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JFMM
25,4 Repositioning luxury fashion
brands as intentional agents:
the roles of consumer envy
606 and admiration
Received 30 June 2019 Bo Ra Joo
Revised 7 October 2019
7 May 2020 Retail and Consumer Studies, University of Minnesota,
22 September 2020 Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA, and
28 December 2020
Accepted 28 December 2020 Hye-Young Kim
Retail Merchandising, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA

Abstract
Purpose – Building on the Brands as Intentional Agents Framework (BIAF), the aim of this study is to
demonstrate the effectiveness of social media marketing (SMM) as a tool to communicate luxury fashion
brands’ good intentions toward the general public.
Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 488 US female consumers was used to test a conceptual
model delineating the sequential linkages from luxury fashion brands’ intentions to brand emotions (i.e. envy
vs admiration) and to consumer–brand relationships (i.e. emotional brand attachment and brand forgiveness).
Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to test the measurement and structural models.
Findings – The results indicated that luxury fashion brands’ “populist” intentions had a positive impact on
consumer admiration. Both consumer envy and admiration had positive effects on emotional brand attachment
and brand forgiveness. However, admiration had a stronger effect than envy on these relational consumer
responses.
Originality/value – This study identified that luxury fashion brands, frequently stereotyped as exclusive,
can become brands admired by mass-market consumers by expressing warmth on social media. Drawing on
social psychological perspectives and the BIAF, this study adds to the literature on luxury brands’ social media
communication by demonstrating the effectiveness of brand warmth to induce consumers’ strong relational
outcomes.
Keywords Luxury fashion brand, Social media, Brand warmth, Envy, Admiration, Emotional brand
attachment, Brand forgiveness
Paper type Research paper

Journal of Fashion Marketing and
Management: An International
Journal
Vol. 25 No. 4, 2021
pp. 606-624
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1361-2026
DOI 10.1108/JFMM-06-2019-0135
Introduction
Luxury fashion brands have become increasingly visible on social media since 2009, after the
successful rejuvenation of Burberry on social media (Phan et al., 2011). Most luxury fashion
brands now have official sites on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter and YouTube. Among nine ways (e.g. fashion magazines, blogs) that young adult
Internet users (20–30 years old) in the United States researched high-end fashion and luxury
items, social media was the primary way, at 23.1% in 2017 (Deloitte, 2017). The two most-
followed luxury fashion brands, Chanel and Louis Vuitton, have more than 20 million
followers on Instagram, as of November 2017 (Cook, 2017).
Overall, luxury brands have been stereotyped as “able but ill-intentioned” toward the
general public, according to the Brands as Intentional Agents Framework (BIAF) (Kervyn
et al., 2012). However, many of them have changed their branding by adopting social media
(Phan et al., 2011), which implies the general public’s changed perceptions to luxury brands.
Building on the BIAF, the term, “intentions” refers to how well a brand takes actions in the
best interests of the general public rather than meeting individual customer needs (Fournier
and Alvarez, 2012). Good intentions are important to a brand in that they increase consumers’
endorsements of a brand, purchase intent and loyalty (Kervyn et al., 2012; Bernritter Repositioning
et al., 2016). luxury fashion
The present study focuses on examining the BIAF in the context of luxury fashion brands
(e.g. designer clothing and footwear, jewelry, accessories and cosmetics). Among many
brands
luxury product and service categories (e.g. cars, wine, hotels and travel goods), the official
social media sites of luxury fashion brands are deemed especially well-intended (i.e. sincere,
friendly, prosocial) as compared to traditional communication channels (e.g. TV, magazine
ads). For example, Valentino’s followers can decorate the brand’s social media site with 607
emojis and creative fonts, while Coach’s followers can upload user-generated images to the
brand’s fan page. Louis Vuitton maintains a partnership with the United Nations Children’s
Fund to help children in need and encourages its followers to join the campaign on its brand
page. Today’s consumers, regardless of economic status, can interact with luxury fashion
brands and enjoy firm- and user-generated content through brands’ social media sites.
In addition, social media plays a role as one of the most effective tools for maximizing the
effect of a social campaign (Paek et al., 2013).
Indeed, it has been reported that an established brand can create a new brand image by
differentiating the brand’s level of intention or ability (Kervyn et al., 2012). In addition,
brands’ social media activities offer the chance to rectify consumers’ misunderstandings and
prejudices toward the brand (Kim and Ko, 2012). Social media, then, is a useful means for
resolving a negative stereotype and rebranding of a luxury fashion brand.
In recent years, researchers have paid growing attention to the impacts of luxury
branding on social media in terms of consumers’ beliefs and responses to promotional
messages and the functions and values of the social media sites themselves (Jin, 2012; Kim
and Ko, 2012; Chu et al., 2013). The adoption of social media as a marketing channel has made
luxury fashion brands intimate and trustworthy from the perspective of consumers, resulting
in increased consumer purchase intention (Gautam and Sharma, 2017). However, despite the
importance of a brand’s good intentions, there is little research investigating the effectiveness
of luxury brands’ good intentions on consumers’ emotional and relational responses. Thus,
further research should be conducted to understand the impact of luxury fashion brands’
“warm” Social Media Marketing (SMM) based on theoretical conceptualizations and to
maximize the Return on Investment (ROI) from SMM. Moreover, much of the literature has
focused on consumers’ behavioral responses, such as purchase intent (e.g. Kim and Ko, 2010,
2012; Chu et al., 2013). Scholars have paid little attention to social media’s function of building
strong relationships between brands and consumers and to powerful relational outcomes,
such as emotional brand attachment and brand forgiveness, regarded as vital to long-term
brand value and performance (Park et al., 2010; Sinha and Lu, 2016).
Thus, this study aims to demonstrate SMM’s effectiveness to communicate luxury fashion
brands’ good intentions toward the general public concerning the brand emotions
(i.e. consumer envy and admiration) and relational outcomes (i.e. emotional brand
attachment and brand forgiveness). To be specific, it seeks to identify whether luxury
fashion brands, which are frequently stereotyped as exclusive, envied brands, can become
approachable and admired by expressing good intentions on their social media sites.
This study will contribute to luxury brands’ social media communication literature.
Additionally, it will suggest the practical implications of how luxury brands can benefit from
“warm” SMM communication.

