumer’s overall brand perception) we investigated the relationship
between anthropomorphism and the remaining elements of brand perception that were
part of our survey. We saw the significant correlations being brand attitude and
perception, intimacy, nostalgic attachment, and brand love and affect. Some of these
correlations align with the affected variables of social media activity. This applies
specifically to the nostalgic attachment and intimacy. We believe that this is caused by
the strong anthropomorphic properties that are found in social media branding,
reinforcing the importance and strength of anthropomorphic elements in the picture of
consumer brand perception. Based on the theoretical background, this was an expected
result. H2 assists us also in support of RQ3 “How can an organization utilize
psychological tools in social media to increase their brand perception?”.

6.2.1 Opportunities of Social Media

A study by Porter and Donthu (2008) has discovered that it is possible to achieve a
significant increase in trust when it comes to a company’s brand and image through the
utilization of social media in the branding strategy. If an interactive element is present,
which is commonly an essential core element of most social media channels, we can
benefit from the creation of a feeling of a personal connection which can lead to an
improved perception of relationship quality (Altman & Taylor, 1973). Additionally, a
wide range of further social and interpersonal processes is observed, which are
comparative to the ones that are found in traditional person-to-person, emotional
connections, and intimacy (Hudson et al., 2016). Our empirical research reflected these
findings in the form of strong influences on other variables of brand perception.

We can benefit from a selection of various psychological and sociological effects with
the help of social media. Social media platforms offer an attractive ground for
anthropomorphically based psychological strategies. To summarize our findings from the
theory review, we can conclude that social media are a perfect tool to leverage brand
perception with limited financial resources while retaining an ability for accurate

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targeting and being able to utilize strategies from the field of social and consumer
psychology.

While it can be utilized as a standalone tool, which we do not recommend, it presents

itself as a useful extension to existing and more traditional branding channels. This makes
it an especially attractive strategy not only for more prominent brands but also for smaller
organizations with restrictive marketing funds. Our empirical research has supported this
theory and shown that in terms of influence it has equal importance to other more
traditional branding elements.

6.2.2 Challenges of Social Media

Nevertheless, it is important to remember that the consumers who are frequenting social
media are not homogeneous, and can change and adjust over time, which can present a
key issue in the utilization of social media platforms for branding purposes. Another
common issue and hurdle is the understanding of the needs and motivation that the
consumers have towards a brand (Laroche, Habibi, & Richard, 2013). Without a proper
and more profound understanding of the consumer, it is difficult to choose the right tools
to increase and strengthen the brand perception. It is a challenging task to accurately
assess the depth and complexity of the consumer’s behavioral and psychological
characteristics, especially if a multitude of different group characteristics are present.

It is also crucial to keep in mind that the information flow does not only occur between
the customer and the brand, but also within the community of customers (Zailskaitė-
Jakštė & Kuvykaitė, 2016). The ignorance of this fact and others that we previously
discussed, can quickly lead to situations where control is lost. It is a common risk that
once information is published on the internet, there is nearly no way to make it disappear
and attempts to do so commonly result in the Streisand effect (when the effort of trying
to hide or remove specific information results in increased visibility and the spreading of
said information). This becomes even more difficult when trying to control the user-
created content.

In the end, it leads us to the conclusion that the utilization of social media platforms for
branding or other marketing purposes requires an individually tailored strategy, and
continuously ongoing engagement in the communication process with the consumers, to
ensure a satisfactory outcome when enlisting any type of branding strategy targeting

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social media networks (Booth & Matic, 2011). As can be seen with examples such as
Myspace, the situation for single platforms can shift rather rapidly. Myspace went rather
quickly from the status of extremely popular to an artifact that only the “older”
generations remember due to the rise of Facebook. The world of social media networks
is experiencing a constant shift of its user base, and while one platform might be popular
today, the situation may be looking different the year later.

To summarize, the most significant challenges that must be faced are the limited amount
of control over the brand and user-created information once it is released or published to
social media platforms and the deep understanding of the consumers that is necessary for
a successful leveraging of brand perception. History is lined with marketing disasters that
originated from social media platforms.

6.3 Theoretical Implications

There are several academic implications based on the content of our thesis. We provided
a broad view and summary in terms of theory on the topic of brand perception, its
psychological background, and social media. The strong focus on the theory mainly
serves the purpose of extending and concentrating the knowledge of this relatively wide
area of brand perception.

Furthermore, we provided empirical research data that build on the theoretical basis to
research a positive correlation between social media activity and brand perception of
Generation Y. While the data and conclusions are of limited statistical significance due
to the restricted number of participants, it serves its purpose as a positive verification of
the theoretical background and as a ground for further research.

