“I won't leave you although you disappoint me”: The interplay between satisfaction,investment, and alternatives in determining consumer–brand relationship commitment

While commitment is among the key constructs of consumer–brand relationships, past research has regarded the impact of predictors of brand commitment as being linear and has ignored potential interactive effects among the different antecedents. Applying the investment model of interpersonal relationship, the present research examines the dynamic interplay among the key determinants of consumers' commitment to their relationship with brands (satisfaction, alternatives, and investment) and substantiates the roles of the antecedents in consumer–brand relationship contexts. Results of two studies demonstrate that greater consumer satisfaction and investment and less attractive alternatives lead to a higher level of consumers' commitment to their relationship with a brand. Most important, the results suggest that the perceived size of investment exerts a stronger impact on brand relationship commitment when satisfaction is low while making no significant difference in the commitment level when satisfaction is high. Conversely, the influence of alternative attractiveness on brand relationship commitment appeared to be largely monotonic. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

You ruined our love story,but I just cannot hate you—A moderation–mediation analysis of past experienced brand love and brand hate

The development of the consumer–brand relationship is crucial for brands as it reflects how well a consumer is emotionally connected with the brand. However, due to unacceptable behaviour, brands have become susceptible to negative consumer–brand relationships. Given the recent importance of the negative consumer–brand relationship and its consequences, little is known about the role of previously experienced brand love. Studies support the link between strongly remembered events and experiences, customer knowledge, brand association, and consumer congruence with brands in creating long-lasting influence and deep emotion towards the brand. The study examines moderation–mediation analysis of past experienced brand love and brand hate. This research, anchored in consumer brand relationship literature, builds on an analysis of data from 207 respondents. We conducted a research survey in a South-Western European country and performed the SPSS Hayes Process macro 58 to analyse the moderating role of past experienced brand love alongside the mediating role of brand hate to test our hypotheses. The moderation results show that past experienced brand love significantly moderated the link between brand hate causes (corporate wrongdoings) and brand hate. However, there is no significant moderation influence of past experienced brand love on the consequences of brand hate causes. The study also demonstrates that brand hate mediates the link between corporate wrongdoings and violations of expectations with negative word of mouth, consumer complaints, and patronage reduction/cessation. The current study is unique in that it highlights new avenues in existing research by extending the domain in consumer–brand relationships. The findings of the study have theoretical and empirical implications for brand managers.     

An Extended Search for Generic Consumer–Brand Relationships

Relatively few empirical studies address the question of generic relationships between consumers and brands. But a relationship‐oriented brand communication seems to have become increasingly important to companies. In this article, the authors present details of a study on generic consumer–brand relationships conducted in Germany. Based on the data of more than 900 consumers, four different types of consumer–brand relationships emerge, characterized as “best friendship,” “unemotional purpose‐based relationship,” “loose contact,” and “happy partnership.” An extended analysis of the data using advanced statistical methods supports these findings to a high degree. Furthermore, as the results of the extended analysis also suggest, numerous well‐known brands often appear within less favorable relationships like “unemotional purpose‐based relationship” and “loose contact.” These findings indicate important shortcomings of relationship‐oriented brand management in many companies and suggest the need for further work in this area.     

Brand followers

Both the advertising industry and academia have given increasing attention to the importance of consumer relationship building on social networking sites. By surveying 400 brand followers on Twitter, this study provides a baseline understanding of both motivations and relationships between identified motivations and key consumer–brand relationship variables (i.e. brand identification, brand community commitment, relationship continuance intention, and brand recommendation intention). In addition, we examined what factors affected attitudes towards brand communications on Twitter, based on the consumer socialisation framework. Our findings suggest consumers follow brands on Twitter because of four primary motivations: incentive seeking, social-interaction seeking, brand usage/likeability, and information seeking. The latter three were found to be significant predictors of the consumer–brand relationship variables. Also, individuals who communicate frequently with peers about brands and generally hold more favourable attitudes towards advertising are more likely to have positive attitudes towards brand communications via Twitter.     

The role of social network websites in the consumer–brand relationship

Building and leveraging the brand community on a social network website (SN) such as Facebook is one of the popular social media strategies that companies employ to build a consumer–brand relationship. This research empirically tests a theoretical argument that the perceived benefits of a brand׳s social network website (BSN) influence the consumer׳s relationship with the brand׳s SN, which in turn leads to loyalty behavior. After qualitative exploration of the community to understand the practice of BSN, a quantitative method was utilized to test the hypothesized relationships. The results provide general support for the positive effect of BSN benefits on outcome variables. Specifically, experiential and functional benefits of a brand׳s SN positively influence the consumer׳s perception of relationship investment made by the brand, resulting in both brand relationship quality and the willingness to spread good words about the brand׳s SN. In addition, experiential benefits of BSN positively influence BSN relationship quality, which in turn leads to brand relationship quality, while the effect of functional benefits on BSN relationship quality is not found. The findings provide practical managerial suggestions to marketers and theoretical implications for future studies.     