Conceptual framework and hypothesis development

Brands as intentional agents framework (BIAF)
This study builds on the BIAF developed by Kervyn et al. (2012). The BIAF originated from
the stereotype content model (Fiske et al., 2002), a social perceptions model that explains
JFMM interpersonal stereotypes of warmth and competence. People perceived as having positive,
25,4 cooperative intentions are stereotyped as warm (Cuddy et al., 2008). Warmth is typically
associated with helpfulness, sincerity, friendliness, trustworthiness and prosocial behavior,
which induce others to come to one’s aid when needed (Fiske et al., 2007). In contrast, people
perceived as having negative, competitive and exploitative intentions are stereotyped as cold
(Cuddy et al., 2008). Another dimension of the stereotype content model is competence, which
includes efficiency, intelligence, conscientiousness and skill (Fiske et al., 2007). People
608 perceived as having skills, talents and capabilities are stereotyped as competent, and they are
regarded as capable and hardworking (Cuddy et al., 2008). By contrast, those who lack such
traits are considered incompetent (Cuddy et al., 2008). Kervyn et al. (2012) extended the
stereotype content model to the domain of branding research.
Intentions and warmth have been used interchangeably (e.g. Aaker et al., 2010); in general,
warmth refers to a human-specific trait manifested through interpersonal relationships while
the term, “intentions” indicates a brand characteristic portrayed in a brand–consumer
relationship dyad. In line with Kervyn et al. (2012), this study operationalizes perceived brand
warmth through the construct of intentions. Intentions refer to how well- or ill-intentioned
brands seem to the general public (Kervyn et al., 2012). Brands show good intentions through,
for example, mainstream positioning (i.e. catering to a wide array of consumers), benevolence
(i.e. having the best interests of the consumer at heart), company concern for consumer health,
socially responsible corporate actions and support of social programs and small local
producers (Fournier and Alvarez, 2012; Andrei and Zait, 2014). In other words, good
intentions are defined as taking actions in the best interests of the general public rather than
meeting individual needs (Fournier and Alvarez, 2012). Another dimension in the BIAF is
ability, and it refers to how able or unable brands seem to implement their good intentions
toward the general public (Kervyn et al., 2012).
More specifically, able/well-intentioned brands are categorized as popular brands that
elicit admiration in the general public (e.g. Hershey’s and Johnson & Johnson). Able/
ill-intentioned brands are categorized as envied brands that elicit envy in the general public
(e.g. Porsche and Rolex). While luxury brands target primarily wealthier-than-average
consumers, not the general public, they are perceived as being able/ill-intentioned. Four brand
emotions—admiration, envy, pity and contempt—were addressed in the BIAF according to
the levels of intentions and ability. The current research incorporated only admiration and
envy because luxury fashion brands are not considered unable brands that elicit pity and
contempt (Kervyn et al., 2012).
Warmth has been consistently proven to be important in brand performance in research
on the BIAF. Kervyn et al. (2012) demonstrated that well-intentioned brands are rated higher
on purchase intent and loyalty scales compared to ill-intentioned brands. Similarly, Aaker
et al. (2012) found that a brand’s warmth positively impacts consumers’ purchase intent and
that this impact is partially mediated by admiration. The identical brand can be differently
perceived by a consumer on social media compared with an offline setting, and the social
media context has been addressed in the literature on the BIAF (e.g. Bernritter, 2016;
Bernritter et al., 2016; Chang et al., 2019). Bernritter et al. (2016) found that perceptions of the
warmth and competence of a brand had positive impacts on consumers’ endorsing a brand on
social media, and the effect of warmth was greater than the effect of competence. Likewise, in
an investigation of the impacts of language (first-person vs third-person) and brand image
(warm vs competent) on social media, Chang et al. (2019) found that a warm brand image
increased social media users’ likings on the brand’s ads via their need for social belonging.
Therefore, a proposed conceptual model posits that well-intentioned luxury brands will
positively contribute to the formation of strong consumer-brand relationships (i.e. emotional
brand attachment and brand forgiveness) through consumer admiration (vs envy) on
social media.
Luxury fashion brands and social media communication Repositioning
The content of luxury fashion brands’ posts on social media varies from new product luxury fashion
information and fashion trends or tips to images and videos of the backstage at fashion
shows, celebrities wearing their brands, social campaigns they participate in and conceptual
brands
films that represent the theme of each season. They are primarily for promotion, diversion for
a follower and two-way communication between a follower with a brand or other followers
(Straker and Wrigley, 2016). Another characteristic of the content of luxury fashion brands’
social media is that the new product lines they endorse are the relatively cheaper ones such as 609
perfumes, cosmetics and accessory items like watches, which the general public or young
consumers can afford, rather than the expensive handbags or garments.
As luxury fashion brands adapt to the social media platform, researchers have focused on
beneficial SMM activities and functions for users and consistently found their positive
impacts on luxury fashion brand performance, such as reaching a global audience beyond a
brand’s wealthy, core customers and promoting purchase intentions or Word-of-Mouth
(WOM) activities (Kim and Ko, 2010, 2012; Jin, 2012; Godey et al., 2016). Recent research has
started to investigate consumers’ emotions and the relational benefits of luxury fashion
brands’ social media usage. For example, Godey et al. (2016) emphasized the role of social
media communication as a cost-effective brand image building tool, rather than just as a
means of increasing brand awareness or of reaching new customers. They also argued that it
is an effective tool for building emotional ties with brands. Bashir et al. (2018) focused on
consumers’ emotional and relational responses in visual Social Networking Service (SNS) and
tested the impacts of inspiring and entertaining contents of the top 10 most-followed global
brands on Instagram—a visual-based social media platform—including four luxury fashion
brands. They found that three-dimensional emotional responses—Appeal (pleasure),
Engagement and Empowerment (AEE)—contributed to brand commitment. Here,
entertainment and aesthetic values positively related to the appeal of AEE, and perceived
belongingness positively related to engagement of AEE. Perceived mutuality through two-
way communication was positively related to the empowerment of AEE. In sum, they insisted
that SMM on graphic-rich SNS is effective for creating consumer affective response and
ultimately consumer-brand relational outcomes.

