Dr. Alexander Hahn, Professor for Digital Marketing and Communication at Munich Business School, has co-authored an empirical study on chatbots and brand management.
While in the USA and China chatbots are already part of digital life, especially among younger consumers, the topic is gaining momentum in Europe just now. Notably in newer channels such as messenger apps or virtual assistants, it will be vital for brands not to lose their own customers to superordinate providers such as Facebook and Amazon.
An article on the study published by German brand management trade journal Markenartikel highlights a selection of research projects at Munich Business School dealing with the optimal brand management of chatbots and empathic human-computer interaction.
The results of this experiment provide the following core findings:
- Messenger marketing in the form of Chatbots is an expression of (digital) brand identity.
- The tonality of Chatbots’ customer approach influences brand perception.
- Users rate sincere and cultivated Chatbots particularly positively.
- Continuous chatbot testing gives brand managers control over (digital) brand impact.
Finally, the article provides brand managers with recommendations on how to approach the topic of chatbots:
- Define simple and easy to test use cases
- Create several low-cost prototypes
- Collect user data to quickly test hypotheses
- Provide resources for brand compliant chatbot design and copywriting to scale the best use cases
If you are interested in additional information on the topic and on MBS research projects dealing with chatbots, don’t hesitate to contact Prof. Dr. Alexander Hahn via email.
