Love me do, love me don't factor drivers, development and consequences of brand love

Abstract

Consumers usually refer to their favorite brands as brands they love, and love, as some would say, is all you need. Consequently, managers and researchers rushed to develop the idea of brand love. Today, this concept is currently used as a holistic term that is linked to several intense emotions combined with an intense purchase or usage experience that results in positive behaviors.
Nevertheless, this valuable notion remains yet to become an established consensual marketing construct. In addition, the state-of-the-art knowledge does not allow neither managers nor researchers to understand if the foundations or dimensional aspects of brand love vary from one brand to another or from one country to another. That is the goal of the present research. It aims to characterize brand love dimensions, its impact on market outcome
variables and compare the results of brands from different categories and consumers from entirely different countries.
Using structural equation modeling on survey data, we propose a brand love model consisting
of a higher order emotional dimension passion and first order dimensions such as commitment, self-personality brand integration and long-term perspective. The model includes market outcomes such as brand loyalty, positive word of mouth and brand commitment as consequences of brand love. Our results allow us to propose model and market outcomes differences identified across location and brand category and we discuss how coherent they are with the organizational and cultural differences put forward by Hofstede.
We conclude this research by presenting theoretical and managerial implications on brand building and marketing activities.

Date of Award	1 Dec 2017
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Rita Coelho do Vale (Supervisor)