The effect of activity identity fusion on negative consumer behavior

Negative consumer behavior is an important research topic as it explores consumer behaviors that threaten a brand's image and financial stability. However, prior research offers conflicting findings on whether a strong consumer‐brand relationship hurts or protects a brand after a market disruption or a brand transgression. To provide clarity on this issue, this work argues that disrupting the consumer‐activity relationship motivates consumers to reaffirm and protect their identity, thereby leading to negative consumer behavior. The data reveal that, after a brand‐initiated market disruption, consumers with high activity identity fusion are more likely to spread negative word‐of‐mouth, boycott the brand, and avoid repurchasing the brand in the future. Moreover, the data suggest that high brand identity fusion protects the brand during market disruptions; therefore, prior conflicting results may be due to the fact that the consumer‐activity relationship was not accounted for. Theoretically, this work establishes that consumers' relationship with their consumption activities has significant impacts on consumer behavior. Brand managers and marketers are urged to develop strategies that focus on strengthening the consumer‐brand relationship and not the consumer‐activity relationship.     

Consumer–Brand Relationships: A Contrast of Nostalgic and Non‐Nostalgic Brands

This research examined how consumer–brand relationships change when one contrasts brands perceived as nostalgic with brands perceived as non‐nostalgic. Paired comparisons of brands in six product categories revealed that brand attachment, self‐brand connections, and storytelling, as well as, the propensity to offer the brand as a gift and collect brand‐derived products, depend on the nostalgic status of the brand. On a sample of 606 consumers, the results showed that a brand's nostalgic status has a positive effect on attachment, self‐brand connections, and storytelling. These effects had not previously been considered in nostalgia research. Furthermore, the nostalgic status of a brand has positive effects in terms of intention to purchase the brand as a gift and collect brand‐derived products. Moreover, ANOVA results illustrate that consumer relationships with nostalgic brands are systematically stronger than with non‐nostalgic brands. Finally, results indicated that product category moderates all of the dimensions of brand relationships while gender does not.     

Celebrity endorsements,self-brand connection and relationship quality

The extant literature on celebrity endorsement effects largely focuses on the endorsement effects on consumer evaluations of the endorsed brand. The current study extends the literature by assessing the impact of endorser credibility on two consumer–brand relationship-oriented outcomes – brand relationship quality and consumer self-brand connections. Additionally, the self-brand connection is positioned as a partial mediator of the effect of endorser credibility on relationship quality. A conceptual model is developed and estimated on a sample of 535 Generation Y (youth) consumers from India. The hypotheses are supported and the model demonstrates acceptable fit to the data. Overall, the present study introduces a relationship-building perspective to the celebrity endorsement literature. The results suggest that celebrity endorsers possess the ability to provide meaningful self-definitional benefits to consumers as well as cultivate enhanced relationship quality with the endorsed brands, thus contributing novel insights into celebrity endorsement dynamics.     

Can a Celebrity Serve as an Issue‐Relevant Argument in the Elaboration Likelihood Model?

While celebrity endorsement has been traditionally perceived as a peripheral cue in the elaboration likelihood model, several conceptual studies suggest otherwise that it may play a significant role in delivering issue‐relevant information when celebrity–product congruence exists. The current study provides empirical evidence that a celebrity indeed serves as an issue‐relevant argument by investigating the interaction effects between endorser–product congruence and product involvement on consumer responses in two different match‐up conditions. Moderated regression analysis results indicated that product involvement strengthened the effect of expertise‐based endorser–product congruence on consumer responses. However, the relationship between attractiveness‐based endorser–product congruence and consumer responses generated insignificant results. Research findings entail that a celebrity persuades consumers through the central route when the expert image in particular fits well with the endorsed product. Further analyses indicated that attitude toward the brand mediated the relationship between attitude toward the advertisement and purchase intention in both match‐up environments.     

