Using Augmented Reality to Strengthen Consumer/Brand Relationships: The Case of Luxury Brands

ABSTRACT Though augmented reality (AR) is increasingly adopted in marketing, its capacity to foster consumers' engagement and attachment remain tenuous, exposing an important literature‐based gap. Addressing this gap, we deploy social presence theory and luxury consumption theory to develop and test a model that proposes that consumers' engagement with AR‐deploying luxury brands drives the development of their perceived brand warmth, social value, and brand competence, in turn impacting their brand attachment. To explore these issues, we draw on survey data from a sample of 537 luxury apparel and automotive consumers. The results using structural equation modelling (SEM) show that first, luxury consumers who exhibit high engagement with the AR‐deploying brand perceive higher levels of brand warmth, ‐competence, and social value, in turn raising their attachment to the AR‐deploying luxury brand. Overall, the findings highlight AR's strategic capacity to engage consumers and raise the brand's perceived brand warmth, competence, and social value, in turn boosting individuals' attachment to the AR‐deploying brand.