The Effect of Positive Storytelling by Consumers on Brand Attitude

국문 초록 (Abstract)

스토리는 인간이 학습하고 커뮤니케이션하는 기본적인 방식으로 오랜기간 동안 상업적으로 이용되어 왔으며, 최근에는 소비자와 자사 브랜드간의 관계를 강화하려는 기업들에 의하여 더욱 활발하게 이용되고 있는 추세이다. 브랜드의 스토리는 그 자체로서 소비자에게 의미있는 정보를 제공할 뿐만 아니라 해당 브랜드와의 정서적인 유대감 형성을 촉진하고 소비자의 상상을 자극함으로서 고객을 흡인하는 강력한 힘이 있기 때문이다.
본 연구에서는 스토리텔링의 기존 연구를 확장하여 브랜드 스토리의 주요한 특성과 브랜드 친밀감을 중심으로 양자간의 관계를 실증하고자 하였다. 연구 결과에 의하면 브랜드 스토리의 즐거움, 이미지 정교화, 스토리 관여도는 플로우 경험의 매개를 통하여 브랜드 친밀감에 영향을 미침을 확인할 수 있었다.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In consumer psychology, storytelling has been recently discovered as an important tool for understanding consumers deeply(Escalas 2007; Holt and Thmpson 2004). People instinctively think in terms of story or narratively rather than argumentatively or paradigmatically(Schank 1990; Weick 1995). Storytelling is more than an entertaining way to get attention. People memorize and retain myriad of information contained in the story because that is natural way of learning and people see image and hear the sounds, and feel the emotions.
Many companies are trying to use the power of storytelling as one of their marketing tools. In communication tools, Simmons(2001) proposed that storytelling is 'pull' strategy in which customers are invited to participate in the experience and help managers deliver direction, information, and inspiration to their customers more powerfully than a logical argument. For most marketers, storytelling as a marketing tool is becoming a must. But for some people, storytelling is considered as a waste of time. It is a mere passing marketing fad, just like all the other passing fads that enjoyed their moment only to evaporate rapidly(Furnham 2004). And storytelling is dangerously unscientific and its contemporary popularity merely serves to further undermine marketing's hard-edged aspiration (CIM 2003).
But until now there is no enough research for resolving the conflict about the importance of stories and storytelling.
This paper explores how storytelling can be used by business managers of marketing brands. Brand managers who are looking to move beyond the reliance on traditional marketing tools should explore storytelling and its effects.
The main purpose of this research is to extend prior research on storytelling and brand by focusing on the story-brand relationship through empirical research.
In this research, we designed a model to examine the relationship between story's characteristics and brand. We focus on perceived story characteristics and perceived consumer characteristics as determinants of storytelling characteristics. Then examine the effect of storytelling on brand characteristics. Especially we examine whether the flow state are likely to perform as a mediator.
Data collection proceeded through the use of questionnaires. The questionnaires are collected through individual interviews of students and general citizens in Korea. We gathered samples from metropolitan area in Korea and samples consist of 219 respondents.
The research model for this study was designed to investigate the impact of story's characteristics on brand intimacy based on previous researches and literature. This model includes story flow as the mediating factor of the relationship.
GFI(.891), CFI(.952), SRMR(.068) indicate satisfactory model fit. Therefore, further analysis of relationship between the constructs were conducted.
These results show several explorative insights that have potential for further research and understanding in the area of storytelling and brand marketing. This research also has some limitations. Future research should consider more of extensive factors of story and brand.