Abstract:

Prior studies show that sharing behavior strengthens the interpersonal relationship between the speaker and the audiences, and the consumption experience. There is limited research in if sharing brand experience with others strengthens consumers’ brand attitude, and how it intensify sharers’ brand attitude. In order to answer the above gap, this study explores the influencing mechanism of sharing brand experience with others in speakers’ brand attitude drawing support from shared reality theory of social psychology. Through two experiments, this study finds: (1) Sharing brand experience with audiences strengthens the speakers’ brand attitude, specifically, after the speaker share positive brand experience, the speakers’ brand attitude increase; after speakers share negative brand experience, the speakers’ brand attitude decrease. (2) Whether the audiences’ opinion is uniformity with the speaker influence the speaker’s brand attitude differently, and compared with inconformity opinion between the audiences and the speaker, when the opinion is uniformity between the audiences and the speaker, sharing brand experience has larger effect on influencing speaker’s brand attitude. (3) Compared with the audiences are out-group members, when the audiences are in-group members, sharing brand experience has larger effect on influencing speaker’s brand attitude. (4) When the speaker is analytic thinking, whether the opinion between the audiences and the speaker is uniformity influences the speakers’ brand attitude differently.

Key words: Sharing, Brand Experience, Brand Attitude, Shared Reality, Group Membership