6.4 Practical implications

Based on the empirical research of our thesis, we found a positive correlation between
social media activity and the other major elements of brand perception for Generation-Y.
While it is by no means an all-powerful solution that leaves other branding approaches
behind, it has a measurable impact on various variables of the consumer's perception.
Companies and organizations can use this to their advantage by increasing and improving
the social media activity of their consumers and thereby further positively reinforce the

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consumer’s brand perception. This is especially the case if a brand utilizes social media
to gain an increased level of anthropomorphism.

The data that we provided in our correlation matrix cannot only help potential marketers
to understand the impact of social media but can also shed light on the relationships
between other commonly used branding tools. We also concluded that a strong social
media activity is not an essential factor in terms of successfully high brand perception. It
is possible to compensate for the lack of social media activity with alternative elements
such as a strong brand affect. Ultimately, it is important for a brand to know the strengths
and weaknesses of their individual branding elements in terms of perception, and to
leverage the ones which are most impactful on the sections that are lacking.

Before acting on the improvement of one’s social media presence, it is important to

remember that social media by themselves does not equate to success. The conditions are
highly situational, and if the topic is not approached and maintained correctly, it may lead
to unexpected conflicts which can have disastrous outcomes.

6.5 Limitations
Due to the data collection method and the limited timeframe that was available to conduct
our research, the gathered information is restricted to the single point of time when the
study was conducted. The research data do not consider any long-term developments of
consumer responses. Additionally, the age range of the participants is limited to the
approximate range of 20-30 with the geographical area of Finland, Sweden, Norway, and
a couple of responses from outside those areas.

Since the participants were free to select one of their favorite brands and a social media
network of their choice, there is a high amount of variation in the collected data. The
dataset was further limited by the only partial engagement of the participants with social
media platforms. Of the 52 valid responses, only 31 were following their favorite brand
on a social media platform. Since most participants decided to pick a unique brand, we
were not able to investigate brand or social network-specific variances. This will require
additional in-depth research. Furthermore, we did not have the time or resources to
analyze firsthand the individual brands, or participant’s social media content and activity,
which might represent a valuable factor in a more detailed analysis.

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6.6 Suggestions for further research
This thesis was written with the goal of measuring and analyzing the impact of social
media activity on other significant elements of brand perception. There is only a limited
amount of research available that is applicable to this field. Our presented findings,
methodology, and concluded practical and theoretical implications showed that there is
still a wide array of variables that express the need for further research. The number of
potential influences that can have an impact on the outcome extends beyond our scope.

While we were able to measure a positive influence of social media activity on the overall
brand perception, more extensive research would be necessary to conclude a statistically
valid causality that is based on a larger sample size. We highly recommend further
research on the topic of this thesis, especially with the inclusion of more controlled test
parameters that allow for higher precision in terms of the data analysis. As we mentioned
earlier, our survey data allowed for a relatively large room of freedom in terms of the
chosen brands and social media platforms, which limits the precision in terms of statistical
measurements and calculations.

If the required resources were available, it would also be highly interesting to investigate
the neural activity with the help of functional magnetic resonance imaging, especially in
the areas of the anterior insula and medial prefrontal cortex, as well as the orbitofrontal
cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

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7. Svensk Sammanfattning
Användningen av sociala medier har ökat stadigt under det senaste decenniet och det har
även mångfalden av sociala medier såsom Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit,
YouTube och många fler. Eftersom varje plattform inte kan bevisa sig vara framgångsrik
på lång sikt, har själva konceptet visat sig vara en viktig del av konsumentens dagliga liv.
Detta visar sig särskilt i yngre generationer, exempelvis Generation Y. Sociala medier
påverkar inte bara konsumenters privatliv, de har också visat sig vara attraktiva
plattformar för marknadsföring och varumärkesutveckling på grund av den omfattande
tiden som konsumenter spenderar på dessa plattformar.

Man kan observera att sociala medier allt oftare fungerar som en ersättning för mer
traditionella medier såsom TV, radio och tidningar. Viktigast av allt har sociala
medienätverk förändrat hur konsumenterna beter sig och förhåller sig till varumärken, i
och med att de har möjliggjort en omvandling från den mer traditionella
envägskommunikationen till en mångdimensionell matrismodell. Detta leder till att
företag inte längre ensamma kan kontrollera varumärkeskommunikation, vilket i sin tur
leder till en ökad komplexitet.

Varumärkesuppfattning är en komplicerad konstruktion som består av flera variabler.

