Tell Me About It: Narrativity Perceptions in Product Packaging Influence Consumer Word of Mouth: An Abstract

Stories are perhaps one of the most influential tools brands have to engage with consumers. Some researchers even suggest that brands may be considered a type of story (Twitchell 2004). Companies tell stories over their websites, social media pages, and even post them on the walls of their retail establishments (Hollenbeck et al. 2008). However, little research has been devoted to relaying a brand story through product packaging. While research suggests that the inclusion of a brand story on product packaging may result in a myriad of positive brand associations (Solja et al. 2018), the process through which this occurs, and the relationships between the variables impacted, remains to be discovered. Therefore, this study uses narrative transportation theory to examine how brand stories included on product packaging impact perceptions of a brand, such as brand uniqueness and brand sincerity, and how it ultimately leads to consumer word of mouth intentions. In accordance with narrative transportation theory, when individuals are presented with a narrative, they can become immersed with a story, and even “mentally enter a world that a story evokes” (Van Laer et al. 2013, p. 797). Narrative transportation has been shown to influence affective responses to a product, beliefs, attitudes, and intentions (Van Laer et al. 2013). The idea of what a narrative constitutes has been a matter of debate, however, and some narratologists suggest that rather than considering “narrative” and “non-narrative” as a dichotomy, there may be a spectrum of “narrativity” (Ryan 2006). Applying this idea to brand narratives on product packaging, we suggest that perceptions of a brand story’s “narrativity” will have a positive relationship with word of mouth when mediated through narrative transportation, uniqueness, and sincerity. While most research on narrative transportation looks at narratives as a dichotomous variable, this study shows that narratives may be regarded as a continuum. Additionally, this study shows that narrativity influences word-of-mouth intentions through perceptions of uniqueness and brand sincerity, and thus by incorporating a brand story on their product packaging, consumer packaged goods companies may increase their positive consumer word-of-mouth. Overall, this shows that the use of brand stories on product packaging can have multiple positive outcomes for the brand.