Brand Anthropomorphization on Social Media: The Role of Human Tone of Voice

Social media has become an essential communication context for brands, enabling social consumer-brand interactions and prompting the consumer tendency to anthropomorphize brands by bridging the psychological distance. The human tone of voice (HTV) could be crucial in brand anthropomorphization strategies in this environment. The study aims to explore how HTV can lead to brand anthropomorphism, deepening the complex mix of the HTV components and highlighting the main challenges for brands in their anthropomorphization strategies through HTV on Facebook and Instagram. By adopting a qualitative exploratory approach, the Authors identified a twofold role played by HTV (i.e., positioning and relational tool), four HTV components, and four main communication challenges for brands. This study contributes to the branding literature by exploring HTV as a managerial tool to anthropomorphize brands from a marketers’ perspective, simultaneously considering two of the most popular social platforms in the world that still need to be deeply studied. Finally, the results provide valuable guidelines for managers engaged in anthropomorphization strategies on social media.