Samtidigt är det ett viktigt element i varumärkeskapitalet, vilket i sin tur gör det till en
avgörande del av nästan varje marknadsföringsstrategi. Forskning visar att
varumärkesutveckling med hjälp av sociala medier kan ha en direkt positiv inverkan på
det upplevda varumärkeskapitalet och varumärkesbilden, och har uppmärksammat ett
direkt samband mellan ökad varumärkesuppfattning och exponering av
varumärkesinnehåll på sociala medier. Dessutom används varumärken inom sociala
mediemiljöer som en väsentlig del av konsumentens självidentifieringsprocess, vilket kan
vara väldigt användbart för organisationer när det gäller konsumentrelationer.

Syftet med undersökningen är att förstå vilken inverkan som aktivitet på sociala medier
och marknadsstrategier kan ha på konsumentens varumärkesuppfattning, samt de
underliggande mekanismer som starkast påverkar konsumentens perception. Dessa
omfattar de psykologiska bakgrundsbegrepp som är delaktiga i kognitiva processer, för
att skapa en bättre förståelse för de fundamentala funktionerna av att styra
konsumentbeteende genom innehållet och samspelet på sociala medier.

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Det verkar fattas rika och koncentrerade informationskällor med särskilt fokus på
sammanhanget sociala medier i kombination med varumärkesuppfattning, som har blivit
allt viktigare under de senaste åren på grund av den väldiga transformation som skett på
de globala marknaderna. Det påvisar en forskningslucka som skapar en efterfrågan på
empiriska data, till vilken denna undersökning bidrar. Dessutom är mitt mål att bidra med
empirisk data, forskning och litteratur inom det kombinerade området av sociala medier
och konsumentens varumärkesuppfattning. Utan att veta hur faktorer av
varumärkesuppfattningen på sociala medier påverkar konsumenter, är sociala medier
fortfarande ett underskattat verktyg i många varumärkeschefers ögon, som saknar
fullständig förståelse för de underliggande implikationerna.

Datainsamlingen baserades på anskaffningen av primärdata medan syftet av sekundärdata

endast är att fungera som underliggande teori för ett ramverk för hypoteserna samt en
käll-layout för olika datamodeller. Eftersom jag följde en deduktiv forskningsmetod,
använde jag Google Forms för datainsamling, vilket tillåter ett enkelt och okomplicerat
sätt att skapa en online formulär med logisk förgrening för visningen av vidare
frågeställningar baserade på deltagarnas svar.

Samlad primärdata innehåller respons på allmän varumärkesuppfattning av

konsumentens favoritmärken, samt det interaktiva elementet av sociala medier. Dessutom
ger det mig en datakälla för att bevisa eller motbevisa mina hypoteser och dra nya
slutsatser mellan de tillgängliga variablerna. För analyserna av det samlade datasetet
använde jag huvudsakligen SPSS, samt Microsoft Excel för visuella representationer.

Jag samlade totalt 58 svar, vilket motsvarar en svarsfrekvens på 15 %. Av dessa svar

ansågs 52 vara relevanta för min dataanalys. Eftersom jag försökte samla minst 100 svar,
kunde jag tyvärr inte uppfylla mitt mål på grund av begränsade resurser. Jag fokuserade
huvudsakligen på Skandinavien (86,53 % av samtliga deltagare) med Finland som
prioritet (65,38 %) på grund av enkel åtkomst, och andra europeiska länder (13,46 %).
Könsfördelningen var jämn mellan män och kvinnor. Beträffande ålder var den uppmätta
medelåldern 25,9 år med en standardavvikelse på 2,47 år. Av alla deltagare var 72 %
mellan 23 och 28 år gamla.

Den data som mäter de individuella styrkorna hos vissa uppfattnings- och
användningsmönster samlades i form av en tiopoängs likertskala, där ett är det svagaste

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och tio det starkaste värdet. Själva undersökningen utforskade totalt åtta olika delar av
varumärkesuppfattning, inklusive den sociala medie-aktiviteten.

När jag undersökte deltagarnas sociala medie-aktivitet kunde jag tyvärr bara använda 59,6
% av alla svar, eftersom många deltagare svarade att de inte engagerar sig i deras angivna
favoritmärkes sociala medier. Det generella medelvärdet av respondenternas sociala
medie-aktivitet var mycket positivt, med undantag för motivationen att distribuera
mottagen information från sociala medier vidare från mun till mun. Jag observerade inget
samband mellan höga värden av social medie-aktivitet och en stark allmän
varumärkesuppfattning, men snarare en korrelation med specifika element.

