Kawai vs. Whimsical: The influence of cuteness types of luxury brands on consumers’ preferences

Abstract

<p id=C2>Cute brand styles are being used by increasing number of luxury brands in their marketing to interact with consumers. Cuteness can be divided into two types, including kindchenschema and whimsical. The majority of current studies are focused on the effects of single kindchenschema cuteness on consumer psychology and behavior. So, how does the adoption of various cute styles by luxury brands influence consumer preference? What is the internal mechanism? We have contributed to the literature on luxury brands by investigating how consumers react to various cute styles of luxury brands in the current study. <break/>In order to achieve their various objectives, luxury brands can deliver specific messages to the market by selecting brand images of various cute styles. In this case, the cuteness type of luxury brands (kindchenschema vs. whimsical) can influence consumers’ brand preferences through their perception of the brand’s ideal self-expression. The ideal self of an individual is generally characterized by high autonomy. According to the theory of the ideal self, the cuteness styles of luxury goods can influence consumers’ ideal self-expression through the autonomy of luxury brands. When the cuteness style is whimsical, luxury brands demonstrate high brand autonomy, which is conducive to consumers’ ideal self-expression, thereby improving consumers’ preferences for luxury brands. However, there are boundary conditions for the applicability of main effects, and self-monitoring moderates the relationship between luxury brands’ cuteness styles and consumers’ preferences. In other words, when the level of self-monitoring is low, the cuteness styles of luxury brands will not significantly affect the individual’s brand preferences. <break/>To test our hypotheses, we conducted four experiments. Experiment 1 preliminarily shows that different cuteness styles of luxury brands can significantly influence consumers’ brand preferences. The findings validate the causal chain model, which tests the theoretical logic of main effects, from cuteness styles of luxury brands, brand autonomy, ideal self-expression, and consumer preference. Experiment 2 clarifies the main effect’s boundary. The results indicate that the influence of luxury brand cuteness styles on consumer preferences is only effective in the context of luxury brands. Experiment 3 examined the moderating effect of individual self-monitoring level on the main effect and discovered that for individuals with low self-monitoring, the cuteness styles of luxury brands could not effectively influence their brand preferences. Experiment 4 investigated the moderating effect of the individual development stage on the main effect. Adults preferred whimsical cuteness elicited over kindchenschema cuteness. Kindchenschema cuteness triggered a more positive response than whimsical cuteness in children. <break/>According to our findings, adopting the whimsical cuteness style in luxury brands can improve consumers’ brand preferences more than kindchenschema cuteness style. When the cuteness style is kindchenschema, luxury brands demonstrate low brand autonomy, which is not conducive to consumers’ ideal self-expression, reducing consumers’ preferences for luxury brands. When the cuteness style is whimsical, luxury brands demonstrate high brand autonomy, which is consistent with the consumers’ ideal self and improves their preferences for luxury brands. When individuals have low self-monitoring, the cuteness styles of luxury brands have no effect on consumers’ preferences. These findings provide novel insights into the cuteness styles and ideal self-expression of luxury brands, implying that brands should carefully consider consumers’ level of self-monitoring before displaying various cuteness types of luxury brand styles.