The appeal of congruence between brand characters and products: uncovering the affective mechanisms leading to product choice

This aim of this study was to reveal the affective mechanisms underlying children’s healthy food preferences for both familiar and unfamiliar characters. We developed a model explaining how the following two underlying mechanisms can increase children’s preferences for character-branded food products: (1) an automatic affective response induced by processing fluency, and (2) an elaborated affective response induced by parasocial relationship formation. In particular, we looked at whether these affective mechanisms differed for familiar and unfamiliar characters. The conceptual model was tested using a sample of 121 children (4-6 years). Structural equation modeling analyses showed that both the familiar character (via previous exposure) and unfamiliar character (via congruence with the product) triggered a positive automatic affective response induced by processing fluency, which, in turn, increased children’s product preference. Both characters also triggered an elaborated affective response that positively influenced children’s product preference. However, while the elaborated affective response triggered by the familiar character can be explained with parasocial relationship theories, the elaborated affective response triggered by the unfamiliar character seems to be the result of factors other than processing fluency and parasocial relationship formation.