1 Introduction

1.1 Background

COVID-19 has brought great changes to all aspects of people's lives, which makes online become more frequent and popular. In that case, consumers will be exposed to a large amount of product information every time they shop online. How to attract people's attention has become a critical issue as consumers are not willing to pay attention to all information at one time. In order to accomplish this goal, enterprises have applied many methods, such as establishing a good brand image, building an attractive brand identity, choosing a clear brand positioning or improving brand value [1].

In recent years, some scholars have pointed out that brand stories have gradually been a potentially practical marketing strategy with the fierce competition. Kim Douglas pointed out that the brand story could turn the brand into a more emotional and meaningful unity [2]. Woodside proposed that social media provided the enterprises with ideal platforms to convey brand stories. Additionally, high quality stories could often provoke consumers' sentiments and resonance [3]. Obviously, in real life situation, there is a big difference between successful brands and ordinary brands, that is, almost all successful brands have created and delivered meaningful brand stories to consumers. Take the chocolate brand DOVE as an example, it has established a classic brand story, which is related to a sorrowful while beautiful love story and DOVE’s brand name is also based on this story. In recent years, China has also paid increasing attention to brands. The document related to the development of Chinese enterprises encouraged Chinese brands to tell their brand story, in order to improve their influence. In 2004, Denning pointed out that in the complex business world, stories are usually more important than products themselves [4]. Therefore, how to create and tell a good brand story so as to maximize its own high-efficiency communication is what every enterprise needs to consider in its marketing strategy.

1.2 Research Gap

However, there are few relevant theoretical literatures on brand stories, and most researches on stories are also limited to the research field of exploring the promotion and incentive roles of stories in managing employees in organizational behavior. Meanwhile, in China, previous researches on brands focused on whether brand image, positioning, personality and other brand elements will affect consumer behavior. However, whether brand stories can promote consumers’ willingness to purchase products has not been paid sufficient attention [5]. In fact, brand story’s influence on consumers exceeds that of ordinary advertising, and has an extremely positive impact on the emotional connection between brands and consumers [2]. Therefore, the research question of this paper is what specific impact the brand story will have on consumer behavior? To elaborate, the research focuses on: (1) the connotation of brand stories and how to measure brand stories? (2) will the brand story promote consumer positive behavior, especially on consumers' purchase intention, and will it improve consumers' identity of the brand? (3) whether the brand story’s impact on consumer purchase intention will be affected by other psychology factors, such as consumer perceived value?

Through this research, the expected research purpose can be accomplished, and this paper has theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, this paper proposes a model of brand story’s impact on consumers' purchase intention based on the two dimensions of brand story, which has absolutely enriched and complemented the relevant research in this field. This theoretical model is one of the few models that combines brand stories with consumers' purchase intention.

1.3 Structure of This Paper

In order to answer the questions mentioned above and understand the relationship between brand story and consumer behavior, this paper combines S-O-R research model, consumer behavior theory and attribution theory to propose the research

model and hypothesis. This paper firstly focuses on the relevant literature, which is about brand story, brand identity, consumer perceived value and consumer purchase intention. Next, a theoretical model and hypothesis related to the research topic will be proposed, after which the research methods will be discussed in detail. In the methodology part, the sample collection and the measurement of the variables are explained. Subsequently, an empirical analysis will be conducted to verify the hypothesis and results. SPSS software is utilized for regression analysis, correlation analysis, descriptive statistics and reliability and validity test. Finally, key findings of this research, theoretical and practice implications, limitations and future research directions are discussed in this paper.

2 Literature Review

2.1 Brand Story

In 2006, Papadakos gave the direct concept of brand story: through brand related materials, media advertisements, public relations activities and other cultural communication activities, the brand connotation is delivered to the consumers, which is a vivid expression of brand culture and value [6]. Subsequently, Woodside et al. indicated that brand stories should be regarded as a marketing strategy that helped content creation [7]. To elaborate, Avery et al. proposed that brand story was a description about what the brand has experienced [8]. Woodside et al. showed that the brand story should focus on the establishment of plots and characters that are related to real life, so as to effectively tell the story and connect the brand with consumers [9]. Escalas thought that brand stories need to include storylines, characters and conflicts in 2014 and this concept was adopted in this paper [10].

