Brand Love: A Conceptual Framework
Introduction
Researchers have found that only satisfaction is not enough to keep the customers loyal (Jones
and Sasser, 1995). Many satisfied customers switch to competitor’s brand after some time
(Reichheld, 1996). Hence, satisfaction results in loyalty when the satisfaction is sustained for a
longer period of time and gets deeper. A percentage of the satisfied customers tend to love a
brand (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006). They found that brand love is an antecedent to brand loyalty
and satisfaction is an antecedent to brand love. Therefore, brand love mediates the relationship
between customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Over a longer period of time, if an individual
remains satisfied with a brand then it is likely that the satisfaction will get transformed into an
emotional and passionate bonding with the brand. The nature of this bonding is very similar to
the interpersonal love and attachment. Carroll and Ahuvia (2006) have defined brand love as a
combination of emotion and passion. According to Keh et al (2007) brand love includes longterm commitment to the brand in addition to emotion and passion. Then loving a brand (and not
mere satisfaction) is a step towards loyalty. So, marketers must plan how to make the satisfied
customers love a brand. This study intends to identify the antecedents and consequences of brand
love and put forward certain propositions related to their interrelationships.
Conceptualization of Brand Love
Shimp and Madden (1988) have conceptualized eight kinds of consumer-object relationship
based on the tripartite conceptualization of interpersonal love stated by Sternberg (1986). The
components of consumer-object (the object can be a brand) relationship as stated by Shimp and
Madden are – liking, yearning and decision/commitment - which are the counterparts to
intimacy, passion and decision/commitment components of interpersonal love relationship
respectively as described by Sternberg.
According to Carroll and Ahuvia (2006), brand love is an emotional and passionate relationship
present between a satisfied consumer and a brand. These authors are stressing on both emotion
and passion while defining brand love. Whang, Allen, Sahoury and Zhang’s (2004) study has
revealed that a consumer can fall in passionate and emotional love with a brand which might lead
to romantic love for the brand over a period of time. According to Sternberg (1986), romantic
love consists of emotion or intimacy and passion. From these findings it can be inferred that
brand love is romantic in nature. Love is closely linked to loyalty (Sternberg, 1986; Shimp and
Madden, 1988; Keh et al, 2007). Brand love predicts brand loyalty (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006).
According to Keh, Pang and Peng (2007) brand love includes intimacy, passion and
commitment. If commitment is included in brand love, then it becomes difficult to distinguish
between brand love and brand loyalty. Hence, in this study brand love has been conceptualized
as a combination of emotion and passion. Remaining part of this article focuses on identifying
relevant antecedents and consequences of brand love.
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Antecedents of Brand Love
Satisfaction and brand love
Satisfaction is a post-consumption evaluative judgment (Mano and Oliver, 1993). But it is not
entirely cognitive. As Thomson, MacInnis and Park (2005) has stated that post-consumption
satisfaction is likely to lead to emotional attachment with a brand over time with multiple
interactions with the brand. It implies that cumulative satisfaction over a period tends to lead to
an emotional bonding between consumer and brand.
Proposition 1: Satisfaction with the brand positively influences the feeling of love towards the
brand.
Individual romanticism and brand love
According to Holbrook and Olney (1995), the romantic individual is highly emotional and seeks
pleasure. As brand love refers to a strong emotional bonding of an individual with a brand, it is
expected that a high romantic person is more likely to fall in love with a brand compared to a
low romantic person. Hence, we offer the following proposition:
Proposition 2: Individual romanticism positively influences love for a brand.
Brand experience and brand love
According to Lee (1977) love is an attitude. So, brand love is also an attitude towards the brand.
According to Carroll and Ahuvia (2006) brand love is highly affective in nature. Hence, it is
expected that favorable brand experience might lead to love towards a brand over a period of
time. Hence, we offer the following proposition:
Proposition 3: Favorable brand experience positively influences brand love.
Individual Romanticism and Brand Experience
According to Holbrook (1997), romanticism enriches the experience-seeking process
surrounding any consumption act through subjective personal introspection. Subjective personal
introspection refers to the examination of one’s own psychic world. Hence, it is assumed that
individual romanticism enriches the experiences in the context of brand consumption. Hence, our
next proposition is:
Proposition 4: Individual romanticism is positively associated with brand experience.
Customer delight and brand love
Almeida and Nique (2005 showed that when a customer is delighted with a brand then he/she
tends to develop an emotional bonding with the brand. Kumar (1996) also state that customer
delight is an emotional level characterized by high levels of joy and surprise in connection with
any consumption. Hence, it is proposed that this affective customer delight might lead to love
over a period of time, as brand love has strong affective focus (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006). Hence
the following proposition is forwarded:
Proposition 5: Customer delight positively influences brand love.
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Satisfaction and Customer Delight
Satisfaction has both cognitive and affective dimensions. Affect is one dimension of customer
delight also (Almeida and Nique, 2005). As satisfaction itself is a dimension of customer delight
and both are post-consumption experiences, satisfaction is likely to influence customer delight
positively.
Proposition 6: Satisfaction positively influences customer delight.
Individual materialism and brand love
Satisfaction with a brand for a considerable period of time is the pre-requisite for falling in love
with the brand (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006). Hence, it is expected that materialistic individuals
tend not to fall in deep emotional love with a brand, as they are not easily satisfied with a brand.
Proposition 7: Individual materialism negatively influences brand love.
Proposition 8: Individual materialism has negative association with satisfaction.
Individual materialism and brand experience
According to Holt (1995), a materialistic individual tends not to engage in consumption through
experiencing and a non-materialist tends to engage in consumption through experiencing.
Materialistic individual tends to perceive that the object has the terminal value. They purchase
products to show off and enhance social status. Materialism has significant positive association
with status consumption (Heaney, 2005). Hence the following proposition is forwarded:
Proposition 9: Individual materialism has negative association with brand experience.
Consequences of Brand Love
Brand love and intention to pay price premium
If an individual is emotionally attached to a brand then he/she will be willing to pay premium
price for purchasing the brand (Thomson et al, 2005). Brand love is also a combination of
emotion and passion for a brand (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006). Therefore, if the consumer loves a
brand, then he/she will be willing to pay price premium for the brand.
Proposition 10: Brand love positively influences the intention to pay price premium for the
brand.
Brand love and brand loyalty
If the consumer starts loving a brand, then he/she actually becomes very emotional about and
passionate for the brand (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006). Because of this strong emotional bonding
they are expected to purchase repeatedly the same brand ignoring other competitor brands. Thus
the love will tend towards loyalty (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006).
Proposition 11: Brand love positively influences conative brand loyalty.
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Conative brand loyalty refers to the strong intention to be loyal to a brand (Oliver, 1999). Oliver
has also stated that sometimes the conative loyalty does not get transformed into action loyalty
due to the presence of some obstacles. The obstacles are situational factors and competitors’
marketing efforts. That implies that if the obstacles would not be there conative loyalty would
lead to action loyalty.
Proposition 12: Conative loyalty positively influences action loyalty.
Brand love and Positive Word-of-mouth
If the consumer loves a brand then it is also expected that the consumer will say positive things
to other about the brand. The study conducted by Carroll and Ahuvia (2006) has also shown that
brand love positively influences the positive word-of-mouth for the brand.
Proposition 13: Brand love leads to positive word-of-mouth.
Satisfaction and Positive Word-of-mouth
The study conducted by Ranaweera and Menon (2008) has shown that higher satisfaction leads
to positive word of mouth and lower satisfaction leads to negative word of mouth. According to
Ladhary (2007), satisfaction positively influences both the likelihood of word of mouth and
positive word of mouth.
Proposition 14: Satisfaction positively influences positive word of mouth.
Action loyalty and Positive Word-of-mouth
Increased satisfaction leads to greater positive word-of-mouth (Ranaweera and Menon, 2008).
Customer satisfaction is an antecedent to loyalty (Terblanche and Boshoff, 2010). Satisfaction
gets translated into loyalty when the satisfaction is strongly held (Chandrashekaran, Rotte, Tax,
Grewal, 2007). Therefore, a loyal customer must be satisfied and that satisfaction will motivate
the person to spread positive word-of-mouth.
Proposition 15: Action loyalty leads to positive word-of-mouth.
Based on the above mentioned propositions following theoretical framework has been
developed.
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SATISFAC
-TION
ACTION
LOYALTY
ROMAN
TICISM
BRAN
D EXP
CONATIV
E
LOYALTY
BRAN
D
LOVE
PREMIU
M
CUSTOM
ER
DELIGHT
+ WOM
MATERI
ALISM
Note: (+) sign denotes positive relationship. (-) sign denotes negative relationship. Each arrow
flows from predictor to the dependent construct. The double-headed arrow represents covariance
relationship between two constructs.
Discussion
Brand love is a rich concept recently emerged in the field of consumer behavior. If the
consumers love a brand, then sales volume of the brand will increase, as the brand love gets
transformed into brand loyalty. So, the marketers should formulate appropriate strategy so that
the brand has a strong emotional appeal and target customers fall in love with the brand. The
present study has focused on identifying the antecedents and consequences of brand love rooting
itself in the psychology and marketing literature. Identification of antecedents and consequences
of brand love will help the managers to focus on appropriate variables while formulating
strategies intended to make the consumers love the brand. Consumer psychology is very
complex. It is therefore highly important to identify the complex psychological variables which
impact a consumer’s feeling for a brand. Managers should develop appropriate strategies to
enhance the target customers brand love. Brand love will result in increased loyalty, intention to
pay premium price and positive word-of-mouth. Strategy formulation intended to develop brand
love should be done based on the antecedent variables identified.
The conceptual model in this paper needs to be empirically examined. Future researches can be
done to validate the theoretical relationships empirically. It is also required to carry out separate
empirical investigations for different product categories. It is likely that the level of brand love
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and its interrelationships with other variables will vary across different product categories. This
study has not looked into the social identity literature which can be integrated with the present
model.
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