Pictorial Branding : How Anthropomorphic and Naturalistic Logos Imbue Product Value Perceptions, Expected Experience and Willingness to Pay a Price Premium

Despite the pervasive use of pictorial brand logos, little is known about their effects on product value perceptions, expected product experience and willingness to pay premium. This study addressed the above-mentioned gap by building upon dual coding, anthropomorphism and biophilia theories to explain why anthropomorphic and naturalistic logos can exert differential effects on the relationships between product value perceptions, expected product experience and willingness to pay premium. An experiment with 300 middle-income consumers aged 25 to 50 years old showed that pictorial logos acted as a prime and evoked utilitarian-related (functional and economic), socio-psychological-related (emotional, social and novelty) value perceptions, which subsequently impacted willingness to pay a price premium. However, the relationship between utilitarian-related values and willingness to pay was stronger for a naturalistic logo than for an anthropomorphic logo. In contrast, the impact of socio-psychological-related values on willingness to pay was stronger for an anthropomorphic logo compared to the naturalistic logo, pointing to different benefits that pictorial logos can provide to brand managers and importance of careful logo design. Expected product experience mediated the above-mentioned relationships pointing to pictorial logos’ important implications for branding strategies and behavioural outcomes