Partner or Servant: When Relationship Type Affects Trait Expectation and Evaluations of the Brand

Grounded in interpersonal and consumer–brand relationship literatures, this research examines two distinct roles that brands might be assigned – “brand-as-partner” versus “brand-as-servant” – to investigate how and why brands ascribed these relationship roles might be judged differently. Across multiple studies, we find that positioning the brand as a servant versus a partner significantly affects consumer evaluations of a negative as well as a positive brand performance. Our findings suggest that consumers expect more warmth from partner brands and more competence from servant brands (Study 1). As a consequence, consumers polarize their evaluations of partner brands when the warmth trait is more relevant and diagnostic (Study 2A) and of servant brands when the competence trait is more diagnostic (Study 2B). Finally, we find that these effects are driven by the extent to which the brand upholds or violates consumers’ expectations of the brand being a warm partner and a competent servant (Study 3). Taken together, these findings reveal the theoretically meaningful role of consumers’ expectations in shaping the evaluations of partner versus servant brands. (172 words)