ABSTRACT

The creation and management of customer relationships is fundamental to the practice of marketing. Marketers have long maintained a keen interest in relationships: what they are, why they are formed, what effects they have on consumers and the marketplace, how they can be measured and when and how they evolve and decline.

While marketing research has a long tradition in the study of business relationships between manufacturers and suppliers and buyers and sellers, attention in the past decade has expanded to the relationships that form between consumers and their brands (such as products, stores, celebrities, companies or countries). The aim of this book is to advance knowledge about consumer-brand relationships by disseminating new research that pushes beyond theory, to applications and practical implications of brand relationships that businesses can apply to their own marketing strategies.

With contributions from an impressive array of scholars from around the world, this volume will provide students and researchers with a useful launch pad for further research in this blossoming area.

chapter |11 pages

Introduction

The why, how, and so what of consumers' relationships with their brands

part I|121 pages

The “What” of Brand Relationships

chapter 1|15 pages

When is our connection to brands like our connection to people?

Differentiating between consumer–brand relationships and interpersonal relationships

chapter 4|23 pages

Brand flings

When great brand relationships are not made to last

part II|86 pages

Understanding Consumer–Brand Relationship Bonds

chapter 8|14 pages

Brand love

Investigating two alternative love relationships

chapter 10|20 pages

Brand forgiveness

How close brand relationships influence forgiveness

chapter 11|17 pages

Relationships are complicated

On construct validity when consumer–brand relationships are systems

part III|77 pages

How Goals and Identity Drive Consumers' Relationships with their Brands

chapter 14|17 pages

Teenagers' purposive brand relationships

From social filters to shoulders to lean on

chapter 15|19 pages

Brands can be like friends

Goals and interpersonal motives influence attitudes toward preferred brands

part IV|114 pages

Managerial Applications of Consumer–Brand Relationship Ideas

chapter 16|16 pages

Firing your best customers

How smart firms destroy relationships using CRM

chapter 19|13 pages

Brand humanity

Transforming the business of building brands

chapter |18 pages

Musings and meditations

Where do we go from here?