För att testa mina hypoteser använde jag en kombination av de olika tillgängliga
variablerna från min samlade undersökningsdata. Jag använde en multipel
regressionsanalys för att undersöka multikollinearitet med syftet att hitta de enskilda
karaktärsdragen gällande relationerna med deltagarnas följande av sitt valda varumärke
på sociala medier. Nästa skede beräknade jag de bivariata korrelationerna baserade på
Pearsons korrelationskoefficient.

När jag undersökte koefficientvärdena med den beroende variabeln av social medie-
aktivitet, har de icke-standardiserade betakoefficienterna i mina data visat sig vara högst
som gällande partnerkvalitet och beroende, följt av den nostalgiska anknytningen,
intimiteten, och varumärkeslojaliteten och -kapitalet. En ANOVA-analys har visat
statistisk signifikans gällande social medie-aktivitet och varumärkesuppfattning.

Resultatet av analysen visar en indikation på att min hypotes har en rimlig grund att det
finns en korrelation mellan användningen av sociala medier och en starkare inverkan på
varumärkesuppfattningen i form av andra uppfattningsvariabler. Dessutom finns det en
liknande korrelation mellan konsumenternas varumärkesuppfattning och sociala medier.
Trots detta är den uppmätta påverkan inte särskilt stark och med tanke på den lilla
stickprovsstorleken är det svårt att ange ett orsakssamband till de testade variablerna.
Reflektionerna över de samlade resultaten kan användas som en bas för ytterligare
forskning eller som en utvidgning av aktuella resultat i ämnesrelaterad forskning.

Såsom mitt hypotesprov, regressionen och korrelationsanalysen återspeglar, visade

deltagarnas sociala medie-aktivitet en positiv inverkan på de övriga elementen i
varumärkesuppfattning. Trots detta är det svårt att hitta ett statistiskt signifikant
orsakssamband på grund av det begränsade användningsområdet. Efter att ha beräknat en

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korrelationsmatris kan jag konstatera att social medie-aktivitet har en effekt, men inte är
mer signifikant i det stora hela än andra varumärkeselement.

Deltagarna i min online-undersökning gav upphov till olika resultat med sina svar. Detta
beror troligtvis på variationen av individuella perceptionsnivåer samt den givna friheten
att välja ett favoritmärke som fokuspunkt för undersökningen. Endast 59,6% av alla
deltagare var engagerade i sitt favoritmärkes sociala medier, vilket innebär att de
resterande 40,4 % blev min kontrollgrupp.

När det gäller korrelation kan den viktigaste effekten av social medie-aktivitet mätas
genom variablerna av partnerkvalitet och -beroende, nostalgisk anknytning och intimitet.
Därmed kan jag dra slutsatsen att sociala medier har värdefulla korrelationer till vissa
delar av varumärkesuppfattning, men det är inte fullständigt nödvändigt med tanke på en
stark varumärkesuppfattning. Som tidigare nämnt gäller dessa mätningar endast data från
deltagarna som gav oss uppgifterna om sin aktivitet på sociala medier och som svarade
att de följer sitt valda varumärke på en social medie-plattform.

Vid vidare efterforskning kunde jag observera att deltagarna som inte följde sitt
favoritmärke på sociala medier endast visade ett 2,35 % lägre sammanfattat medelvärde
av de totala märkesuppfattningsvärdena med undantag av den variabel som gäller social
medie-aktivitet. Jag kan därmed anta att en fullständigt positiv varumärkesuppfattning
inte nödvändigtvis är knuten till konsumentens sociala medie-aktivitet, men det är svårt
att veta hur den enskilda uppfattningen hos dessa individer skulle ha förändrats ifall de
hade varit aktiva.

Sammanfattningsvis, baserat på den empiriska undersökningen i min avhandling, iakttog

jag en positiv korrelation mellan social medie-aktivitet och de andra huvudelementen av
varumärkesuppfattning för Generation Y. Även om sociala medier inte är en perfekt
lösning som lämnar andra varumärkesutvecklingsmetoder i skuggan, har de en mätbar
inverkan på konsumenternas uppfattning. Företag och organisationer kan dra nytta av
detta genom att öka och förbättra sina konsumenters aktivitet på sociala medier och
därmed ytterligare förstärka konsumenternas varumärkesuppfattning på ett positivt sätt.
Detta är speciellt fallet om ett varumärke utnyttjar sociala medier för att öka sin nivå av
antropomorfism.

