‘All you need is brand love’: a critical review and comprehensive conceptual framework for brand love

ABSTRACT

Brand love has received increasing attention given its potential to enhance customer engagement, brand advocacy, commitment and loyalty. Despite its relevance, few studies explore brand love per se, and existing conceptualisations remain sporadic and fragmented. The purpose of the current paper is to critically assess available work on brand love, reviewing conceptualisations, measurements and key proximal constructs. Expanding upon and synthesising earlier work and conceptualisations, we develop and propose a comprehensive conceptual framework for brand love that is innovative for the following reasons. In particular, our model takes a developmental rather than a snapshot approach to capture brand love trajectories as a function of their onset and evolution; incorporates key frameworks and as such builds on interpersonal, parasocial and experiential theories; and acknowledges the important role of brand hate. Managerial implications and future research directions are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Brand love
• consumer-brand relationship
• brand love evolution
• brand hate
• relationship trajectory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-faces-multiple-lawsuits-over-throttled-iphones-1522229400.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Narissara Palusuk

Narissara Palusuk is a PhD candidate at Rennes School of Business in France. She completed Msc. Marketing Management (Merit) from Aston University, UK. She is also a lecturer at Khon Kaen University in Thailand and the KKU PhD scholarship recipient.

Bernadett Koles

Bernadett Koles is an Associate Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour at Rennes School of Business, France. She holds a doctorate from Harvard University in Psychology, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Marketing at Durham Business School in the UK. Her research covers a range of areas reflecting upon her multidisciplinary expertise. Her present interests focus on compensatory consumption, consumer compromise, and the impact of innovative technologies on consumers and organisations. Prior to joining RSB, she held positions in the United States, Portugal, and Hungary.

Rajibul Hasan

Rajibul Hasan is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Rennes School of Business, France. He completed his PhD from the University of Kent and the recipient of a Kent Business School PhD Scholarship. His other research interests include consumer behaviour, diffusion of innovation, technology acceptance models, ethics in marketing, Bottom of Pyramid market, and poverty alleviation.