In terms of the function of brand stories, Solja et al conducted experiments to demonstrate that the brand stories of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry positively affect consumers' attitudes [11]. In 2015, Granitz and Forman discovered that brand stories could make the interaction of brands and consumers closer, hence improving their attitude towards brands through qualitative interviews [12].

Through reviewing the researches of scholars on brand stories, this research asserts that brand stories, will have a positive impact on consumer behavior. It is necessary to explore internal mechanism of how brand stories affect consumer behavior since there are few researches in China.

2.2 Personal Brand Identity

The concept of identity originated from the research of social psychology and brand identity is closely related to people’s self-concept. Based on this opinion, Bagozzi proposed that consumers tend to match their self-concept with the concept conveyed by the brand when choosing a brand and the level of matching determines the level of brand identity [13]. In terms of brand identity’s impact on consumers, Fournier discussed the relationship between brand identity and brand loyalty [14]. Subsequently, Hughes further investigated the mobile phone industry, indicating that brand identity will indirectly affect customer loyalty and consumer purchase intention

[15]. From the perspective of Chinese relevant literature, Jin conducted research on brand identity based on Chinese conditions, and formed a brand identity measurement scale, which included personal brand identity and social brand identity and made up for the blank of relevant research in China [16].

Through reviewing the researches of scholars on brand identity, this research asserts that personal brand identity may improve consumer’s willingness to purchase that brand’s products.

2.3 Consumer Perceived Functional Value

In 1954, Peter Drucker pointed out that value brought by the product was the real thing consumer pursued, instead of product itself, which made consumer perceived value gradually emphasized by scholars. In 1988, Zeithaml defined the consumer perceived value as their comprehensive assessment after weighing the function of products or services purchased and comparing the benefits and losses [17]. Different scholars have different methods to measure consumer perceived value. Sheth and Newman proposed a measurement of customer perceived value with several dimensions including functional, social and emotional value, which have been widely utilized in many researches [18].

Although scholars have different measurements of customer perceived value due to different research objects, it can be seen that functional value is the stable core components. Since functional value can determine whether consumers are willing to buy products from the most fundamental level, this paper will adopt functional value to measure consumer perceived value.

2.4 Consumer Purchase Intention

In 1980, Ajzen and Fishbein gave a definition to behavioral intention, which was people’s tendency to behave according to their beliefs [19]. In early years, Babin et al. summarized that product attributes were the fundamental and direct factor affecting consumers' purchase intention [20]. Afterwards, in Pan and Zinkhan’s research, a pleasant shopping environment had been verified that would greatly improve consumers' purchasing willingness [21]. In addition to these factors, some scholars also explored the internal factors that affected consumers' purchase intention. Dodds et al proposed that if consumers have high perceived value, their purchase intention will be improved [22]. In order to measure consumers' purchase intention, this paper adopts the purchase intention measurement scale of Moon et al. [23].

2.5 Hypothesis Development

S-O-R theoretical model indicates that people’s decision can be influenced by stimulation from external environment. Based on this model, this paper states that brand story is an external stimulus, which ultimately improves consumer purchase intention. Generally, personal cognition or emotion are taken as mediator variable in this model. Meanwhile, attribution theory helps to explain that consumers may have their own unique interpretations of the brand story. Once they believe that the brand story is consistent with their own values and beliefs, their brand preference or identity will be tremendously improved. Combined attribution theory with S-O-R model, this paper also focuses on the mediating role of consumer brand identity on the impact of brand story on improving consumer purchase intention.

Customer perceived value theory points out that marketing is a process of creating value and delivering it to the consumers. Meanwhile, the theory of consumer behavior holds that consumers have a mentality of maximizing satisfaction when purchasing products. Therefore, the perceived value of consumers and their satisfaction with the value they perceived will largely determine whether they are willing to buy products.

