Creating a parasocial relationship on social media: luxury brands playing cute in China

Abstract

This study provides evidence that ‘cuteness’ glamorizes Chinese consumers’ affective experience with a luxury brand in a social media context. Using systematically developed advertising stimuli and a nonstudent sample of 723 Chinese residents, the main experiment demonstrates that cute images featured in a social media post can engage consumers in a ‘quasi social interaction’ with a luxury brand with relatively low recognition. Once initiated, this parasocial interaction drives attributions of brand personality, encouraging greater brand admiration. However, this sequential order is absent in the high brand awareness condition. Our findings provide insights into anthropomorphism by examining an important advertising strategy-cuteness in luxury marketing in China. Our study offers a more nuanced understanding of the impact of cuteness on people’s attitude toward the brand by examining the mediating roles of parasocial interaction and brand personality.