Introduction and Purpose: In increasingly competitive markets, sustainable brand advantage depends not only on price, quality, and distribution, but also on creating meaningful emotional, psychological, and social relationships with consumers. Brand anthropomorphism explains how consumers perceive brands as human-like entities possessing personality, intentions, emotions, values, and interaction capabilities. Although research in this field has expanded, cognitive, emotional, behavioral, symbolic, and technological dimensions have often been examined separately.The development of artificial intelligence, chatbots, avatars, and interactive technologies has extended anthropomorphism beyond visual human cues toward responsiveness, personalization, learning, and human-like interaction. Generation Z is particularly relevant because of its digital immersion and expectations of responsiveness, personalization, transparency, social responsibility, and value alignment. Accordingly, this study aimed to develop a comprehensive framework of brand anthropomorphism in the Iranian food industry, focusing on Generation Z, and to identify and organize its dimensions, components, and indicators.
Methodology: The study employed a developmental, qualitative, exploratory, sequential multi-method design based on an interpretivist perspective.In the first stage, a meta-synthesis was conducted using the seven-step model of Sandelowski and Barroso. A systematic search was performed in Emerald, Scopus, Web of Science, Noormags, Magiran, and SID using English and Persian keywords related to brand anthropomorphism and consumers. Studies published between 2010 and 2025 were considered. Inclusion criteria included relevance, peer-reviewed publication, extractable findings, and a theoretical or conceptual framework. PRISMA principles guided reporting, and CASP was used for quality assessment. Of 120 initially identified records, 13 were removed before abstract screening and 11 were excluded after abstract review. Following full-text and quality assessment, 37 studies were selected. Repeated comparison of semantic units resulted in 40 initial indicators, which informed the interview guide.In the second stage, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 purposively selected experts, including 12 senior food-industry managers and two university faculty members. Interviews averaged 72 minutes and were recorded and transcribed with informed consent. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six-step thematic analysis. Open coding allowed both literature-based and context-specific concepts to emerge. Concepts identified by at least three experts were retained and organized according to conceptual similarity. Reliability was assessed through repeated interviews and independent coding by two evaluators; observed agreement across three interviews was 92%, 91%, and 95%, indicating very good agreement.
Finding: The meta-synthesis identified 40 initial indicators. Integration with interview findings resulted in 54 final indicators, organized into 10 organized themes and three overarching themes: Brand Cognition and Perception, Brand Interaction and Behavior, and Brand Image and Symbol.Brand Cognition and Perception indicates that human-like perception emerges when consumers attribute personality, intentions, emotions, logic, moral consciousness, and consistency to a brand. Responsibility, empathy, transparency, innovation, cultural awareness, and personality consistency contribute to perceiving the brand as trustworthy, understandable, socially aware, and human-like.Brand Interaction and Behavior demonstrates that anthropomorphism is strengthened when brands behave like human relationship partners. Responsiveness, personalized interaction, customer participation, emotional support, problem solving, learning from feedback, sincere apology, responsible complaint management, and social engagement contribute to this perception. Artificial intelligence, gamification, and multisensory experiences can reinforce anthropomorphism when they create presence and reciprocity rather than merely technological attractiveness. Brand Image and Symbol emphasizes authenticity, cultural compatibility, human personality cues, avatars, emotional expressions, and coherent visual and symbolic representations. Human-like representations become more meaningful when consistent with actual brand behavior and aligned with consumers’ cultural and social identities. Thus, anthropomorphism involves not simply making a brand look human, but constructing an authentic, recognizable, and coherent human-like identity. Comparison of the two stages showed that 36 concepts were common to both stages, 14 emerged exclusively from expert interviews, and four meta-synthesis indicators did not emerge in the interviews. This confirms that the interview stage not only validated previous literature but also revealed context-specific and emerging dimensions.
Discussion and Conclusion: The findings provide an integrated cognitive–behavioral–identity framework for understanding brand anthropomorphism in the Iranian food industry with a focus on Generation Z. It extends approaches emphasizing human appearance or personality by showing that anthropomorphism emerges through cognition and attribution, brand behavior and interaction, and identity and representation. Dual Processing Theory helps explain the simultaneous cognitive and emotional evaluation of human-like brands; Social Exchange Theory clarifies reciprocal and responsive brand–consumer interactions; Flow Theory highlights engaging experiences; Social Identity Theory explains the importance of shared values and consumer identification; and brand personification perspectives explain how coherent human characteristics transform a brand into a recognizable personality. From a managerial perspective, food-brand managers should not reduce anthropomorphism to friendly language, human faces, or advertising characters. They should create consistency among what the brand communicates, does, and represents. Transparency regarding products and ingredients, social and environmental responsibility, responsive complaint management, meaningful personalization, appropriate use of artificial intelligence, culturally relevant visual identity, and authentic digital interaction can strengthen perceptions of a credible human-like brand. Overall, brand anthropomorphism is not the result of a single human cue but of consistency among cognition, behavior, interaction, identity, and symbolic representation. The proposed framework provides a contextualized basis for understanding and managing anthropomorphism in Iran’s food industry and a foundation for empirical testing among Generation Z consumers. Future research should quantitatively validate the model and examine its applicability across generations, industries, and cultural contexts, as well as potentially negative consequences such as perceptions of artificiality and distrust.