Therefore, this paper proposes the research model and hypothesis as follows:

H1: Brand story positively promotes consumer purchase intention. H1a: Story character positively promotes consumer purchase intention. H1b: Storyline positively promotes consumer purchase intention.

H2: Brand story positively promotes consumer brand identity. H2a: Story character positively promotes personal brand identity. H2b: Storyline positively promotes personal brand identity.

H3: Brand identity positively promotes consumer purchase intention.

H4: Brand identity plays a mediating role in the impact of brand stories on consumers’ purchase intention

H5: Compared with low perceived value, brand story promotes consumer purchase intention more positively when they perceive high functional value.

Figure 1. Research Model

3 Methodology

3.1 Research Design

Since this research explores the impact of brand stories on Chinese consumers purchase intention and Cha Ling only targets Chinese consumers and its brand story is based on the Chinese real situation, adopting Cha Ling as the objective brand can avoid the potential impact of cultural differences on the research results.

Cha Ling tells a brand story about love, friendship, commitment and environmental protection. During the visit to Yunnan, Laurent Boillot, CEO of Guerlain, wanted to investigated the orchid varieties of Guerlain products and accidentally met Josef Margraf and his wife, who established the biodiversity R & D center and decided to revive the production of tea in the forest. However, in 2010, Josef Margraf died of illness, leaving only his wife and two daughters to continue to fulfill the rainforest dream. Laurent Boillot decided to help Li continue this dream and created a cosmetics

brand: Cha Ling, which integrates ethics, beauty, luxury and sustainable development. Since Josef Margraf and his wife's original intention was to protect the tea variety Pu’er and the land where it was planted. Cha Ling promised that the product income would return to the Yunnan tea forest project, that was, 20 hectares of tea trees would be replanted in the original ecological environment.

After the participants carefully read and understand the brand story of Cha Ling, they are required to answer a series of questions related to the research topic. Quantitative analysis has been wide adopted in this research field. Many scholars have developed their hypothesis with regard to the research topics and utilize this method to test whether they can be verified. For example, Hughes (2010) adopted quantitative analysis in the research to test whether the brand identity would improve the overall performance [15]. Obviously, quantitative analysis method can obtain a large number of samples and the data is objective. Therefore, this paper also adopts quantitative analysis to investigate the impacts of brand stories on consumer purchase intention.

3.2 Data Collection

This paper collects data through questionnaires. Due to the influence of COVID-19, this paper adopts online questionnaire survey, and issue questionnaires through social platforms. Finally, a total of 155 people participate in the survey, including 9 people who quit halfway. Therefore, 151 valid questionnaires can be exploited for data analysis, and the effective recovery rate is 97.4%.

In terms of variables, the independent variable of this paper is brand story, the dependent variable is consumer purchase intention, the mediate variable is consumer brand identity, and the moderate variable is consumer perceived value. The variables, dimensions of the variables and the measurements of them are all adopted from the literature of other scholars, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Summary of the measures for variables VariablesMeasures

Story Character [10,25]1. I was impressed by the characters in the story.

2. The characters in the story make me appreciate the story as a personal favor.

Storyline [10,24]1. The logic of the story is clear, and I can understand its content.

2. The plot of the story is attractive and makes me intoxicated

3. The turning point in the story will attract my attention

Personal Brand Identity [16]

Consumer Purchase Intention [23]

1. I chose this brand because I agree with the values it represents.

2. I chose this brand because the personal image represented by this brand is consistent with my personal image.

1. When I have demand, I will buy Cha Ling’s products.

2. I agree to buy Cha Ling’s products.

3. When friends have similar demands, I will recommend them to buy Cha Ling’s products.

4. Even if there are similar products, I will still buy Cha Ling’s products.

Consumer Perceived

Functional Value [18]

1. The products or services provided by Cha Ling are trustworthy.

2. I am satisfied with the products or services provided by Cha Ling.

3. The products or services provided by Cha Ling are reasonable in price and value for money.

In this paper, Wen Juanxing platform is exploited to design the questionnaire. Three sections are designed in the questionnaire. The first section is about Cha Ling's brand story and the second one contains questions related to the research topic. Each question was measured with Likert's 5-point rating scale. The third part is basic questions, such as age, education background, monthly income and occupation, which can understand the basic background information of the participants.

