‘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.

Brand anthropomorphism, love and defense: does attitude towards social distancing matter?

“…This type of negative coverage in traditional and social media increases the brand's sensitivity (Einwiller et al, 2006), pushing them to rely on their relationships with their most loyal consumers for support (Dalman et al, 2019). Hospitality brands with higher levels of awareness can count on consumers' active support and positive attitude (So et al, 2014) because of their strong influence on consumer behavior (Palusuk et al, 2019). Anthropomorphized hospitality brandsa perception that brands have emotional states, mind, should, and conscious behaviorsare perceived as having a more profound capacity for care and concern (Lee & Oh, 2019;Portal et al, 2018).…”

What Is Love? Exploring the Meaning of Brand Love and its Role in Determining Brand Loyalty

“…In sum, the brand love scale has evolved from onedimensional to very complex multi-dimensional scales in which brand passion has either been treated as one dimension or has been used as a synonym for brand love (Fetscherin, 2014). Therefore, confusion may exist among academics and practitioners in terms of how to conceptualize brand love (Junaid et al, 2019;Palusuk et al, 2019) and how to measure the construct in a practical manner. In addition, Rossiter (2012) already hinted at content validity problems regarding the brand love scales, which he contrasted with the construct of "brand liking".…”

“…A team of market researchers should then select an existing scale that has already been validated and adapt it to the specific cultural context, to which it should be applied. Original brand love scales differ significantly between each other regarding their conceptualizations and items used (Junaid et al, 2019;Palusuk et al, 2019). Therefore, the question is which scale is most suitable and most valid in a particular cultural context.…”

“…In recent years, the role of emotions and the new phenomenon of brand love have gained increasing attention in marketing (e.g., Bagozzi, Batra, & Ahuvia, 2017;Batra, Ahuvia, & Bagozzi, 2012;Bergkvist & Bech-Larsen, 2010;Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006;Fetscherin, 2014;Gumparthi & Patra, 2020;Junaid, Hussain, Basit, & Hou, 2019;Kaufmann, Loureiro, & Manarioti, 2016;Langner, Bruns, Fischer, & Rossiter, 2016;Loureiro, Ruediger, & Demetris, 2012;Machado, Vacas-de-Carvalho, Azar, André, & dos Santos, 2019;Palusuk, Koles, & Hasan, 2019;Pang, Tat, & Peng, 2009;Rosado-Pinto, Loureiro, & Bilro, 2020;Roy, Eshghi, & Sarkar, 2013;Sarkar, Ponnam, & Murthy, 2012;Wallace, Buil, & de Chernatony, 2014). Consequently, marketing scholars have developed a plethora of measurement scales to assess brand love (see e.g., Albert, Merunka, & Valette-Florence, 2009;Bagozzi et al, 2017;Batra et al, 2012;Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006;Fetscherin, 2014;Junaid et al, 2019;Keh, Pang, & Peng, 2007;Sarkar et al, 2012).…”

Personal accounts and an anatomy of conceptual contributions in the special issue

“…In their article entitled '"All you need is brand love": a critical review and comprehensive conceptual framework for brand love', Palusuk, Koles, and Hasan (2019) develop an integrated framework concerning the construct of brand love. In doing so, they summarise various perspectives on brand love while also differentiating various conceptualisations of this construct.…”