A comparison of consumers’ brand attitude and brand image between virtual worlds and websites - differences in high and low brand familiarity levels

Abstract

AbstractNumerous companies have engaged in managing their brands in virtual worlds. This study intends to explore whether the strategy of utilizing virtual worlds has a significantly larger effect on consumers’ brand attitude and brand image than the traditional brand promotion strategy of using an official website. An experiment was conducted by randomly assigning 80 voluntary participants to one of four scenarios for a comparative analysis followed by a content analysis and observation of the companies’ official websites and virtual business locations. The experimental results showed significant differences between participants’ brand attitudes towards companies with which they have different levels of familiarity before the study. Through a questionnaire, this study found that virtual world approaches are more effective than official websites in enhancing the participants’ brand attitude toward an unfamiliar brand. In addition, their perceived experiential and symbolic brand images are significantly different between the two brand promotional strategies (virtual world > website) for an unfamiliar brand. These results imply that when consumers are unfamiliar with a brand, perceived brand image can serve as an indicator of any potential increases in their recognition of the brand, especially when there are more experiential or symbolic objects in the virtual business locations. The results of content analysis and observations through the affordance view also showed that vivid and interactive features can enhance users’ overall satisfaction, provide them with new experiences, and update their brand knowledge when viewing the companies’ websites or virtual worlds. More findings and discussions were provided in this study.

Keywords

• brand attitude
• brand image
• brand familiarity
• experiment
• virtual world