The purpose of this paper is to examine the different relationship that brand love, compared to brand attitude, has with actual brand performance in a cross-national and crosscategory context. Design/methodology/approach: An empirical study is conducted in the US, Russia and Indonesia to develop and validate a short but comprehensive measure of brand love. A brand attitude measure derived from company's tracking studies and behavioural measures derived from panel data are used to examine the different relationship of brand love and brand attitude with brand performance. Findings: The findings show that consumers in the US, Russia and Indonesia share a similar concept of brand love. They also show that brand love, compared to brand attitude, is more strongly related with growth in behavioural loyalty, whereas brand attitude, compared to brand love, is more strongly related to the brand size in the present. Research limitations/implications: The paper combines psychological and behavioural data from different sources. Future research may collect both types of data from the same sample of consumers. Besides, the paper uses brand love and brand attitude data related to loyal consumers and users, respectively. Future research may consider both types of consumers simultaneously. Practical implications: The paper clarifies why brand love measures should be integrated in a company's brand measurement system, and their specific contribution compared to brand attitude. Originality/value: This paper is the first that examines brand love in a cross-national and crosscategory context and that shows the relationship of brand love versus brand attitude with actual brand performance using company/industry-derived data.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) – conceptualized as consisting of brand awareness, perceived quality, brand associations, perceived value and brand loyalty – and market share for different brand types (global versus local) in different country groups (developed versus emerging).Design/methodology/approachThis paper combines consumer–survey-based data, experts' coding and retail panel data of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands in 29 countries.FindingsIn developed countries, the relationship between each CBBE component (except for brand associations) with market share is stronger for local than global brands. In emerging countries, the relationship between each CBBE component with market share is stronger for global than local brands.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper contributes to better understanding the relationships between CBBE and market share by showing how CBBE components relate to market share for different brand types (global and local) in different country groups (developed and emerging). Limitations arise from constraints related to existing datasets (e.g. limited number of variables and type of product categories considered).Practical implicationsThis paper offers insights to managers working in multinational FMCG companies, as it suggests which CBBE components relate more strongly to the global or local brands' market shares in different countries.Originality/valueThis paper analyzes the relationship between CBBE and market share by focusing on different brand types (global versus local) in different country groups (developed versus emerging). It does so by using a company dataset and showing correspondence with conceptualizations and measures of brand equity from the academic literature. It also considers a large set of 29 countries, extending research beyond national boundaries.

Purpose This paper aims to advance the design-thinking approach in food from an engineering mind-set toward a positive psychology perspective by investigating how consumer experiences evoked by food-related activities can facilitate, stimulate and enhance individuals’ happiness and perceptions of life satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach A diary field experiment was conducted. Participants from a major European city were asked to reflect on their food-related activities, provide descriptions and answer questions on experiential stimulation derived from these activities in relation to happiness and perceived life satisfaction. Findings Food-related activities generally result in positive consumer experiences and psychological well-being. Experiential stimulation resulting from food activities is positively related to perceived life satisfaction directly and indirectly via pleasure and meaning. Although the authors found an overall positive relationship between these constructs, they also found differences based on the experience type considered. A “crescendo model” of experiences that details how experiences lead to happiness and perceived life satisfaction is presented. Research limitations/implications This study is largely exploratory. Future research should adopt an experimental approach and further test the relationship between experiential stimulation, happiness and perceived life satisfaction in the context of food. Practical implications The paper offers innovation teams in food companies a practical “crescendo model” that can be used to design product–consumer interactions. Originality/value The research bridges literatures on design thinking, psychological well-being and consumer experiences. By studying the relationship between experiences, happiness and perceived life satisfaction in the context of food, the findings contribute to research on food well-being by expanding the notion of happiness seen only as pleasure. The research also contributes to work on design thinking by offering an experiential framework that contributes to the notion of consumer empathy.

What does it take to grow a brand? How to avoid its decline? Some popular answers to these questions can be found in the research by Byron Sharp and others from the Ehrenberg-Bass (EB) Institute on “how brands grow.” In this article, we propose that such an approach, despite its strengths, lends itself to some limitations when taken too literally. We maintain that a broader notion and role of branding—encompassing brand equity, brand portfolio, and circular relationship of attitudes and behaviors—should be adopted by marketeers to derive better managerial implications for sustainable brand growth. We, therefore, invite marketers to not oversimplify Dirichlet evidences by thinking of availability as the only (costly) response to all marketing challenges.

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