An Extended Search for Generic Consumer–Brand Relationships

Abstract

Relatively few empirical studies address the question of generic relationships between consumers and brands. But a relationship‐oriented brand communication seems to have become increasingly important to companies. In this article, the authors present details of a study on generic consumer–brand relationships conducted in Germany. Based on the data of more than 900 consumers, four different types of consumer–brand relationships emerge, characterized as “best friendship,” “unemotional purpose‐based relationship,” “loose contact,” and “happy partnership.” An extended analysis of the data using advanced statistical methods supports these findings to a high degree. Furthermore, as the results of the extended analysis also suggest, numerous well‐known brands often appear within less favorable relationships like “unemotional purpose‐based relationship” and “loose contact.” These findings indicate important shortcomings of relationship‐oriented brand management in many companies and suggest the need for further work in this area.

Consumer Brand Relationships

“…On the basis of these two they developed a 2 × 2 matrix that produced four types of relationships as functionally invested, fully invested, un-invested, and emotionally invested. On the other hand, Fritz et al (2014) conducted simple cluster analysis and found four broad types of CBR based of nine dimensions of interpersonal relationships. The problem of this classification is that particular type of brand relationship includes consumers from same demographic profile.…”

“…Direct and indirect relationship investment Fritz et al (2014) Thibaut and Kelley (1959) "Interdependency Theory" Frequency of interaction with the brand develop the construct "Interdependency" Altman and Taylor (1973) "Social Penetration Theory"…”

“…Consumer brand research became popular and focused since late nineties of 20 th century (Raut and Brito, 2014;Fritz et al 2014) as increasing number of organizations are interested to know how consumer relate to brands, why one brand is preferred to other. The early researchers assessed the relationship consumer form with brands (Blackstone 1993;Aggarwal, 2004).…”

Brand Relationship-Loyalty Link among Detergent Consumers in Nairobi City County, Kenya: The Mediatory Role of Customer Satisfaction

“…In many markets, particularly in the fast moving consumer goods market, the relationship between consumers and brands plays a crucial role it helps consumers in minimising costs of information search concerning available brands to choose the best brand that satisfies their needs, while it helps organisations in increasing the probability of rebuy by consumers as attracting new consumers is a transitional phase in the marketing process making long-term brandrelationships key in brand management (Tarus&Rabach, 2013;Veloutsou, 2015). However, few empirical studies have focussed on brand relationships, even though such relationships are the cornerstone for robust brand relationships and loyalty (Fritz, Lorenz &Kempe, 2014) and is evident in in developing countries (Ghani&Tuhin, 2018) and especially in Kenya. In their study, Tarus and Rabach (2013) limited their investigation on the drivers of loyalty in the telecommunication industry and viewed satisfaction as an independent variable while Wangari (2012) limited her study to the business customers of one detergent producing company.…”

Assessing ethical consumer behavior for sustainable development: The mediating role of brand attachment

“…Leveraging on the self‐congruence theory (SCT), the current research adopts self‐congruence as the driver of consumer ethically minded behavior because the conception of imperative consumer‐brand relationships is a major challenge for brand managers (Fritz, Lorenz, & Kempe, 2014). The significance of congruity between consumer actual self‐image and the brand's image is accentuated by self‐congruence theory (Sirgy, 1982).…”