Luxury fashion brands’ intentions and brand emotions (i.e. envy vs admiration)
While luxury fashion brands traditionally stick with exclusivity, they appear relatively warm
on social media compared to the traditional media in terms of openness, sociability and social
responsibility. To illustrate, first, luxury fashion brands are open to everyone on social media,
and they provide a platform where anyone in the world, regardless of economic status or
social class, can enjoy their entertaining and aesthetically appealing content, get information
or share opinions for free (Nelson et al., 2019). For example, Louis Vuitton posts catwalk
presentation videos so that customers worldwide can enjoy the show. Chanel has uploaded
visual “treats,” such as interesting and novel video clips, nearly every day since opening its
Instagram account in 2014. In addition, luxury fashion brands allow consumers to lead in
some ways, such as permitting them to upload user-generated content (Phan et al., 2011).
Second, in the past, luxury fashion brands were reluctant to reveal themselves in detail.
They used to portray mysterious images to engender consumer aspiration and respect from
the public (Hitzler and M€ uller-Stewens, 2017). They typically placed themselves at a
psychological distance from the general public not to interact or engage with them (Hansen
and W€anke, 2011). However, with the emergence of SMM, they have become sociable
revealing themselves and communicating with the public. For example, Chanel shows behind
the scenes footage which customers have wanted to see (Trinh, 2016). Lim et al. (2018) found
that backstage storytelling in luxury brands’ social media communication positively impacts
JFMM consumers’ attitudes towards a brand’s Instagram, brand evaluations and self-brand
25,4 connection. As exemplified, luxury fashion brands’ social media communication conveys
brand intimacy to the public. Unlike their official webpage, their social media sites provide
intimate details such as preparation for collection and designers’ daily lives (Lim et al., 2018),
demonstrating their sociability and warmth.
Third, most luxury fashion brands upload images, video clips and drawings that appeal to
public interests. In particular, they showcase social responsibility regarding saving children
610 or sustainability and eco-friendly practices and use social media platforms, one of the most
effective tools (Paek et al., 2013), to disseminate social campaigns and encourage their fans to
participate in them (Roncha and Radclyffe-Thomas, 2016). For example, Bulgari has
maintained a partnership with the Save the Children Fund since 2009 to help children in need
and has encouraged its followers to join its campaign by sharing a headshot of themselves
with their eyes closed making a wish on its brand page. Bulgari donated $1.00 to the
foundation for every post shared with the hashtag #seemywish.
Luxury fashion brands appear to be trying to rebuild their images by signaling good
intentions along with high abilities on social media to move a step closer to the general public
or young potential consumers. They have provided the platform where consumers can
communicate with a brand and other followers in a sincere and friendly fashion in order to
induce friendly attention and affection toward the brand (Kim and Ko, 2012). Thus, this study
focuses on the impacts of warmth on social media on the general public’s responses and
included only warmth from the BIAF in the conceptual model.
According to the BIAF, an established brand can create a new brand or brand stereotype
that fits into a different quadrant of the BIAF from its original perceived stereotype by
differentiating the level of intentions or ability (Kervyn et al., 2012). Well-intentioned and
high-ability social media communication would consistently create another brand stereotype
while increasing consumers’ admiration and decreasing their envy toward luxury fashion
brands. With increased good intentions, luxury fashion brands could move to the able/well-
intentioned and admired brands.
Previous research on the BIAF (i.e. Kervyn et al., 2012) investigated the effect of brand
stereotypes on US consumers’ brand emotions using 16 well-known brands (e.g. Coca-Cola,
Rolex, USPS, Goldman Sachs), and they found admiration was positively predicted by both
intentions and ability. Envy was positively predicted by ability, but the intention was not a
significant predictor. However, it was in the predicted negative direction, showing that
consumers’ perception of 16 well-known brands supported the BIAF. In a similar vein, Ivens
et al. (2015) examined the effect of brand stereotypes on Switzer consumers’ brand emotions
using well-known and affordable brands (e.g. Amazon, Apple, Starbucks). They revealed that
brand warmth had a positive effect on admiration and a negative effect on envy.
Based on these research findings, this study first aimed to investigate whether luxury
fashion brands could cultivate admiration and diminish envy on social media. Thus, the
following hypotheses regarding brand stereotypes (i.e. intentions) and brand emotions
(i.e. envy vs admiration) were proposed:
H1. Intentions of a luxury fashion brand’s social media communication will have (a) a
negative impact on consumer envy and (b) a positive impact on consumer admiration
toward the brand.

