Purpose

The purpose of this study is to understand the effect of different brand positions (underdog vs top dog) and comparative advertising on consumers’ brand attitudes. Additionally, this study also aims to demonstrate the effects of inspiration, self-relevance and empathy on the relationship between brand positioning and comparative advertising.

Design/methodology/approach

A two-by-three factorial design was employed with brand positions (underdog vs top dog) and three types of comparative advertising (noncomparative, indirect comparative and direct comparative) as the independent variables. Inspiration serves as the mediator, while self-relevance and empathy act as moderators and brand attitude is the dependent variable.

Findings

The results show that different brand positions significantly affect brand attitudes, with respondents having a better brand attitude toward the underdog brand. Brand attitude is partially mediated by inspiration. Self-relevance moderates the relationship between brand positioning and brand attitude. However, brand positioning, comparative advertising and empathy do not have interaction effects.

Research limitations/implications

This study contributes to a better understanding of the effect of psychological variables on brand positioning and comparative advertising.

Practical implications

The results suggest that the underdog setting requires a real and honest story because consumers will spot a fake underdog story, which will damage consumer trust in the brand and harm the brand image.

Originality/value

There is a lack of research using psychological variables to demonstrate the effect of being the underdog brand. This study contributes to the literature by employing psychological variables to illustrate the effect of underdog positioning. These findings can help brands develop branding positioning strategies.

中文翻译：

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品牌定位（弱者与强者）和比较广告的影响

目的

本研究的目的是了解不同品牌定位（弱者与强者）和比较广告对消费者品牌态度的影响。此外，本研究还旨在论证灵感、自我相关性和同理心对品牌定位和比较广告之间关系的影响。

设计/方法论/途径

采用二乘三因子设计，以品牌定位（劣势与优势）和三种类型的比较广告（非比较、间接比较和直接比较）作为自变量。灵感是中介变量，自我相关性和同理心是调节变量，品牌态度是因变量。

发现

结果显示，不同的品牌定位显着影响品牌态度，受访者对弱势品牌有更好的品牌态度。品牌态度部分是由灵感决定的。自我相关性调节品牌定位和品牌态度之间的关系。然而，品牌定位、比较广告和同理心并不具有交互作用。

研究局限性/影响

这项研究有助于更好地理解心理变量对品牌定位和比较广告的影响。

实际影响

结果表明，失败者背景需要真实而诚实的故事，因为消费者会发现虚假的失败者故事，这会损害消费者对品牌的信任并损害品牌形象。

原创性/价值

缺乏使用心理变量来证明弱势品牌影响的研究。这项研究通过利用心理变量来说明弱势定位的影响，为文献做出了贡献。这些发现可以帮助品牌制定品牌定位策略。