مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد بازاریابی واقعیت افزوده و روابط برند-مصرف کننده – وایلی 2024

Abstract

Marketers use augmented reality (AR) to place virtual brand-related information into a consumer’s physical context. Grounded in the literature on AR, brand love, metaphor theory, and closeness as interpreted by the neural theory of language, the authors theorize that branded AR content can reduce the perceived physical, spatial distance between a consumer and a brand. This perceived closeness subsequently drives the closeness of the emotional relationship in the form of brand love. Two empirical studies validate this framework. Study 1 shows that using an AR app (vs. non-AR) increases the perceived physical closeness of the brand, which in turn drives brand love (i.e., relationship closeness). Study 2 replicates this finding in a pre-/post-use design. Here, high levels of local presence (i.e., the extent to which consumers perceive a brand as actually being present in their physical environment) drive perceived physical closeness, which leads to brand love. We also find that AR’s power to generate brand love increases when the consumer is already familiar with the brand. We discuss managerial implications for AR marketing today and in a metaverse future in which AR content might be prevalent in consumers’ everyday perceptions of the real world.

Introduction

When consumers use augmented reality (AR), they have a hybrid experience consisting of the real physical environment around them and virtual objects that appear to have been placed within that world (Flaviàn et al., 2019; Peddie, 2017). The main distinctive factor between AR and other digital presentation formats is contextual embedding (von der Au et al., 2023), which means that the virtual content is integrated into the user’s physical environment (Rauschnabel, Felix, et al., 2022). For instance, Pokémon Go users perceive virtual creatures sitting on their streets, IKEA Place users explore virtual couches in their living rooms, and car enthusiasts can experience virtual cars as if the vehicles were in their driveways using the Mercedes Benz cAR app.

The growing importance of AR marketing has been reflected in an increase in academic publications. However, as recent bibliographic analyses by Du et al. (2022), Jayaswal and Parida (2023), and Kumar (2022) reveal, only a few studies have tackled issues in brand management. Such studies typically focus on how AR can drive cognitive brand attitudes (e.g., Gatter et al., 2022; Zanger et al., 2022) or brand engagement and advocacy (Kumar et al., 2023b). What has not been sufficiently considered in relation to AR marketing is the potential to enhance brand love or other aspects of consumer–brand relationships (Scholz & Duffy, 2018). The present research is among the first to establish a link between AR marketing and brand love.

Conclusion

As we envision a future where AR plays a dominant role in consumers’ lives, the question of what is real and what is not becomes relevant. Our research shows that the question of what is near and what is far may also arise because AR can trigger closeness perceptions between a user and a virtual object. Marketers can benefit from this perceived physical closeness—especially in brand management—as this research shows. We hope that this research will inspire scholars to understand how AR can be used to solve personal, business, or societal problems. Using AR to create closeness between a user and a specific subject (e.g., a brand, a product, a topic, a societal problem, etc.) could be an effective strategy across disciplines.