Marketing’s Rediscovery of Empathy: Is Brand Experience the Answer to Eliciting Brand Love Cross-Culturally?

Abstract

The world of marketing has always claimed to emphasize the needs of humans; and yet, why does it currently lack a certain humanity? Modern advances have resulted in an industry saturated with advertisements and algorithms that prioritize profit, views, and clicks. While numbers can and have been extremely useful in progressing the field, they can only get us so far. The crux of this technological revolution in marketing is that it has left its landscape devoid of the human touch. The current research posits that as a brand, one should not simply focus on accruing revenue but on deepening the connection with consumers. This bond can be achieved by eliciting brand love through a phenomenon known as brand experiences, categorized into sensory, affective, intellectual, behavioral, and relational. The study collects empirical data and introduces a new component to the brand love scale known as cultural affirmation providing deeper insights within the international context of Maldives and Malaysia. As marketing is centered on understanding the needs of consumers, we as humans are still the only entities capable of the empathetic reasoning required to accomplish this to its deepest extent – a feat that has eluded even the most advanced of today’s technology.