3.3 Data Analysis

SPSS 25.0 is exploited to test the reliability and validity of the questionnaire and to analyze the correlation between variables. Subsequently, this paper adopts regression analysis and mediation analysis to verify the previous assumptions. Through data collection, the participant’s male to female ratio is close to the same, most of the participants are aged from 19 to 35, 75% of the subjects have bachelor's degree, 43% of the subjects' monthly disposable income is 2000 yuan- 4000 yuan, and 36% of the participants' monthly disposable income is 4000-6000. Since Cha Ling is a brand mainly consist of young consumers and its product price is not low, this study asserts that the basic background information of these participants is of high research value.

4 Results and Discussions

4.1 Reliability and Validity

SPSS 25.0 is utilized to test the reliability of the variable’s scales according to Cronbach’s α. Generally, if the value of Cronbach’s α exceeds 0.7, it means that the scale can be adopted. According to the reliability test results of consumer purchase intention, brand story, brand identity and consumer perceived value shown in the Table 2, the values of Cronbach’s α are 0.853, 0.876, 0.862 and 0.846 respectively, which all meet the standard of 0.7 and all the dimensions’ scales of the variables also satisfy this standard, which indicate ideal internal consistency.

As shown in the results in Table 3, the KMO values of the variables are respectively 0.779, 0.809, 0.756 and 0.705, and the Chi-Square statistics of Bartlett's spherical test all reach the significance level of 5%, which shows good validity.

Table 3. Construct Validity

VariablesKaiser-Meyer- Bartlett's Test of Sphericity

Consumer Purchase Intention Brand Story

Personal Brand Identity

Consumer Perceived

Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy.

Approx. Chi-Square

dfSig.

Functional Value

4.2 Descriptive Statistics

The descriptive statistical analysis of the sample population includes the participants' gender, age, education background, occupation and monthly disposable income, as shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Frequency of Demographic Variables

OptionFrequenc y

Percent

GenderMale6643.7

agencies or institutions

According to the descriptive statistical analysis of variables in Table 5, the average values of consumer purchase intention, brand story, story character, story authentic, consumer perceived value, perceived functional value, perceived emotional value, brand identity, personal brand identity and social brand identity are 3.71, 3.75, 3.77, 3.74, 3.73, 3.74, 3.82, 3.65, 3.79, 3.88 and 3.71 respectively. All samples conform to the normal distribution, which enables subsequent analysis.

Table 5. Descriptive Statistics of Variables

Consumer Perceived Functional

Value

1512.005.003.820.66

Personal Brand Identity1512.255.003.790.64

4.3 Difference Test

According to Table 6, the t/F statistics value of consumer purchase intention in different demographic variables are -0.028, 0.429, 2.228, 1.012 and 2.073

respectively, which have not reached the significance level of 5%. In that case, different genders, ages, education levels, occupations and monthly disposal incomes will not affect consumer purchase intention.

Table 6. ANOVA Results

4.4 Correlation Analysis

The correlation coefficient mainly explores the correlation degree between two variables and this paper adopts Pearson correlation coefficient.

As shown in Table 7, the correlation coefficients between the variable’s consumer purchase intention, brand story, personal brand identity and consumer perceived functional value have reached the significance level of 1%. In that case, there is a positive correlation between the any two of these variables, which also preliminarily confirm the hypothesis.

Consumer Purchase intention

Table 7. Pearson Correlations

123456

1

Brand Story Story Character Storyline

Personal Brand Identity

Consumer Perceived Functional Value

0.768*

**

0.775*

**

0.668*

**

0.686*

**

0.501*

**

1

0.89

8***

0.86

1***

0.77

4***

0.62

9***

1

0.623

***

0.637

***

0.465

***

1

0.732*

**

0.646*

**

1

0.662***1

Note: t statistics in parentheses，* p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001

4.5 Regression Analysis and Hypothesis Testing

The Influence of Brand Stories on Consumer Purchase Intention

This research utilizes SPSS 25.0 to establish regression models. As shown by the results of the regression analysis model in Table 8, all of the regression coefficients have reached the significance level of 1%. Therefore, this study states that brand story and its two dimensions positively promote consumer purchase intention, which verifies H1, H1a, H1b and H1c.

