Consumers often observe how other consumers interact with brands to inform their own brand judgments. This research demonstrates that brand relationship quality-indicating cues, such as brand nicknames (e.g., Mickey D’s for McDonald’s and Wally World for Walmart), enhance perceived information authenticity in online communication. An analysis of historical Twitter data followed by six experiments (using both real and fictitious brands across different online platforms, e.g., online reviews and social media posts) show that brand nickname use in user-generated content signals a writer’s relationship quality with the target brand from the reader’s perspective, which the authors term inferred brand attachment (IBA). The authors demonstrate that IBA boosts perceived information authenticity and leads to positive downstream consequences, such as purchase willingness and information sharing. The authors also find that this effect is attenuated when brand nicknames are used in firm-generated content. How consumers’ relationships with brands are portrayed and perceived in a social context (e.g., via brand nickname use) serves as a novel context to examine user-generated content and provides valuable managerial insight regarding how to leverage consumers’ brand attachment cues in brand strategy and online information management.

消费者经常观察其他消费者如何与品牌互动，以做出自己的品牌判断。这项研究表明，品牌关系质量指示线索（例如品牌昵称（例如，麦当劳的Mickey D's和沃尔玛的Wally World））可以提高在线交流中感知到的信息真实性。对Twitter的历史数据进行的分析以及随后的六个实验（使用不同在线平台上的真实和虚构品牌，例如在线评论和社交媒体帖子）表明，用户生成的内容中使用品牌昵称标志着作者与目标品牌的关系质量从读者的角度来看，作者称之为推断品牌依恋（IBA）。作者证明，IBA可以增强感知的信息真实性，并带来积极的下游后果，例如购买意愿和信息共享。作者还发现，在公司生成的内容中使用品牌昵称时，这种影响会减弱。在社交环境中（例如，通过使用品牌昵称）如何描绘和感知消费者与品牌的关系如何用作检查用户生成内容的新颖上下文，并提供有关如何在品牌策略中利用消费者的品牌依恋线索的宝贵管理见解和在线信息管理。