Customer loyalty is viewed as the strength of the relationship between an individual’s relative attitude and repeat patronage. The relationship is seen as mediated by social norms and situational factors. Cognitive, affective, and conative antecedents of relative attitude are identified as contributing to loyalty, along with motivational, perceptual, and behavioral consequences. Implications for research and for the management of loyalty are derived.

Customer Loyalty: Toward an Integrated Conceptual Framework:

Although the relationship metaphor dominates contemporary marketing thought and practice, surprisingly little empirical work has been conducted on relational phenomena in the consumer products domain, particularly at the level of the brand. In this article, the author: (1) argues for the validity of the relationship proposition in the consumer-brand context, including a debate as to the legitimacy of the brand as an active relationship partner and empirical support for the phenomenological significance of consumer-brand bonds; (2) provides a framework for characterizing and better understanding the types of relationships consumers form with brands; and (3) inducts from the data the concept of brand relationship quality, a diagnostic tool for conceptualizing and evaluating relationship strength. Three in-depth case studies inform this agenda, their interpretation guided by an integrative review of the literature on person-to-person relationships. Insights offered through application of inducted concepts to two relevant research domains — brand loyalty and brand personality — are advanced in closing. The exercise is intended to urge fellow researchers to refine, test, and augment the working hypotheses suggested herein and to progress toward these goals with confidence in the validity of the relationship premise at the level of consumers’ lived experiences with their brands.

Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research

Although the relationship metaphor dominates contemporary marketing thought and practice, surprisingly little empirical work has been conducted on relational phenomena in the consumer products domain, particularly at the level of the brand. In this article, the author: (1) argues for the validity of the relationship proposition in the consumer-brand context, including a debate as to the legitimacy of the brand as an active relationship partner and empirical support for the phenomenological significance of consumer-brand bonds; (2) provides a framework for characterizing and better understanding the types of relationships consumers form with brands; and (3) inducts from the data the concept of brand relationship quality, a diagnostic tool for conceptualizing and evaluating relationship strength. Three in-depth case studies inform this agenda, their interpretation guided by an integrative review of the literature on person-to-person relationships. Insights offered through application of inducted concepts to two relevant research domains—brand loyalty and brand personality—are advanced in closing. The exercise is intended to urge fellow researchers to refine, test, and augment the working hypotheses suggested herein and to progress toward these goals with confidence in the validity of the relationship premise at the level of consumers' lived experiences with their brands.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.1086/209515.pdf

Consumers and their brands : developing relationship theory in consumer research

Although a considerable amount of research in personality psychology has been done to conceptualize human personality, identify the “Big Five” dimensions, and explore the meaning of each dimension,...

Dimensions of Brand Personality

Although a considerable amount of research in personality psychology has been done to conceptualize human personality, identify the Big Five dimensions, and explore the meaning of each dimension, no parallel research has been conducted in consumer behavior on brand personality. Consequently, an understanding of the symbolic use of brands has been limited in the consumer behavior literature. In this research, the author develops a theoretical framework of the the brand personality construct by determining the number and nature of dimensions of brand personality (Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication, and Ruggedness). To measure the five brand personality dimensions, a reliable, valid, and generalizable measurement scale is created. Finally, theoretical and practical implications regarding the symbolic use of brands are discussed.

Material possession attachment, a property of the relationship between a specific person and a specific object of possession, reflects the extent of “me-ness” associated with that possession. The two Q-methodological studies reported here investigated the nature of this me-ness (and “not me-ness”). Study 1 explores different types of attachment and how these types portray various facets of a person's life story (i.e., identity). It shows how strong versus weak attachment, affiliation and/or autonomy seeking, and past, present, or future temporal orientation combine to form qualitatively distinct types of psychological significance. Study 2 begins development of a nomological network encompassing attachment by showing how mode of gift receipt (self-gift vs. interpersonal gift), as an antecedent, influences attachment type. Study 2 also examines aspects of successful and unsuccessful gifts. Both studies demonstrate that unidimensional affect fails to adequately describe or explain attachment. Together, the two studies suggest a more parsimonious way to represent person-possession relationships than has been offered in previous studies. Moreover, the findings help delineate the boundaries of attachment (e.g., What does it mean to say a possession is “not me”?).

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/2489618

How Is a Possession “Me” or “Not Me”? Characterizing Types and an Antecedent of Material Possession Attachment

Although consumers often encounter ads for familiar brands, previous advertising interference studies have used ads for low-familiarity brands. The authors focus on brand familiarity's role in incr...

Competitive Interference Effects in Consumer Memory for Advertising: The Role of Brand Familiarity:

This study examines individuals' reports about emotive experience vis-a-vis their attitudinal judgments as predictors of subsequent behavior. Hypotheses are developed around the general premise that emotional reports tap information with motivational implications that need not be integrated into attitude judgments and thus should supplement attitude in prediction. The hypotheses are tested with a unique data base that allows categorization of subjects on the basis of diverse levels of prior experience and features naturally occurring behavior over a 12-month period as the criterion variable. The data support the premise that emotional variables can serve as incremental predictors in instances in which situational pressures may inhibit formation of meaningful attitudes. Also, the data suggest that emotional reports may furnish some unique information about what perpetuates a behavior. Implications for further integration of emotional experience into consumer research are discussed.

A Comparison of Attitudes and Emotions as Predictors of Behavior at Diverse Levels of Behavioral Experience

The authors examine two concerns that have emerged in research involving the attitude toward the ad (Aad) construct. The first pertains to conceptualization and measurement. Drawing on recent socia...

Attitude toward the Ad: An Assessment of Diverse Measurement Indices under Different Processing “Sets”:

The authors propose that for mature brands, ad-evoked affect will not have a strong influence on brand attitude; they formulate brand interest, a new construct, as a more relevant consequence of ad...

Chris T. Allen

Papers

How Is a Possession “Me” or “Not Me”? Characterizing Types and an Antecedent of Material Possession Attachment

Competitive Interference Effects in Consumer Memory for Advertising: The Role of Brand Familiarity:

A Comparison of Attitudes and Emotions as Predictors of Behavior at Diverse Levels of Behavioral Experience

Attitude toward the Ad: An Assessment of Diverse Measurement Indices under Different Processing “Sets”:

The Mature Brand and Brand Interest: An Alternative Consequence of Ad-Evoked Affect: