ABSTRACT

Researchers have examined the relationships between consumers and products and recently that between consumers and brands (Keller and Lehmann, 2006), using concepts such as brand satisfaction, brand loyalty, and brand love to distinguish among various types and intensities of relationships (Albert et al., 2008). As consumers form relationships with brands, they often assign human characteristics (Levy, 1985) and personalities (Aaker, 1997) to them. Among the brand relation-ship constructs studied, the concept of brand love is one of the most recent and the least researched (Ahuvia, 2005a; Albert et al., 2008; Fournier, 1998). Richins (1997) and others found that love is a typical consumer-related emotion and often has a strong connection to the individual’s self-concept and identity (Ahuvia, 2005a, 2005b; Swaminathan et al., 2007). Chaudhuri (1998) shows that emotions are linked to the perception of risk in products and purchase intention. Carroll and Ahuvia (2006: 87) define brand love as “the degree of passionate emotional attachment a satisfied consumer has for a particular” brand. Keh, Pang and Peng (2007: 84) define brand love as “the intimate, passionate, and committed relationship between consumers and a brand, characterized by its reciprocal, purposive, and dynamic properties.” Building on this previous work, we define brand love as a multidimensional construct consisting of a satisfied consumer’s experience with a brand, which leads not only to brand loyalty (a predecessor of brand love) but to a deeply emotional relationship. Ultimately, brand love is an emotional, affective fulfillment, while brand satisfaction refers to a more cognitive judgment. The objective of this study is to assess, on one hand, the relationship between brand love and existing branding concepts such as brand loyalty and, on the other hand, the suitable underlying love relationship theory in which brand love is nested. To achieve these objectives, we first review the current literature on consumer love toward products and brands, then develop hypotheses and examine this issue by conducting an explorative and confirmatory factor analysis. We conclude with a discussion of implications for marketing researchers and practitioners.