Brand emotions and relational responses

Much of the previous research on luxury brands’ social media communication (e.g. Kim and
Ko, 2010, 2012; Chu et al., 2013) and on the warmth and competence of a brand (e.g. Aaker
et al., 2010, 2012; Andrei and Zait, 2014) has focused on investigating consumers’ purchase
intentions. This study focuses on the relational outcome of social media communication
because one of its most important functions of the social media communication is building a Repositioning
solid relationship with existing or potential customers (Godey et al., 2016). While purchase luxury fashion
intention is relatively limited to one-time responses, relational outcome variables imply long-
term revenues from one customer for his/her lifetime. Thus, the relational outcome variables
brands
of emotional brand attachment and brand forgiveness, which are evidence of a solid
relationship (Park et al., 2010; Sinha and Lu, 2016), are investigated.
Emotional brand attachment refers to the connection in a consumer–brand relationship
and involves feelings of affection, passion and connection toward the brand (Mal€ar et al., 611
2011). Researchers in marketing and consumer behavior have investigated the antecedents
and outcomes of emotional brand attachment. Its importance has been extensively reported
through multiple outcome variables in empirical tests. For example, Park et al. (2010) found
that emotional brand attachment makes consumers forsake personal resources (e.g. time,
money, energy) to maintain a relationship with a brand, and it also positively impacts brand
purchase and brand loyalty. More recently, Dwivedi et al. (2019) found that emotional brand
attachment has direct positive impacts on brand credibility and consumer satisfaction and an
indirect positive impact on consumer-based brand equity (i.e. brand awareness, brand
associations, perceived quality and brand loyalty) via the mediation effects of brand
credibility and consumer satisfaction.
In terms of antecedents of emotional brand attachment, Yao et al. (2015) found that
consumers show emotional brand attachment toward a brand that reflects their personality
(e.g. sincere, cool, young). However, predictors of brand attachment have not been
investigated thoroughly despite their importance, and little research has investigated the
impact of brand emotions experienced by consumers on emotional brand attachment. In the
BIAF literature, MacInnis (2012) insisted that it is important to investigate whether brands
rated highly in both warmth and competence are more likely to elicit strong brand attachment
as brand attachment is a predictor of multiple positive outcomes related to firm performance.
Brand forgiveness is defined as consumers’ willingness to pardon a brand’s violation
of trust and to respond to the brand’s recovery efforts in constructive ways (Xie and Peng,
2009). Negative publicity or brand transgression involving, for example, product failure,
recalls, consumer boycotts and failed brand extensions can harm a brand (Loken and
John, 2010). Any brand can suffer from negative publicity, and luxury brands are no
exception (Rashid and Chattaraman, 2019). Past negative publicity of luxury fashion
brands includes deviations in the products, fake luxury products, use of animal fur, racial
discriminative ads, celebrities who endorsed a brand while having indiscreet affairs or
scandals and tax evasion of a creative director of a brand. Brand forgiveness is important
as a relational outcome variable in that a customer forgiving a brand’s failure may be
evidence for the consumer believing and liking the brand, and it provides a foundation for
relationship restoration rather than consumers converting to a rival brand and for a long-
term brand value (Xie and Peng, 2009; Sinha and Lu, 2016).
Xie and Peng (2009) revealed that perceived corporate integrity, competence and
benevolence in recovering trust in the consumer–brand relationship increases consumer
forgiveness after negative publicity. Here, the benevolence construct applies to good
intentions. Similarly, MacInnis (2012) suggested a straightforward prediction that
consumers are more likely to give brands a second chance when they are perceived as
both warm and competent. Xu et al. (2013) investigated the impact of warmth on a
perception of the country of origin being thought of as warm. In terms of product failure,
the perception of warmth encouraged consumers to believe that a company has
satisfactory motivations or made efforts to produce safe goods. Accordingly, they found
that a perception of the company’s country of origin being warm, more than it being
competent, leads to consumers’ willingness to forgive the company in the wake of product
failure.
JFMM In terms of brand emotions, first, envy is an ambivalent emotion, and the ambivalence
25,4 originates from resentment and respect (Cuddy et al., 2008). Envy leads to both positive and
negative reactions in consumer–brand relationships in such a way that envied organizations
are respected but not liked by the general public, which may cause drawbacks such as
suspicion and backlash (Wolf and Glick, 2016).
On the other hand, admiration, a univalent emotion, has consistently shown positive
impacts on brand performance. To be specific, admired brands attract more purchases and
612 increased consumer attitudinal and behavioral intention (i.e. buying and recommending the
brand), as well as greater engagement, connection and loyalty (Aaker et al., 2012; Ivens et al.,
2015; Park et al., 2016). These positive impacts indicate that brands should seek to build and
strengthen collective consumer admiration over time.
The research above suggests that the ambivalent emotion envy, elicited from brand
stereotypes of intentions and ability, will negatively predict relational outcomes while the
univalent emotion admiration will positively predict the relational outcomes among the
general public which is the population we focused on in this study. Thus, this study
hypothesized:
H2. Consumer envy toward the brand will have a negative impact on consumers’
(a) emotional brand attachment and (b) brand forgiveness.
H3. Consumer admiration toward the brand will have a positive impact on consumers’
(a) emotional brand attachment and (b) brand forgiveness.
According to the BIAF, a high status in both warmth and competence elicit admiration
among the general public, which provides firms with an additional advantage that surpasses
the effect of either envy by being able/ill-intentioned or pity by being unable/well-intentioned
(Aaker et al., 2012). In addition, Ivens et al. (2015) revealed that univalent emotion of
admiration toward a brand has stronger effects on consumers’ brand attitudes and
behavioral intentions (i.e. buying the brand and recommending the brand) than ambivalent
emotion of envy. These research findings suggest that the impact of admiration on the
relational responses will be stronger than that of envy. Thus, this study hypothesized:
H4. Consumer admiration will trigger a stronger effect than consumer envy on
(a) emotional brand attachment and (b) brand forgiveness.

Methods
Preliminary test
A pre-test was performed on 27 women in the United States who were following or liked a
luxury fashion brand’s official social media site and whose average age was 32.89 years
(SD 5 5.37). Subjects were asked to rate the good intentions toward the general public that the
luxury fashion brands they had followed and how much the brands had the ability to
implement their good intentions on social media sites, using a seven-point Likert scale. The
means of the brands’ perceived intentions (M 5 5.02) and ability (M 5 5.19) confirmed that
consumers sensed the brands’ good intentions and abilities via their social media sites.

