What do You Mean by Love? Understanding Brand Love Experiences

Resumo

Trilha2: Comportamento do consumidor

Abstract

Just as there are types of interpersonal love, there might be types or experiences of brand love. This study proposes that brand love is an umbrella term for different brand love experiences and proposes a scale to differentiate among them. After a literature review and a qualitative stage, reasons to love a brand were coded based on the relationship experiences the interviewees have with their loved brands. Each of the codes were translated into sentences, and a sample of 327 brand lovers were asked to choose their degree of agreement to each of the sentences. Through factorial analysis and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) four factors emerged, representing brand love experiences, based on the grouping of reasons to love a brand: values, identity, emotional attachment and functionality, which exhibit distinct relationships to the long-established antecedents and consequents of brand love. We add to the literature by developing a multidimensional differentiation scale based on the reasons people love a brand, to typify their experiences.