Table 8. The Influence of Brand Stories on Consumer Purchase Intention

Dependent variable：Consumer purchase intention

Brand Story0.816*** (14.64)

Story Character0.669***

(14.99)

Story line0.682***

(10.97)

Constant0.653** (3.07)

1.187*** (6.87)

1.159*** (4.89)

Note: t statistics in parentheses，* p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001

The Influence of Brand Story on Consumer Brand Identity.Table 9 shows that the regression coefficients of the variables brand story and its dimensions story character and story line are respectively 0.7, 0.452 and 0.723, and they all reach the significance level of 1%, which verifies H2, H2a and H2b.

Table 9. The Influence of Brand Story on Consumer Brand Identity

Dependent variable Personal Brand Identity

Brand Story0.700*** (-14.94)

Story Character0.452***

(-7.74)

Storyline0.723***

(-12.83)

Constant1.169***

(-6.54)

2.173*** (-9.61)

1.170*** (-5.44)

R square0.6000.2870.525

F223.16***59.86***164.60***

Note: t statistics in parentheses，* p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001

The Influence of Consumer Personal Brand Identity on Consumer Purchase Intention. Table 10 presents the regression analysis model of the impact of consumer personal brand identity on consumer purchase intention and shows that the all-regression coefficients reach a significance level of 1%. Therefore, it can be considered that the variable consumer personal brand identity positively promotes consumer brand identity and its dimensions, which verifies H₃.

Table 10. The Influence of Consumer Brand Identity on Consumer Purchase Intention

Dependent variable：Consumer purchase intention

Personal Brand Identity0.806*** (11.51)

Constant0.653*

(2.43)

R square0.471

F132.43***

Note: t statistics in parentheses，* p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001

Mediation analysis

This paper adopts Bootstrap method to test the mediating effect. According to the mediating effect test results based on Bootstrap method in Table 11, in the mediating path of brand story - brand identity - consumer purchase intention, the 95% confidence interval of brand identity indirect effect is between 0.047 and 0.342, that is, the 95% confidence interval does not contain 0. Therefore, it can be considered that brand identity plays a mediating role in the impact of brand story on consumer purchase intention, which verifies H4.

Table 11. Test of Mediating Role based on Bootstrap

EffectSELLCIULCI

Brand Story-Brand Identity-Consumer purchase intention

Indirect

effect Direct effect

0.1880.0760.0470.342

0.6280.0860.4580.799

Moderating analysis

This paper utilizes the ‘Process’ plug-in in SPSS 25.0 software to test the moderating role of consumer perceived value. Specifically, it is tested according to Model 1 in the ‘Process’ plug-in. The results are shown in the Table 12.

Table 12. Moderating Effect Analysis

VariablesDependent variable：Consumer Purchase Intention

Brand Story0.087

(0.30)

Consumer Perceived Functional Value-0.736* (0.33)

Brand Story*Consumer Perceived Functional Value

0.199** (0.08)

Constant3.297**

(1.13)

Note:t statistics in parentheses，* p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001

According to the test results of Table 12, in the above regression analysis model with consumer purchase intention as the dependent variable and band story, consumer perceived functional value and the interactive item of brand story and consumer perceived functional value as the independent variables, the regression coefficient of the interactive term is 0.199, which reaches the significance level of 5%, showing that consumer perceived functional value has a moderating effective in the impact of brand story on consumer purchase intention and verifying H₅.