Sample and data collection

Social media is not the exclusive property of the younger generation (Reyneke et al., 2011), and
in the United States, people aged 18–49 are the most active on social media (Pew Research
Center, 2019). Furthermore, women have been shown to visit pages of luxury fashion brands
more than men (Hitzler and M€ uller-Stewens, 2017). Therefore, the present study judged that
women aged 18–49 were an appropriate target population.
 Study participants included 618 women between 18 and 49 years old who lived in the Repositioning
United States and were following or liked at least one luxury fashion brand’s official social luxury fashion
media site on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat or YouTube, and they were
recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (mturk.com). In terms of social media platforms,
brands
platforms as mentioned earlier were proved to be the most popular apps in the United States
(Verto Analytics, 2017; WeareFlint, 2018). Most luxury fashion brands have their own official
social media pages on these six platforms, so participants who have experienced luxury
fashion brands on at least one of these platforms were recruited. To address an issue of brand 613
fan pages may not be perceived as warm to the general public, participants were asked only to
consider brands’ official social media sites that firms manage when answering the online
self-reporting survey.
Participants’ responses that included non-luxury fashion brand names (N 5 117) were
excluded since they were outside the scope of this study, as well as those who wrote the wrong
social media platform name (N 5 13). This procedure resulted in 488 responses to be used for
analyses.

Procedure
The questionnaire consisted of three sections. First, the survey asked the participants to write
the luxury fashion brand names they were currently following or liked. When they were
friends with or followers of multiple luxury fashion brands on social media, they were asked
to choose the one brand they liked the most. Then the participants were asked to choose and
write one social media platform they used to follow their favorite brand. When they were
following certain luxury fashion brands across multiple social media platforms, they were
asked to choose the social media platform they used most intensively. Then, they were asked
to recall their experiences of the brands’ official social media sites that firms manage and to
answer questions on luxury fashion brands’ intentions (e.g. “I sense that this brand
consistently acts with the public’s best interests in mind on its social media site.”; Aaker et al.,
2012; Kervyn et al., 2012; Ivens et al., 2015; Bernritter et al., 2016), envy (e.g. “When I interact
with this brand on its social media site, I feel envious of those modeling the products or
services of the brand.”; Ferraro et al., 2013; Ivens et al., 2015), admiration (e.g. “When I interact
with this brand on its social media site, I feel “admiration” toward the brand.”; Cuddy et al.,
2007; Park et al., 2010; Kervyn et al., 2012; Ivens et al., 2015), emotional brand attachment
(e.g. “My feelings toward this brand can be characterized by “affection”.”; Park et al., 2010;
Mal€ar et al., 2011) and brand forgiveness (e.g. “If this brand did something I did not like,
I would be willing to forgive it.”; Xie and Peng, 2009; Maher et al., 2010; Aaker et al., 2012).
A seven-point Likert scale was used for all measurement items (see Table 1). They were
requested to answer questions about the luxury fashion experience and the social media
experience of the luxury fashion brand they chose. At the end of the survey, they were
requested to answer demographic questions.

Data analysis
An exploratory factor analysis, internal consistency reliability test and confirmatory factor
analysis (CFA) were performed to test the reliability and validity of measurement items, and
structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to test the model fit and the hypotheses.

Results
Demographic characteristics and luxury fashion brand usage on social media
The sample included consumers from a variety of backgrounds in age, ethnicity, education
level and annual household income. Most of the participants were between 18 and 29 years of
JFMM age (46.3%), and the rest were in their thirties (38.5%) and forties (15.2%). The majority of
25,4 participants were Caucasian (72.1%), and the rest were Black or African American (13.5%)
and Asian or Pacific Islander (6.8%). Most (70.4%) participants’ annual household income
(before taxes) was between $20,000 and $80,000.
Most participants purchased luxury fashion products or received them as gifts either once
a year or less (60.5%) or several times a year (23.8%); on average, they spent less than $500
(41.4%) or $500 – $1,999 (29.9%) on luxury fashion products every year. When asked what
614 percentage of their total clothing expenditures were for luxury fashion products, participants’
mean response was 14.9%. Kervyn et al. (2012) developed the BIAF based on the brand
perception of the general public. The socio-economic status (SES) and luxury experience
statistics of the participants in this study show that they are considered the general public
rather than above-average consumers both in terms of SES and how much or how frequently
they buy luxury fashion products, which validate the application of the BIAF in this study.
Fifty-two different luxury fashion brands were identified by participants (see Table 2),
and the majority of participants (82.3%) had been following a luxury fashion brand on social
media for a maximum of three years. This indicates that the participants in the current

Intentions
I sense that this brand is “warm” on its social media site
I sense that this brand is “friendly” on its social media site
I sense that this brand has good intentions toward ordinary people on its social media site
I sense that this brand consistently acts with the public’s best interests in mind on its social media site
*Source(s): Aaker et al. (2012), Kervyn et al. (2012), Ivens et al. (2015), and Bernritter et al. (2016)

Envy
When I interact with this brand on its social media site, I think my occupation or income is inferior
When I interact with this brand on its social media site, I feel envious of those modeling the products or services
of the brand
When I interact with this brand on its social media site, I am eager to obtain the product or services of the brand
When I interact with this brand on its social media site, I envy the brand
*Source(s): Ferraro et al. (2013) and Ivens et al. (2015)

Admiration
When I interact with this brand on its social media site, I feel “admiration” toward the brand
When I interact with this brand on its social media site, I feel “respect” toward the brand
When I interact with this brand on its social media site, I feel “proud” of the brand
*Source(s): Cuddy et al. (2007), Park et al. (2010), Kervyn et al. (2012), and Ivens et al. (2015)

Emotional brand attachment

My feelings toward this brand can be characterized by “affection.”
My feelings forward this brand can be characterized by “love.”
My feelings forward this brand can be characterized by “connection.”
My feelings forward this brand can be characterized by “passion.”
My feelings forward this brand can be characterized by “delight.”
My feelings forward this brand can be characterized by “captivation.”
*Source(s): Park et al. (2010) and Mal€ar et al. (2011)

