Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro ISCTE-IUL, Portugal
Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro ISCTE-IUL, Portugal
Consumer-brand relationship:
relationship:
foundation and state-
state-of-
of-art
Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro
ISCTE-IUL, Portugal
ABSTRACT
The relationship between a brand and consumers is known to produce positive outcomes for both
partners. Consumers develop relationships with diverse brands regarding brands as partners. Brands are
humanized in the minds of consumers and therefore provide symbolic meanings and social and cultural
value, which is beyond the utilitarian benefits. Following this paradigm, the purpose of this chapter is to
show an overview of the research from customer relationship management to consumer-brand
relationship and propose a theoretical model of consumer-brand relationship process. In this vein, the
chapter begins with the conceptualization of customer relationship management. Then, the foundation, an
overview of main theories, and the seminal models of consumer-brand relationship are shown. Finally, a
model of consumer-brand relationship process is proposed, and insights for further research are provided.
INTRODUCTION
Consumer-brand relationship (CBR) has attracted interest and relevance since late nineties of 20th
Century. More and more organizations are interested in acquiring knowledge about how consumers relate
to brands, why some brands are preferred to others and even loved. Thus, these and other issues
associated to the bonds established between consumers and brands, which may be associated to goods,
services, organizations, celebrities, destinations, cities, and even counties, have gained prominence
amongst researchers and practitioners.
Indeed, all types of organizations, profit or non-profit, are adopting customer-centric strategies, programs,
tools, and technology for efficient and effective customer relationship management. Even tourism related
public entities are realizing the need for in-depth and integrated tourist knowledge in order to build close
cooperative and partnering relationships with their tourists.
In fact, since Fournier (1998) suggested the metaphor of human relationships in their awarded article, and
proposed the Brand Quality model, several other researchers and practitioners become more and more
interested in understanding the mechanisms behind the relationship between a brand and consumers. The
human relationship metaphor of marriage provides structure for the understanding of consumer–brand
relationships phenomenon. Nevertheless, the Brand Quality model focuses on the relationship dimensions
of love/passion, brand partner quality, intimacy, interdependence, commitment, self-connection, but it
does not illustrate how these dimensions are related each other, in other words, it is not a causal relational
model. Several studies have been analyzing how these and other relational constructs are related (e.g.,
Thomson, MacInnis, & Park, 2005), as well as, antecedents and consequents of the relational constructs
(e.g., Chang & Chieng, 2006; Stokburger-Sauer, 2010; Tsai, 2011; Loureiro, Kaufmann, & Vrontis,
2012), or how to improve the measure of each construct (e.g., Batra, Ahuvia, & Bagozzi, 2012).
From the practitioners’ perspective, we can find several evidence of the growing interest of company
CEOs and brand manager on this topic. The relationship metaphor is proposed to enhance the
understanding of brand loyalty. The love for a brand modifies the influence of attitude strength on loyalty
(Batra, Ahuvia, & Bagozzi, 2008).Therefore, Roberts (2004), CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, proposes the
1
theory of "Lovemarks" and alludes that brands should be about consumers and their relationship with
them. For Roberts (2004), in the same way the products evolved to carry trademarks, and trademarks
evolved into brands, nowadays, brands should evolve into "Lovemarks”. In this regards, "Lovemarks” are
about building and strengthening emotional bonds between brands and consumers. The website
“lovemarkscampus” provides information about the companies, consumer opinions, and events around
the topic: from brands to lovebrands. There, in the webpage “resources”, it is also possible to find some
academic literature on the topic of emotional marketing.
Accordingly, McEwen, a Global Practice Leader at The Gallup Organization, and previous senior
planning and account management in several leading advertising agencies, including McCann-Erickson,
FCB, and D'Arcy, launched in 2005 the book “Married to the Brand”. This book advocates the thesis that
great brands are built upon strong customer relationships.
In this vein, the propose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the evolution of the concept of
consumer-brand relationship, providing insight about the main proposed models and major constructs. A
framework is also presented and intends to suggest a sequential causal order from identity to outcomes in
the relationship between consumers and their loved brands. The antecedents and consequents of love for a
brand are not yet properly established and so the framework, based on literature review, intends to
contribute for fulfill this gap.
In this chapter the conceptual foundation of CBR is explored by examining the literature on relationship
marketing and other disciplines that contribute to the knowledge of CBR. Thus, the following sections
start with a definition of customer relationship management (CRM) and the sequential process that has
led to the consumer-brand relationship (CBR). Then, a parsimonious view is given of the various theories
together with a conceptual discussion on major constructs along with existing models so far developed in
various conceptual and empirical studies.
