Digital luxury: how avatar marketing drives consumer engagement for luxury brands

作者：Yao Hao, Wei Shao, S. Quach, Yunen Zhang · 发表于：Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1108/apjml-02-2025-0225 · 被引用次数：5

This research explores the effectiveness of luxury brand avatar marketing in virtual gaming environments, examining how social presence and avatar anthropomorphism influence consumer engagement. It investigates whether the symbolic appeal of luxury brands translates into virtual settings and enhances brand engagement under varying contextual conditions. Three experimental studies were conducted using custom-designed video games to test the effects of luxury versus non-luxury avatar marketing. Study 1 examines the interaction between brand type and social presence in solo versus multiplayer gaming. Study 2 introduces avatar anthropomorphism as a moderator in low social presence settings. Study 3 replicates these findings with an alternative game design. Luxury brand avatar marketing significantly enhances consumer engagement in high social presence environments (e.g. multiplayer games). In low social presence settings (e.g. solo games), luxury brands only outperform non-luxury brands when avatars are anthropomorphic, as human-like avatars simulate social interaction. Game immersion mediates this relationship, highlighting the importance of social dynamics and avatar design in virtual luxury branding. This study advances signaling theory by demonstrating that luxury brand effectiveness in gaming environments depends on social presence and avatar anthropomorphism. It challenges assumptions that luxury branding seamlessly translates to digital spaces and cont...