Brand forgiveness
If this brand did something I did not like, I would not be willing to condemn it
If this brand did something I did not like, I would be willing to give it another chance
If this brand did something I did not like, I would be willing to forgive it
Table 1. If this brand did something I did not like, I would still be willing to think favorably of the brand
Measurement items *Source(s): Xie and Peng (2009), Maher et al. (2010), and Aaker et al. (2012)
Brand name Brand name Brand name Brand name
Repositioning
luxury fashion
Alexander Wang (1) David Yurman (2) Jason Wu (1) Patek Philippe (1) brands
Armani (2) Dior (10) Jenny Packham (1) Rag & Bone (1)
Badgley Mischka (1) DKNY (2) Jean Paul Gaultier (1) Ralph Lauren (4)
Balenciaga (1) Dolce & Gabbana (6) Kate Spade (6) Saint Laurent (5)
Balmain (2) Dooney & Bourke (3) Krizia (1) Tiffany & Co. (13)
Burberry (22) Elie Saab (2) Louis Vuitton (55) Tom Ford (4) 615
Calvin Klein (4) Fendi (3) Maison Margiela (1) Tory Burch (3)
Cartier (4) Givenchy (2) Manolo Blahnik (3) Valentino (1)
CELINE (1) Gucci (68) Marc Jacobs (3) Vera Wang (7)
Chanel (65) Hermes (2) Michael Kors (46) Versace (10)
Christian Louboutin (8) Jo Malone (2) Miu Miu (2) Vetements (1) Table 2.
Coach (74) Jared (1) Omega (1) Victoria Beckham (1) Luxury fashion brands
Comme Des Garçons (1) Jimmy Choo (2) Prada (26) Victoria’s Secret (2) followed or liked on
Note(s): Numbers in the parentheses refer to participants who followed or liked the brand social media

research have some extent of involvement in luxury fashion brands and, thus, constitute an
appropriate group of consumers for rating brand emotions and the relational consumer
responses. When participants’ brand stereotype perceptions were investigated, participants
perceived luxury fashion brands as warm and competent, and the mean of ability (M 5 5.25)
was higher than that of intentions (M 5 5.02).
Exploratory factor analysis and CFA were conducted to eliminate some measurement
items which did not show satisfactory communalities and factor loading. Table 1 shows the
final measurement items for each construct. In general, the fit indices (χ 2/df 5 2.183,
GFI 5 0.965, AGFI 5 0.943, NFI 5 0.965, CFI 5 0.980, RMR 5 0.082, RMSEA 5 0.049) met
conventional standards. The internal consistency reliability and convergent validity were
verified by checking Cronbach’s α, standardized factor loading and average variance
extracted (AVE) which all showed that the measurement items of the constructs were
satisfactory (see Table 3).
On the other hand, discriminant validity exists when the square root of the AVE of each
latent variable is higher than the correlation for each pair of constructs (Fornell and Larcker,
1981). The discriminant validity showed that all the constructs were distinct (see Table 4).

Structural equation model

The conceptual model proposed and tested in this study is shown in Figure 1. Using SEM, it
was determined that intentions have a nonsignificant impact on consumer envy, although the
negative direction was confirmed (γ 5 0.070, t 5 1.215, NS); the path coefficient was not
sufficiently strong. However, intentions had a positive impact on consumer admiration
(γ 5 0.587, t 5 10.778, p < 0.001), thus partially supporting H1.
Consumer envy of the brands had a positive impact on both emotional brand attachment
(β 5 0.148, t 5 2.508, p < 0.05) and brand forgiveness (β 5 0.139, t 5 2.201, p < 0.05),
rejecting H2.
Consistent with H3, consumer admiration for the brands had positive effects on both
emotional brand attachment (β 5 0.811, t 5 13.750, p < 0.001) and brand forgiveness
(β 5 0.433, t 5 8.442, p < 0.001) (see Figure 1). The t-values for the relationship between
admiration and both outcomes were much higher than those for the relationship between
envy and both outcomes, which suggests luxury fashion brands should increase admiration.
As the path coefficients indicate, admiration appears to have stronger effects than envy on
emotional brand attitude and brand forgiveness. To verify this assumption, this study
JFMM Cronbach’s Standardized factor
25,4 Construct Item α loading AVE

Intentions Friendly 0.84 0.84 0.78

Warm 0.93
Envy Think my occupation or 0.75 0.57 0.51
income is inferior
616 Feel envious of those 0.80
modeling the products
Admiration Respect 0.80 0.75 0.65
Proud 0.82
Emotional brand Affection Affection 0.77 0.83 0.61
attachment Love
Connection Connection 0.73
Passion Passion 0.73 0.78
Delight
Captivation
Brand forgiveness Willing to give the brand 0.91 0.87 0.78
another chance
Willing to forgive the 94
brand
Table 3. Willing to think favorably 0.83
Results of reliability of the brand
and validity tests Note(s): AVE, average variance extracted

1 2 3 4 5

Intentions 0.89
Envy 0.06 0.72
Admiration 0.57 0.09 0.80
Emotional brand attachment 0.47 0.18 0.77 0.78
Brand forgiveness 0.30 0.14 0.36 0.48 0.88
Table 4. Note(s): The square roots of the AVE are in italic print on the diagonal; the correlations between two variables
Discriminant validity are below the diagonal

Brand Stereotype Brand Emotions Relational Responses

0.148 (2.508)* Emotional

Envy 0.1
215) 39 Brand Attachment
0 (-1. (2.
.07
-0 20
1)*
Intentions 0.58 **
7 (1 0*
)
0.77 75
8)** .
* (13
11
0.8 0.433 (8.442)***
Admiration Brand Forgiveness

Figure 1. Note(s): Indicators on the paths represent standardized coefficients (t-values);

