The effects of brand personality appeal on consumers’ willingness to buy deep-tech startup products: A preliminary study

High-tech startup marketing represents today a promising research topic, due to the novelty of such business and the technological contents provided in their proposed products. Literature shows that digital marketing strategies and specifically online activities (e.g., advertising), especially those conducted through the use of social media, may be particularly successful in boosting startups’ growth. However, the effects on consumers’ willingness to buy in such a context are still hazy. Through an exploratory research design, this paper sheds light on the effects of consumers’ perceived brand personality on their willingness to buy proposed by high-tech startup. An experiment has been conducted among a sample of 197 randomly selected international consumers. Results show that a high level of digital marketing strategies conducted online positively influences consumers’ willingness to buy through the perceived increased brand personality. Implications and opportunities for startuppers, marketers, and managers are discussed together with limitations and suggestions for future research.