Datan i min korrelationsmatris hjälper inte endast potentiella marknadsförare att förstå
sociala mediernas inverkan, utan de förklarar även relationerna mellan andra vanliga

83
varumärkesverktyg. Jag drog också slutsatsen att en stark social medie-aktivitet inte är en
obligatorisk faktor när det gäller en framgångsrikt hög varumärkesuppfattning. Det är
möjligt att kompensera för bristen av social medie-aktivitet med alternativa faktorer
såsom en stark varumärkesaffekt. I slutändan är det viktigt för varumärket att känna till
styrkor och svagheter i sina individuella varumärkesutvecklingselement i form av
uppfattning och hur man kan tillägga vad som saknas.

Innan man fokuserar på förbättringen av någons närvaro på sociala medier, är det viktigt
att komma ihåg att sociala medier inte enskilt jämställs med framgång. Villkoren är starkt
situationsanpassade och ifall sociala medier inte närmas eller upprätthålls på rätt sätt, kan
det leda till oväntade konflikter.

På grund av datainsamlingsmetoden och den begränsade tidsramen som var tillgänglig

för att genomföra min undersökning, är den samlade informationen begränsad till den
enda tidpunkt då studien genomfördes. Forskningsmaterialet tar inte någon långsiktig
utveckling av konsumentsvar i beaktande. Deltagarnas åldersintervall är dessutom
begränsat till 20–30 år med det geografiska området Finland, Sverige och Norge, samt ett
fåtal svar utanför detta område.

Eftersom deltagarna fick friheten att välja ett av sina favoritmärken och ett valfritt socialt
medienätverk, finns det stor variation i insamlade data. Data begränsades ytterligare av
deltagarnas svaga aktivitet på sociala medier. Av de 52 giltiga svaren, var det endast 31
som angav att de aktivt följer sitt favoritmärke på en social medie-plattform. Eftersom så
få deltagare valde samma varumärke, kunde jag inte undersöka specifika avvikelser
gällande varumärken eller sociala nätverk. Detta kommer att kräva ytterligare fördjupad
forskning. Dessutom hade jag inte tid eller resurser att analysera de enskilda varumärkena
eller deltagarnas sociala medie-innehåll och -aktivitet som kan utgöra en värdefull faktor
i en mer detaljerad analys.

Denna undersökning skrevs med målet att mäta och analysera effekterna av social medie-
aktivitet på andra viktiga delar av varumärkesuppfattning. Det finns endast en begränsad
mängd tillgänglig forskning som är tillämplig för detta område. Mina presenterade
observationer, metodik och praktiska implikationer visade att det fortfarande finns en hel
del områden som kräver ytterligare forskning.

Trots att det var möjligt att mäta ett positivt inflytande av social medie-aktivitet på
helheten av varumärkesuppfattningen, skulle mer omfattande forskning vara nödvändig

84
för att sammanfatta en statistiskt giltig orsakssituation som bygger på en större
stickprovsstorlek. Jag rekommenderar starkt ytterligare forskning inom ämnet för denna
undersökning, särskilt med mer strikt kontrollerade testparametrar som möjliggör en
högre precision i dataanalysen. Som jag nämnde tidigare, tillät min undersökningsdata en
relativt stor frihetsgrad gällande de valda varumärkena och sociala medierna, vilket
begränsar mängden precision gällande statistiska mätningar och beräkningar.

85
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9. Appendix

Appendix A: Survey

Appendix B: Frequencies

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Appendix A: Survey

104
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106
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110
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Appendix B: Frequencies

120
Question 1

Question 2.1

Question 2.2

121
Question 2.3

Question 2.4

122
Question 2.5

Question 2.6

123
Question 3.1

Question 3.2

124
Question 3.3

Question 3.4

125
Question 3.5

Question 3.6

126
Question 4.1

Question 4.2

127
Question 5.1

Question 5.2

128
Question 5.3

Question 5.4

129
Question 6.1

Question 6.2

130
Question 6.3

Question 7.1

131
Question 7.2

Question 7.3

132
Question 7.4

Question 7.5

133
Question 7.6

Question 8.1

134
Question 8.2

Question 8.3

135
Question 9.1

Question 9.2

136
Question 9.3

Question 9.4

137
Question 9.5

Question 9.6

138
Question 9.7

Question 9.8

139
Question 10.1

Question 10.2

Question 10.3

140
Question 11.1

Question 11.2

Question 11.3

141
Question 11.4

Question 12.1

Question 12.2

142
Question 12.3

Question 13.1

Question 13.2

143
Question 13.3

Question 13.4

Question 13.5

144
Question 14.1

Question 14.2

145
Question 15.1

Question 15.2

146
Question 15.3

Question 15.4

147
Question 15.5

Question 16.1

148
Question 16.2

Question 16.3

149
Question 16.4

150