Results of SEM
analysis
χ2/df = 2.183, GFI = 0.965, AGFI = 0.943, NFI = 0.965, CFI = 0.980, RMR = 0.082,
RMSEA = 0.049; *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001; N = 488
assessed effect sizes (Cohen, 1988) for each emotion. Analyses of effect sizes revealed that Repositioning
effect sizes are greater for admiration (f2 5 1.970) than for envy (f2 5 0.039) on emotional luxury fashion
brand attachment. In terms of the effects of brand emotions on brand forgiveness, the results
also showed that effect sizes are greater for admiration (f2 5 0.227) than for envy (f2 5 0.015).
brands
Therefore, H4 was supported.
On the basis of Bagozzi and Dholakia (2006), the exploratory tests of mediation implied by
the proposed model were conducted. To test whether brand emotions mediate the
relationship between intentions and emotional brand attachment or brand forgiveness, 617
this study performed bootstrapping procedures (10,000 bootstrap samples). It investigated
the specific indirect effects for envy and admiration, as well as contrast values. In regard to
the relationship between intentions and emotional brand attachment, the results suggest
partial mediation both for envy (f 5 0.009 BC 95% CI [ 0.021 to 0.000]) and admiration
(f 5 0.247 BC 95% CI [0.190 to 0.311]). A contrast score was 0.256 shows the greater
mediation effect of admiration compared to that of envy in this relationship. Regarding the
relationship between intentions and brand forgiveness, the results suggest partial mediation
both for envy (f 5 0.012 BC 95% CI [ 0.029 to 0.000]) and admiration (f 5 0.120 BC 95%
CI [0.065 to 0.180]). A contrast score of 0.132 shows the greater mediation effect of
admiration compared to that of envy in this relationship. The partial mediations indicated
that beyond the mediated effects, intentions had a significant direct effect on emotional brand
attachment (β 5 0.376, t 5 9.764, p < 0.001) and brand forgiveness (β 5 0.290,
t 5 6.291, p < 0.001).

Discussion and implications for research

Building on the BIAF, this study demonstrated the effectiveness of SMM as a tool to
communicate luxury fashion brands’ good intentions toward the general public. First, the
results showed that luxury fashion brands’ good intentions had a positive impact on
consumer admiration and had no significant impact on consumer envy. These results are
partially consistent with Ivens et al. (2015), who found that intention had a positive effect on
admiration and a negative effect on envy. The current research found that the impact of
intentions on envy had a negative direction, but the statistical power was not strong enough
to make the impact significant. Second, both consumer envy and admiration had positive
effects on emotional brand attachment and brand forgiveness, but admiration had a stronger
effect than envy on these relational consumer responses. This result is consistent with Park
et al. (2016), in that admiration had a positive impact on consumer relational responses, and
with Ivens et al. (2015), in that admiration had a stronger effect than envy on consumer
responses toward a brand.
However, the present findings are inconsistent with Wolf and Glick (2016) regarding the
negative impact of envy on brand performance. The contradictory results may be attributed
to social comparison, which occurs intentionally or unintentionally among social media users,
regardless of a brand’s well-intentioned activities on social media (Eom et al., 2019). Prior
research suggests that congruency between a consumer’s ideal self and brand could bring
about negative feelings (e.g. envy or inferiority) and decrease emotional brand attachment if a
comparison target (brand) was too superior (Gilbert et al., 1995; Mal€ar et al., 2011). However, if
the target (brand) was psychologically close and approachable, the ideal self-brand
congruence could motivate consumers to self-enhance through the brand, and the congruence
could have a positive effect on emotional brand attachment (Sirgy, 1982). In the context of
luxury fashion brands, the current research unexpectedly found that envy had positive
effects on the relational consumer responses. The finding suggests that consumers’ mixed
emotion of envy and admiration is not necessarily a deterrent to developing strong relational
outcomes through SMM.
JFMM Third, intentions had direct positive impacts on emotional brand attachment and brand
25,4 forgiveness, and envy and admiration had partial meditation effects in these relationships.
These results are consistent with Xie and Peng (2009), MacInnis (2012) and Xu et al. (2013), in
that brands’ good intentions had positive impacts on consumer relational responses, and with
Kervyn et al. (2012), who found that admiration partially mediated this positive impact.
In conclusion, these results demonstrated that, by presenting a warm image on social
media, luxury fashion brands could cultivate consumer admiration, ultimately leading to the
618 affectionate and passionate consumer–brand relationships. In doing so, luxury fashion
brands could have powerful consumer Allies who would be willing to forgive their failures or
negative publicity (Xu et al., 2013).
The BIAF literature has mainly explored the impact of brands’ overall intentions and
ability on the general public’s attitudinal and behavioral responses (e.g. brand attitude,
purchase intention) in the context of global brands across various industries Kervyn et al.
(2012). In terms of theoretical implications, to the authors’ knowledge, this study was the first
study to apply the BIAF in the context of luxury fashion brands’ social media usage to
explain the general public’s responses to the SMM. Thus, this study contributes to advancing
the BIAF literature by demonstrating that a luxury fashion brand can cultivate admiration
by changing its perceived intentions on social media. As a further contribution to the BIAF
literature, consumer relational responses (i.e. emotional brand attachment and brand
forgiveness) that prior research overlooked were also investigated.
Furthermore, the literature on luxury brands’ social media communication has rarely used
a theoretical modeling approach to test the effectiveness of social media communication.
Drawing on social psychological perspectives, this study adds to the luxury brand’s social
media communication literature by demonstrating the effectiveness of good intentions in
inducing positive relational outcomes. The findings of this study offer a theoretical model
depicting how luxury brand followers on social media shape the relational outcomes with the
psychological mechanism of brand emotions, admiration in particular rather than envy.
The research also contributes to the literature on luxury branding in that it shows that not
only envy but also admiration is a desirable emotion for luxury branding. Previous research
on luxury branding (e.g. Brun and Castelli, 2013) consistently argued that exclusivity or even
arrogance would be one of the critical success factors of luxury brands to accommodate their
customers’ status-seeking needs through luxury (Eastman et al., 2018). However, the current
research verified that admiration had a greater impact on positive relational outcomes on
social media than envy did. This finding provides a more nuanced view of luxury branding on
social media.

