휴먼 브랜드에 대한 강한 애착의 선행 요인과 삶의 만족에 미치는 영향

Abstract

현대의 유명인은 단순히 유명한 연예인이나 스포츠 스타가 아니라 그 자체로 하나의 휴먼브랜드로써 대중들의 마음속에 자리 잡고 있다. 이런 휴먼브랜드의 역할이 확대되고 중요해지면서 많은 사람들이 이들에게 사랑과 관심을보내고 또 강한 애착을 형성하기도 한다. 따라서 본 연구는 휴먼브랜드에 대해서 사람들이 가지는 강한 애착의 선행요인은 무엇인지, 그리고 이러한 애착이 삶에 어떻게 영향을 미치는지를 실증분석하기 위해 연구 1과 연구 2로나누어서 진행하였다. 연구 1에서는 휴먼브랜드에 대한 강한 애착의 선행요인으로써 A-R-C(자율성, 관계성, 유능감) 욕구 충족이 애착형성에 미치는 영향과 휴먼브랜드에 대한 애착이 사람들의 삶의 만족에 미치는 영향을 알아보았다. 연구 2에서는기존연구를 기반으로 휴먼브랜드를 일반 유명인(Celebrity)과 영웅적 유명인(Hero)로 분류하였다. 그리고 A-R-C 욕구충족이 각각의 휴먼브랜드에 대한 강한애착에 어떻게 영향을 미치는지, 각각의 휴먼브랜드에 대한 애착이 사람들의 삶의 만족에 어떻게 차별적으로 영향을 미치는지 알아보았다. 본 연구의 결과를 간단히 요약하면, 첫째, A-R-C (자율성, 관계성, 유능감)욕구 충족이 휴먼브랜드애착에 긍정적인 영향을 끼친다는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 모든 휴먼브랜드에 대한 애착은 삶의 만족에 영향을 미치는 것은 아니지만, 휴먼브랜드를 분류하였을 때 일반 유명인에 대한 애착은 삶의 만족에 영향을 끼치지 못하고 영웅적 유명인은 삶의 만족에 긍정적인 영향을 끼친다는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구의 학문적 공헌이 있다면, 첫째, A-R-C 욕구 충족이 휴먼브랜드에 대한 애착에 모두 유의한 영향을 끼친다는 것을 처음으로 증명한 연구라고 할 수 있다. 둘째, 휴먼브랜드에 대한 애착이 개인적 차원의 삶의 질에 긍정적인 영향을 끼친다는 것을 처음으로 검증하였다. 셋째, 휴먼브랜드를 분류함으로써 영향력의 차이를 증명하고 영웅적유명인의 역할의 중요성을 시사한다.

TIME and FORBES which are well-known worldwide media announce most influential and popular 100 people every year. Every time they announce the list, world shows interest in who would be in the list every year. This new social phenomenon indicates that people perceive well-known persona like TV stars or sports stars etc. as human brands. As the role of these human brands is getting more important, people tend to develop strong attachment toward them. Another notable social phenomenon in these days is people’s pursuit of satisfaction with life or social well-being. People want to increase quality of life by having quality time with family and friends, and also attachment with celebrities, sports stars, and so on. Thus, the central purposes of this article are to address why people develop attachments toward human brands and how the attachment toward human brands affects quality of life. In order to achieve these goals, we conducted 2 studies. In study 1, we examined how the A-R-C needs (autonomy, relatedness and competence needs) fulfillment as antecedents affects strong attachment toward human brands and how the attachment toward human brands affects life satisfaction. In study 2, based on previous researches we divided human brands into two types which are heroes and celebrities. Heroes are defined as people who have considerable and lasting importance at both society and individual level and celebrities are defined as people who are well-known but who have less or no impact at both society and individual level for a shorter period time. Afterward we examined how A-R-C needs fulfillment affects attachment toward each types of human brands and how attachment toward each types of human brands affects life satisfaction. Major findings from study 1 are that A-R-C needs fulfillment has positive impact on developing strong attachment toward human brands and the attachment toward human brands also has positive impact on life satisfaction in general. That is, more human brands fulfill people's A-R-C needs, stronger attachment people develop toward human brands and stronger attachment people develop toward human brands, more satisfaction people feel about life. Major findings from study 2 are that A-R-C needs fulfillment has positive impact on developing attachment toward both heroes and celebrities. However, only the attachment toward heroes has positive impact on life satisfaction while the attachment toward celebrities has no impact on life satisfaction. This result suggests the difference between heroes and celebrities and emphasizes importance of role heroes play in increasing quality of life. In terms of major findings combined from study 1 and 2, the present research has three contributions. First, in contrast to previous research on strong attachment toward human brands that had revealed only autonomy and relatedness needs fulfillment positively affects forming strong attachment toward human brands(Thomson 2006, Ahn and Lee 2010), our research empirically proved that all of the A-R-C needs fulfillment has positive impact on developing strong attachment toward human brands for the first time. Second, our research empirically analyzed life satisfaction at personal level as the outcome variables of attachment toward human brands. In contrast to most researches on brand attachment that focused on brand commitment, brand loyalty and so on at corporate or products level, our research showed meaningful results by focusing on quality of life rather than products. Third, our research emphasized role of heroes by dividing human brands into celebrities and heroes. The result of study 2 showed that the attachment toward heroes increases quality of life by having people feel more satisfaction about life while the attachment toward celebrities doesn’t. Thus, heroes who have considerable and lasting importance at both society and individual level can play very important role to increase quality of life. Although the present research gives considerable contributions, there are some limitations and further researches we would like to address. First, while our research shows that competence need fulfillment positively affects to develop strong attachment toward human brands, other studies showed different results. Therefore, more study would be necessary to find out the role of competence need fulfillment in forming attachment. Second, while heroes positively affect life satisfaction, celebrities does not. According to Frankl(1997), people pursue three types of value, entertainment, power, meaning. Of these three values Frankl(1997) suggested, entertainment and power values may represent shortterm value that celebrities have while meaning value may represent long-term value that heroes have. Hence, further research should empirically study if there is relationship between values Frankl suggested and values that heroes and celebrities have. Third, although the present research assessed life satisfaction level as the outcome of attachment toward human brands, further research should adopt more comprehensive wellbeing index which is more detailed multidimensional scale to assess quality of life as the outcome of attachment toward human brands.