Brand love: Emotionality and development of its elements across the relationship lifecycle

Brand love is the most emotionally intense connection between consumers and their brands. Referring to their interpersonal counterpart, it is assumed that consumer–brand relationships change their nature over time. However, most studies in this field do not take into consideration this dynamic characteristic. As part of a dynamic perspective of emotionality within consumer–brand relationships, this study is the first to integrate traditional relationship lifecycle concepts and interpersonal love theories. Addressing the developmental path of brand love dimensions over the course of a relationship, the analysis shows that the emotional bond with a brand as represented by brand love and its subdimensions do not follow a prototypical trajectory as assumed by traditional lifecycle concepts. Instead of forming an inverse U‐shape, the respective dimensions show divergent paths rather resembling the development of their interpersonal correspondent. Comparing hedonic and utilitarian brand concepts, it is shown that brand love can arise for hedonic brands and, just as well, for brands perceived as predominantly utilitarian. Moreover, the results advocate the singularity of brand love among relational constructs, thereby paving the way for a distinct theoretical approach centering on the lifecycle of love. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Exploring the post-termination stage of consumer–brand relationships: An empirical investigation of the premium car market

This research extends customer lifecycle models to include a post-termination stage that bridges the dissolution stage of a consumer–brand relationship with a potential recovery stage. Drawing from 43 depth interviews with former customers of a car brand, this study relies on grounded theory and triangulation to explore consumer responses in the post-termination stage and finds evidence for both negative and positive customer responses after dissolution. The authors combine qualitative techniques with categorical principal component analysis (CATPCA) to explore the dimensionality of post-termination responses and extract relationship-related and termination-related response dimensions. They use these dimensions to identify four distinct post-termination customer clusters, which differ systematically with the customer's termination reasons, as demonstrated through a series of exact logistic regressions. In addition to providing evidence of a post-termination stage, this study offers implications for customer relationship management.     

The Psychological Mechanism of Brand Co-creation Engagement

Co-creation for brand innovation is an intriguing and rapidly growing trend in the current competitive market. Past research emphasizes the economic gains of consumer co-creation, with limited research focusing on the psychological effects engendered in the process of consumer brand co-creation. Drawing from self-determination theory and implicit self-esteem theory, the present research proposes an integrative framework for synthesizing the perceived psychological benefits and distinctive motivations in the brand co-creation process. The results indicated that brand self–connection and three perceived benefits of brand co-creation tasks (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) facilitate consumer motivations to participate in brand co-creation campaigns. These motivations facilitate the establishment of brand co-creation engagement, which in turn leads to strengthened brand relationship behavior. This research exemplifies that a well designed brand co-creation contest is a potent means which can not only enhance consumer engagement with the co-creation contest, but also turn engaged consumers into intangible assets for brand innovation.     

The role of destination personality fit in destination branding: Antecedents and outcomes

Drawing from fit research in strategic management, this study develops and investigates a model predicting destination attitude and (re)visit intention. The study introduces the concept of destination personality fit on the basis of how well consumer perceptions of a tourist destination's brand personality fits that of what the destination brand manager wishes to convey. A model incorporating destination advertising awareness as an antecedent of destination personality and consumer‐manager destination personality fit is tested on international consumers with the destination personality of Switzerland as the study setting. Structural equation modeling results reveal that destination advertising awareness does indeed relate positively to both stronger perceived destination personality and destination personality fit in consumers’ minds. Interestingly, the subsequent destination personality–destination attitude relationship is moderated by consumer–manager destination personality fit in such a way that the link grows stronger in cases where fit is high. The results have important implications for destination brand managers in that they reinforce the importance of strong and distinct destination personalities. The findings also show the importance of actively communicating the destination brand to consumers since the positive outcomes of a strong destination personality increase in magnitude when successfully communicated, and the vision of the destination brand manager has been adopted by the consumer.     

Effects of Chinese consumers' relationship benefits and satisfaction on attitudes toward foreign fashion brands:The moderating role of country of salesperson

The paper examines the various responses of consumers depending on the country of salesperson (COS) and to look into the effects that consumer–salesperson relationship benefits have on consumer satisfaction and brand attitude. The results suggest that consumers' perceived social benefit and functional benefit positively influenced their satisfaction with salesperson, and a significant positive effect of consumers' satisfaction with salesperson on consumers' brand attitude is found. This positive relationship was moderated by COS. These findings suggest that COS will serve as an important retail mix for global marketers. Other results and management implications are also discussed.     

Brand community: Drivers and outcomes

Groups of users and admirers of a brand who engage jointly in group actions to accomplish collective goals and/or to express mutual sentiments and commitments are known as brand communities. Lately, brand communities have been a heavily researched topic in marketing science. While the positive consequences of brand communities are well documented in the literature, little is known about how brand communities can be facilitated and how consumer–brand relationships can be fostered. This research empirically assesses the relevance of offline (i.e., events) and online marketing management tools (i.e., Web sites with online bulletin boards and online expert chats) to strengthen brand communities by facilitating shared customer experiences and multi‐way interactions. Additionally, the importance of consumer–brand identification as a consequence of such relationship‐building activities is investigated, and the outcomes of a consumer's identification with a brand are analyzed. Important management implications can be derived. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The effects of between‐partner congruity on consumer evaluation of co‐branded products