Implications and suggestions for practitioners

The terms used in this study, such as envy or admiration, might not be the ones that luxury
industry practitioners use because this study is based on the BIAF (Maeda, 2009). To explain
the practical implications of this study from the perspectives of practitioners, in this study,
about 90% of participants used Facebook (46.5%) or Instagram (43.9%) most frequently to
follow their favorite luxury fashion brands. Therefore, marketing managers should
encourage consumers to frequently visit the brand’s official social media sites and
immerse themselves, continually in a warm and friendly way, in these platforms in particular.
There are some ways to increase perceived good intentions and admiration on social
media in terms of openness, sociability and social responsibility. First, marketing managers
could continuously provide entertainment and aesthetic values. In addition, on social media,
the products should be presented as being attainable while retaining subtle nuances of
luxury. Second, marketers could actively interact with the public to maintain and establish
long-term relationships with current and prospective customers. Not all these social media
followers could potentially afford luxury brands, but prospective customer Allies, similar to Repositioning
brand ambassadors, could voluntarily spread positive messages about the brands by WOM luxury fashion
(Phan et al., 2011). Third, luxury fashion brands could actively promote certain nonprofit
organizations or social causes (Bernritter, 2016), or, alternatively, they could make warm
brands
advertisements for brands by using advertisement endorsers who are perceived as warm on
social media (Bernritter et al., 2016). The warmth of cause-related marketing and friendly
endorsers may offset exclusive images of luxury fashion brands.
Notably, competence was a more important predictor of purchase intention than warmth 619
for high-involving products than low-involving ones (Zawisza and Pittard, 2015). Luxury
brands should keep providing high-quality products, and they need to maintain a balance
between inclusion (i.e. accessibility) and exclusion (i.e. desirability) (Phan et al., 2011) instead
of being infinitely warm to the general public. As shown in this study, both envy and
admiration are effective in building a solid brand–consumer relationship, and therefore,
luxury fashion brands need to elicit both of these emotions on social media. Luxury fashion
brands could keep maintaining exclusivity and motivating their followers to self-enhance
through luxury consumption on social media, while building another brand image (i.e. being
able/well-intentioned). They could promote relatively attainable items, such as cosmetics,
along with more expensive items, such as handbags, and be approachable and attainable.
The current research focused on the luxury fashion brands’ relationship with their
consumers, but the brand relationship alone would not guarantee the brands’ success.
Luxury fashion brands could maintain their exclusivity and live up to the expectations of
those who admire them through other endeavors, such as exclusive servicescape and
merchandising (Dion, 2017).
There can be some undesirable noise on a luxury fashion brand’s official social media site
because of the participatory nature of the medium, although brand managers strictly control
content there (Hartzel et al., 2011). In addition, a brand’s ethos could vary season by season,
and its representation on social media could be perceived differently. Therefore, luxury
fashion brands need to continuously track their brands’ perceived warmth and its impact on
relational outcomes to leverage SMM (Ivens et al., 2015).

Limitations and future research

Future research could investigate other variables to test the effectiveness of luxury fashion
brands’ communication of good intentions on social media. For example, Aaker et al. (2010)
assumed that warmth would be more effective in stimulating purchase behavior in East
Asian contexts than in North American contexts. It would be meaningful to investigate the
effect of culture on followers’ responses because global social media followers gather and
communicate on luxury fashion brands’ social media sites simultaneously.
Other socio-demographic variables (e.g. age, income, brand affordability) (Bennett and
Hill, 2012), level of social media use (e.g. interaction frequency, intensity and duration)
(Hudson et al., 2016) and social media platform type (e.g. Facebook, Instagram) (Voorveld
et al., 2018) may have a significant influence, or moderating effect, on the conceptual model.
For example, each type of social media platform has its own characteristics, so even if the
content of a luxury fashion brand portrays a consistent brand image, it can be perceived
differently (Phua et al., 2017). Future research could test the impact of social media type on
consumer responses to luxury fashion brands on social media.
In addition, this study involved about 69.7% of traditional luxury fashion brands
(e.g. Gucci, Chanel and Prada) (69.7%) and 30.3% of accessible luxury fashion brands
(e.g. Coach, Michael Kors and Kate Spade). Two types of brands are different in terms of
perceived prestige, product price, target consumers and marketing strategies (Truong et al.,
2009; Kim et al., 2018). The leverage level of social media and the social media marketing
JFMM strategy itself between traditional luxury and accessible luxury fashion brands could vary
25,4 accordingly. Therefore, even though both categories represent luxury brands, what we
investigated in this study—brand stereotype, brand emotion, relational outcomes, followers’
demographics and effectiveness of delivering warmth on social media—could be different.
Future research could investigate this difference to provide detailed practical implications for
each type of luxury fashion brand.
Next, this research has a limitation in that it was correlational, and in order to inquire into
620 the causality between perceived luxury brands’ good intentions and consumer responses,
future research could manipulate the intentions relating to the brands’ social media sites and
test the impact of good intentions on the followers’ responses.
Finally, this research used a cross-sectional design; the research did not measure
participants’ pre-existing perceptions of luxury fashion brands formed prior to SMM. Future
research could empirically test whether luxury fashion brands’ SMM actually changes or
improves their pre-existing stereotypes.

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25,4
Further reading
Andrei, A.G., Zait, A., Vatamanescu, E.M. and P^ınzaru, F. (2017), “Word-of-mouth generation and
brand communication strategy: findings from an experimental study explored with PLS-SEM”,
624 Industrial Management and Data Systems, Vol. 117 No. 3, pp. 478-495.

Corresponding author
Bo Ra Joo can be contacted at: jooxx077@umn.edu

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