Finally, the chapter presents an overview of the process behind the consumer-brand relationship and
provides some insights for further research.
2
group of Grönroos (1990 a, b) and Gummesson (1987). The North-American School provides us with the
SERVQUAL scale (five dimensions which comprise a 22-item instrument to measure customers’
expectations and perceptions) and Gap’s Model in order to evaluate the quality perceived by customers.
The Nordic School presents the emblematic Image Model for the perceived service quality, in which
image could be a quality dimension because the corporate image is expected to be built up by the
technical quality and the functional quality of its service, or the Grönroos-Gummesson Quality Model,
which regards four dimensions of service quality (conception, production, deliver, and relational)
(Grönroos, 1984, 1990b; Gummesson, 1987).
The overall satisfaction of relational partner (such as customers, suppliers, employees) is another metric
used by firms to monitor CRM performance. The measure of satisfaction can estimate the propensity to
continue the relationship and can impact positively on customer loyalty (e.g., Reichheld & Sasser, 1990;
Oliver, 1980, 1999).
The growing academic and practical interest in the relationship phenomenon leads to the emergence of
numerous constructs, including trust, commitment, and long-term orientation. Concomitantly, the
consumers’ motivation to the brands and the increasing role of brands in the consumers’ lifestyle are
driving forces to the knowledge of consumer-brand relationship.
Furthermore, the process of establishing and maintaining the dyadic relationship between consumers and
brands, which could evolve to multi-relationships, like in brand community, is studied in consumer-brand
relationship.
4
Yim et al.
(2008)
In the field of tourism and recreation researchers have been exploring the bonds between people, tourists
or inhabitants, and places. Thereby, place attachment is regarded as an affective bond or link between
people and places (Hidalgo & Hernandez, 2001) and studied as psychological element of recreation
experiences (Williams, 2002). The place attachment construct has been conceived as having two
dimensions: place identity and place dependence (Backlund & Williams, 2003). Place identity refers to a
symbolic or affective attachment to a place, i.e., an individual’s emotional connection to a place. Place
dependence is an individual’s assessment of a specific place, the functional attachment to a place, which
lies in the awareness of the facilities and uniqueness and other forms of functionality dependence, and
how these can meet the needs and the goals of the tourist (Williams et al., 1992).
The interpersonal triangular theory of love (Sternberg, 1986), adapted to the consumption contexts, is
closely related to the emotional attachment construct; it considers that brand love is made up of
dimensions such as: passion, intimacy, and commitment (Kamat & Parulekar 2007; Keh et al., 2007).
Ahuvia (1993) suggests that consumers can have real feelings of love toward an object and conceptualizes
the love as having two dimensions: real and desired integration. Batra, Ahuvia, and Bagozzi (2008)
propose that this love is made up of seven dimensions: perceived functional quality, self-related
cognitions, positive affect, negative affect, satisfaction, attitude strength, and loyalty.
Given the complexity of the construct, the interpersonal love theory alone does not allow for the
discovery of specific dimensions of love. Based on the brand-consumer relationship paradigm, Carroll
and Ahuvia (2006) suggest that brand love is composed of five dimensions: passion, attachment, positive
evaluation of the brand, positive emotions in response to the brand, and declaration of love for the brand.
More recently, Albert et al. (2008) propose two main components of brand love that are also found in the
interpersonal love literature: six first order dimensions (idealization, intimacy, pleasure, dream, memories,
and uniqueness) and two second order dimensions (passion and affection).
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The BLS model has three consequences. The attitude valence comprises items combining standard
attitude and satisfaction measures and the attitude strength measures how strongly held, confident, and
intense are the feelings/evaluations about the brand, and how quickly they come to mind. The brand
loyalty uses positive word-of-mouth comments, repurchase intentions, and the extent to which the
consumer would question negative information heard about the brand.
Finally, Batra et al. (2008) also propose the potential moderating effect of materialism (importance placed
by individuals on worldly possessions) (Richins, 2004) and of susceptibility to normative influence (SNI)
(individuals higher in SNI are more subject to the normative influence of their reference groups in
determining their consumption choices) (Bearden et al., 1989).
Carrol and Ahuvia (2006) model the relationships between brand love and both its antecedents and
consequences. They propose that brand love is influenced by a hedonic product and self-expressive brand
and has a positive effect on brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth.