Branding studies, especially those focusing on brand extension, have often centered on establishing the relationship between consumer evaluation and the match between a product concept and the brand (concept congruity). This study introduces an additional type of congruity that arises in the evaluation of co‐branded products, the congruity between brand partners (between‐partner congruity). Between‐partner congruity has not previously been explicitly considered in the co‐branding literature, but is potentially an important influence on consumer perceptions of a brand partnership. Thus, this study represents an initial attempt to understand how the level of between‐partner congruity will affect consumer response to cobranded products. Several findings in the marketing literature have suggested that when respondents have the motivation to resolve incongruity, the relationship between congruity level and evaluation is nonmonotonic. In other words, moderately incongruent concepts are preferred to congruent or highly incongruent concepts to form an “inverted‐U” data function. Yet, when motivation to process is low, evaluation becomes less favorable in a linear fashion as incongruity increases. This study examines whether these findings can be extended to co‐branding. When concept congruity is controlled across brand pairs, the nonmonotonic relationship between between‐partner congruity level and product evaluation is observed when consumers are encouraged to elaborate on the rationale for the partnership (high involvement). However, when consumers attend to the global similarity of the partners (low involvement), product evaluation becomes less favorable as between‐partner incongruity increases. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Political ideology and brand attachment

We introduce political conservatism as possibly associated with brand attachment. We propose that conservatism, in particular, might be related to stronger attachment bonds to brands due to greater feelings of uncertainty, encouraging consumers to seek security via forming brand attachment bonds. In five studies, we demonstrate a relationship between conservatism and brand attachment. Uncertainty is able to explain the relationship, as attachment bonds to brands can appease conservatives' uncertainty. We also observe downstream consequences for price sensitivity and purchase intentions. Finally, the relationship may arise primarily for a brand with a domestic (vs. foreign) country-of-origin. Accordingly, consumers' political ideology may play a role in brand attachment with implications for how brand managers can segment or target the market in order to predict consumer–brand relationships. We situate our work more generally on the relevance of consumers' political ideology for marketing activities.     

Consumer Attachments to Human Brands: The “Oprah Effect”

Human brands offer an interesting complement to product brands in that consumer attachments to human brands take on personal relationship qualities that can engender greater affiliation and loyalty. At present, one of the most powerful human brands in the developed world is that of Oprah Winfrey. This research uses the Oprah brand as a context in which to explore and expand the existing model of human brand attachment because of the enduring strength and consistency of how she has cultivated her brand. The existing model of human brand attachment identifies autonomy, relatedness, and competence as the antecedents of attachment strength. However, the expanded model in the current research introduces and validates brand personality appeal (and its sub‐dimensions of favorability, originality, and clarity) as an important moderating factor in the relationship between these antecedents of attachment and attachment outcomes. Two studies utilizing both qualitative and quantitative data investigate the impact of these factors on attachment strength as manifested in emotional attachment behaviors, markers of relationship quality, and marketplace responses in the form of brand loyalty and purchase intentions.     

How special rewards in loyalty programs enrich consumer–brand relationships: The role of self-expansion

Although brands offer different kinds of rewards through their loyalty programs, little is known about how they can impact consumer–brand relationships and brand attitude. How do loyalty program rewards influence the consumer–brand relationship? And which kinds of rewards establish or maintain closer relationships between consumers and brands than others? To answer these questions, the present research makes use of self-expansion theory (Aron & Aron, 1986) and two experiments that manipulate the extraordinary character of rewards offered to consumers. Our findings show that special rewards produce higher self-expansion than mundane rewards. Moreover, the positive effect of the rewards’ extraordinary character on brand evaluation, recommendation, and identification is sequentially and fully mediated by self-brand inclusion and self-expansion. Finally, we show that consumer satisfaction moderates the impact of special and mundane rewards on self-brand inclusion.     

Cause-related marketing influence on consumer responses: The moderating effect of cause–brand fit

The traditional focus on the study of cause–brand fit in cause-related marketing (CrM) is that it is a mediator variable between consumer perceptions and subsequent responses. However, the literature is not conclusive on this point. This study adopts a new perspective, considering cause–brand fit as a moderator variable rather than a direct antecedent to consumer evaluations of CrM. Thus, the main objective of this research is to examine the moderator role of cause–brand fit in the influence of two corporate associations elicited in CrM (corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate ability (CA) associations) on brand attitude and two behavioural consumer responses (purchase intent and support to non-profit organisation (NPO)). For this, a theoretical model is proposed, and it is estimated with a sample of 595 Spanish consumers of insurance and personal hygiene and toiletries products. Results show that when consumers perceive high social cause–brand fit, the positive influence of CSR associations on the formation of brand attitude is amplified. However, when cause–brand fit is low, brand attitude is formed via CA associations. Finally, consumer behavioural responses in favour of the brand (i.e. purchase intent) and social cause (i.e. support to NPO) are reinforced in a context of high cause–brand perceived fit.