4.6 Discussion

Based on S-O-R research model, consumer behavior theory and attribution theory, this paper explores whether brand story will improve consumers purchase intention,

which contributes to a practical development of the enterprise’s marketing strategy. Through empirical research, it can be detected that brand story can promote consumer’s purchase intention. As mentioned earlier, appropriate brand story helps improve consumers' brand identity, which also contributes to the improvement of purchase intention. Meanwhile, it is also discovered that consumer perceived functional value will influence the impact of brand story’s impact on consumer purchase intention. Additionally, some conclusions of this paper also confirm the assumptions of previous scholars. For example, Yin mentioned in the article that brand stories have a positive impact on consumer behavior in 2020 [26]. On this basis, this paper also supplements the concepts of brand identity and consumer perceived value, and further improves the theoretical model. Meanwhile, this paper also verifies the positive impact of brand identity on consumers purchase intention proposed by Hughes [15]. Tam pointed out that consumers perceived value can make consumers generate more purchase intention [27]. This paper focuses on the functional value specifically and verifies this view.

5 Conclusion

This paper applies the S-O-R research model to the field of brand marketing, and combines the theories in the field of consumer behavior, which is an innovation and a supplement to the brand marketing research field. In China, a large number of studies in related fields are qualitative and case studies. Through empirical research, this paper explores the impact of brand stories on consumers' purchase intention, and takes consumer brand identity and consumer perceived value into consideration, which enriches the research of brand story theory in the field of luxury brands.

Furthermore, when scholars explore whether brand stories can promote consumer purchase intention, most of them explore whether the different types of brand story will have different impacts. This paper takes the attributes of the story itself, that is, story character and storyline as the measurement dimension, which has certain universality and innovation for the overall brand story research, no matter it is a product story, an enterprise story or a consumer story.

Based on the empirical results, this paper demonstrates the importance of brand story to improve consumer purchase intention. Therefore, enterprises should attach great importance to the strategic position of brand stories in brand communication. To elaborate, the brand story should convey the value concept of the brand through the form of the story that contain sympathetic plot. In addition, the storyline should also set a climax or turning point. Brand stories that are worth listening to, watching or reading have relatively clear contrast conflicts and reversals, which can arouse curiosity of consumers. Story characters also play an important role. Through the empathy of the characters in the story, the audience's perception of the authenticity of the story will be further strengthened. Therefore, the luxury industry in which enterprises such as LVMH are located, should adopt real people's stories to increase the authenticity of audience awareness, so as to stimulate the change of consumers’ consciousness and behavior. Meanwhile, in the case of highly developed networks,

brands should increase effective online marketing, exploit different social media, or establish communities to convey their own brand stories, so that more consumers can be exposed to and further understand the brand through brand stories.

In addition, enterprises should also pay attention to the products’ value that will bring to the consumer. In terms of improving functional value, luxury brands should highlight the quality, appearance and cost performance of products more clearly. In detail, the products of Cha Ling can bring high perceived value to consumers because of their high quality, since most of the skin care products are made from environmentally friendly Puer, and those products have positive effect to meet the consumers demands. In the future, Cha Ling should focus on the appearance design of products to meet the aesthetic needs of consumers and interact with consumers, such as establishing a brand specific application, establishing a community to constantly communicate with them and understand their personalized needs, thus carrying out private customized service experience.

To sum up, brand stories can be utilized to create and strengthen consumers' sense of brand identity, and effective brand stories can establish a deeper and more meaningful link between consumers and brands. Luxury brands should make full utilization of the association generated by brand stories to improve consumers' attention and awareness to the brand, so as to make them generate positive emotions and further stimulate their actual purchase behavior.

This paper also contains some limitations. Due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, the number of samples is relatively small, which requires this research to further collect more data in the future. Meanwhile, since this research conducts a cross-sectional study, while the impact of brand stories on consumers purchase intention may be long-term, it is necessary to further improve the research conclusions by tracking the continuous influence in the future. Generally, in the field of brand story research, scholars' research mainly focuses on the impact of different brand story types, such as founder stories, product stories, and enterprise stories on consumer behavior. The relationship between different types of stories and consumer purchase intention is not necessarily the same. Therefore, this paper should further explore whether different types of brand stories and their two attributes will have different impacts on consumers' purchase intention in the future.