Carroll and Ahuvia (2006) highlight that brand love includes a willingness to declare love (as if the brand
were a person) and involves integration of the brand into a consumer’s identity. A consumer's love toward
a brand is greater for brands that play a significant role in shaping the consumer's identity. Therefore, a
self-expressive brand is the consumer’s perception of the degree to which the specific brand enhances
one’s social self and/or reflects one’s inner self (Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006, p. 82); it includes two
dimensions: inner self and social self. Consumers satisfied and in love with a brand are more willing to
repurchase and to recommend it to others.
Nevertheless, another model without the concept of love, namely relationship investment (RI) (Rusbult
1980), has been proposed based on theories on close relationships found in social psychology, which
incorporate a different concept, the relationship investment. The RI model (see figure 1) is an extension of
the interdependency model proposed by Kelley and Thibaut (1978), and points out two sources of
dependence: satisfaction with the present relationship partner and the quality of alternatives. Satisfaction
refers to the sum of positive versus negative affect toward the relationship partner, and the quality of
alternative partners represents the subjective evaluation of the quality of a partner compared with the
quality of the best alternative partner. Thus, the subjective evaluation of the quality of alternatives means
what a person could be expected to obtain and receive in some other, alternative relationship (Brehm,
1985). In the interdependency model, satisfaction is viewed as positive influence on relationship stability,
and quality of alternatives is regarded as exercising a negative influence on relationship stability. In
addition, the RI model introduces the relationship investment as the third additional source of dependence
and commitment as a mediator between the dependence variables and outcomes variables.
________________________________________________________________
Figure 1: Consumer-brand relationship models [insert caption Figure 1 here]
________________________________________________________________
Relationship investment refers to the importance of the resources that are attached to a relationship,
resources that could be lost if the relationship would end. According to Rusbult et al. (1998), these could
be direct, such as time and money, and indirect, which are related to personal relationships, such as
friends, personal identity, or shared material possessions and intellectual life.
In the RI model commitment is conceived as the intent to persist in a relationship, meaning a long-term
orientation toward the relationship and feelings of psychological attachment. Thereby, a person’s
commitment to a relationship will be directly and positively related to the extent to which he/she is
satisfied with the relationship, has no good alternatives, and has a lot invested in the relationship. Thus, in
the perspective of Breivik and Thorbjørnsen (2008), both self-connections and interdependence in the
BRQ model can be considered as forms of relationship investment.
6
There is a growing interest among researchers and practitioners in consumer-brand relationship. The
studies in this context involve concepts such as attitude strength (Krosnick et al., 1993), brand
relationships (e.g., Fournier, 1998; Chang & Chieng, 2006), self-brand connections (e.g., Belk, 1988;
Escalas & Bettman, 2003), brand loyalty (e.g., Oliver, 1980; 1999), consumers’ emotional attachments to
brands (Thomson, MacInnis, & Park 2005; Loureiro, Kaufmann, & Vrontis, 2012), consumer delight (e,
g., Oliver, Rust, & Varki 1997; Loureiro & Kastenholz, 2011), the phenomenology of customer
satisfaction (Oliver, 1980; Fournier & Mick, 1999), trust and commitment (e.g., Morgan & Hunt, 1994),
brand image (Keller, 2003), brand personality (Aaker, 1997), brand community (e.g., Muniz & O'Guinn,
2001; McAlexander et al., 2002), brand cult (e.g., Brown et al., 2003), brand tribalism (Veloutsou and
Moutinho, 2009), and love in consumption contexts (e.g., Ahuvia, 2005; Albert, Merunka, & Valette-
Florence 2008; Carroll & Ahuvia 2006; Kamat & Parulekar 2007; Keh, Pang, & Peng 2007; Shimp &
Madden 1988; Whang et al. 2004; Yeung & Wyer 2005; Batra, Ahuvia, & Bagozzi, 2012).
Brand commitment
Research on relationship commitment shows two approaches: affective commitment and calculative
commitment (Bendapudi & Berry, 1997; Hansen, Sandvik, & Selnes, 2003; Johnson et al., 2001; Sung &
Campbell, 2009). Calculative commitment (Fullerton, 2003) captures the more rational, economic-based
dependence on product benefits (Anderson & Weitz, 1992). Affective commitment is a more emotional
factor related to the degree to which a customer identifies and is personally involved with a company or a
brand which results in trust and commitment (Garbarino & Johnson, 1999; Morgan & Hunt, 1994;
Loureiro, 2010).
Ahluwalia et al. (2001) apply the expression “brand commitment” and find that when consumers are not
familiar with a brand, negative information, even not mentioned in the message, becomes important.
However, when consumers like the brand, positive information is relevant and spills over.
Brand love
The research concerning brand love is dominated by the works from Ahuvia (2005), Carroll and Ahuvia
(2006), and Batra, Ahuvia, and Bagozzi (2012). Ahuvia (2005) investigates the possessions, activities,
and objects that consumers love and reports the role and importance of loved objects and activities in
structuring social relationships with brands. Carroll and Ahuvia (2006) propose the brand love construct
to assess satisfied consumers' passionate emotional attachment to particular brands. Batra, Ahuvia, and
Bagozzi (2012) developed the brand love prototype and presented the brand love factor model.
8
conduct a cross-cultural comparative study of consumers at coffee chain stores. Thompson and Arsel
(2004) develop the construct of the hegemonic brandscape and study the intersection of global brands and
local cultures. Then, Thomson et al. (2005) assess the cultural dimensions of the consumption cycle with
their brands and provides an overview of the past twenty years of consumer research addressing the socio-
cultural, experiential, symbolic, and ideological aspects of consumption.
In what concerns cult brands, Brown et al. (2003) show the importance of allegory (brand story), aura
(brand essence), arcadia (idealized community), and antinomy (brand paradox).
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Figure 2: From brand identity to outcomes in consumer-brand relationship [insert caption Figure 2 here]
_____________________________________________________________________________________
When consumers feel a strong force of attraction and a connection with a brand, identify themselves with
the brand (the consumer self and the brand just fit), and live a positive experience or imagine this
favorable experience, they can be aroused and this process of activation conducts to strong positive
emotions like delight (consumers will be more than satisfied) (e.g., Oliver et al, 1997; Loureiro &
Kastenholz, 2011). All that involvement can bring passion and love (consumers will be deeply linked to
the brand) that keep the two partners (consumer and brand) interdependent and affective committed.
A committed consumer is more willing to want to continue the relationship to the brand, so will be more
available to advocate positively for the brand, saying positive things (e.g., Loureiro, Kaufmann, &
Vrontis, 2012) , forgiving mistakes, promote the brand to others, pay price premium, make sacrifices
9
(e.g., Loureiro, 2011). A consumer in love with a brand and committed will contribute to a favorable
image, reputation, and credibility.
The process could be mediated and influenced by several variables such as personality traits, lifestyle,
self-esteem, value system, gender, age, country social culture.
CONCLUSION
In this chapter a literature review was conducted in the field of consumer relationship, especially
consume-brand relationship. The most relevant, theories, models, and the major related constructs so far
were presented. Furthermore, a model showing an overview of the process behind the relationship
between a brand and consumer was provided. However, the deep knowledge of the phenomenon of
consumer-brand relationship and its causal relationships are not yet properly established. Therefore, more
theoretical and empirical studies are needed.
For the researchers this chapter provides insights about the foundations and evolution of consumer-brand
relationship models and constructs, and suggests future directions in order to improve the knowledge in
this field of research.
The chapter also provides insights to practitioners, showing academic publications and more managerial
publications and websites, where brand managers could continuously find information about how brands
can evolve in building and strengthening emotional bonds between brands and consumers. Practitioners
should be aware that create and maintain the emotional bonds is a continuous process. The close
relationship between a brand and consumers could lead to a connection, a deep self and social
identification with the brand. The mystery, the intimacy, the uniqueness, the involvement based on past
experiences, and all positive emotional connection lead to love. A consumer in love with a brand are more
willing to be committed to that brand, forgiven less positive situations, advocate favorably, and willing to
sacrifice for the brand beyond reason.
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Consumer-brand relationship: relationship between a brand and a consumer based on the assumption that
brands are humanized in the minds of consumers, and therefore a brand and a consumer can develop
bonds as partners.
Commitment: intentions to continue the relationship and have faith in the future of the relationship,
promoting the longevity of the relationship.
Brand Identity: the value system of the brand proposed and presented by brand owners or a company.
Brand love: willingness to declare love for a brand (as if the brand were a person).
Brand loyalty: intention to continue buying the same brand, or buying more of the same brand.
Sacrifice: consumer’s willingness to forgo his/her immediate self-interest for the sake of the relationship
with a brand.
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Figure 2
Celebrities
Outcomes
Shareholders Satisfaction image
Inner and social self Delight
Commitment
Managers
Attachment Love /passion
Employees Loyalty
Positive
W-o-m
Price
GOs and Media premium
NGOs Internet
and social Forgiveness/
Consumers
networks sacrifice
traits of personality, lifestyle, self-esteem, value system,
Competitors
gender, age
Country and social culture
20