Original Article

Antecedents and consequences of

brand love
Received (in revised form): 22nd March 2012

Sanjit Kumar Roy

is a Lecturer in Marketing at Faculty of Business, Environment and Society Coventry University, UK. His research
interests include relationship marketing, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, stakeholder marketing and
electronic marketing. His articles have appeared in The Marketing Management Journal, Computers in Human Behavior,
South Asian Journal of Management, Case Studies in Business, Industry and Government Statistics, Global Management Review,
Journal of Brand Management. He holds a PhD from ICFAI University in Hyderabad, India.

Abdolreza Eshghi

is a Professor of Marketing at Bentley University. His current research interests focus on customer relationship
management. His articles have appeared in the Telecommunications Policy, Journal of Global Information Technology
Management, Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods , Marketing Management Journal, Journal of Business Strategies,
The American Statistician, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Eastern European Economics, International Marketing Review and
Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice. Professor Eshghi holds a PhD degree from the University of Illinois.

Abhigyan Sarkar

did his Masters in Business Administration from West Bengal University of Technology, India in 2005. He completed
PhD in Marketing Management from ICFAI University Dehradun, India in 2012 and is engaged in teaching postgraduate
marketing management in IBS-Hyderabad, India. His area of research is branding and experiential consumption.

ABSTRACT This article focuses on a new consumer behavior and marketing concept:
brand love. The primary purpose of the article is to identify the antecedent and
consequences of brand love. On the basis of an extensive literature review, the article
offers a series of research propositions to explicate the interrelationships between
antecedents of brand love on the one hand, and brand love and its consequences on
the other. A theoretical framework capturing the proposed relationships is also
offered. The managerial implications of brand love for developing marketing strategy
are discussed.
Journal of Brand Management advance online publication, 4 May 2012;
doi:10.1057/bm.2012.24

Keywords: brand love; romanticism; materialism; satisfaction; brand loyalty;

word-of-mouth

Correspondence:
Abdolreza Eshghi
INTRODUCTION by a number of metrics including satisfac-
Bentley University, 175 Forest A significant body of knowledge exists on tion (Higgins, 1997), brand loyalty (Oliver,
Street, Waltham, MA 02459, USA
E-mail: aeshghi@bentley.edu consumer attitude toward brand as measured 1999) and brand advocacy (Urban, 2004).

© 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Journal of Brand Management 1–8

www.palgrave-journals.com/bm/
 Roy et al
A key finding of this research stream is that
consumer satisfaction alone is not a good
predictor of brand loyalty (Jones and Sasser,
1995) though many firms work very hard
to improve their consumer satisfaction rat-
ings. It is not uncommon for satisfied con-
sumers to switch to competitor’s brands for
various reasons (Reichheld, 1996), which
means satisfied consumers do not neces-
sarily develop brand love. However, con-
sumer satisfaction is a prerequisite of brand
love and brand love is an antecedent to
brand loyalty (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006).
Therefore, brand love is said to mediate the
relationship between consumer satisfaction
and brand loyalty.
Prior literature states that consumer-
object emotional bonding is conceptually
analogous to the interpersonal attachment
(Shimp and Madden, 1988). Similar to the
interpersonal love, brand love is reflected
in emotional and passionate bonding with
the brand that develops over a period of
time (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006). While
Carroll and Ahuvia (2006) empirically val-
idated that brand love predicts brand loy-
alty, the mediating role of brand love
between satisfaction and loyalty remains
untested. The purpose of this article is to
identify the antecedents and consequences
of brand love and put forward several prop-
ositions to explicate the mediating role of
brand love in satisfaction–loyalty relation-
ship. This is important because, if validated,
the path to true brand loyalty may run
through brand love.
In the following pages, we will first
review the relevant literature and then pro-
ceed to offer several research propositions.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Brand love is an emerging concept in the
field of consumer behavior. It is one of six
dimensions of consumer–brand relation-
ships (Fournier, 1998). Brand love is derived
from the concept of interpersonal love in
psychology (Shimp and Madden, 1988;
2 © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Journal of Brand Management
Thomson et al, 2005; Carroll and Ahuvia,
2006). The earliest conceptualization of
interpersonal love is traced to Charles
Spearman (1927), who conceptualized it as
a one-dimensional construct. Later,
Thurstone (1938) and Thomson (1939)
challenged this view and argued that inter-
personal love can be decomposed into sev-
eral underlying bonds of interrelated feelings.
Consistent with this multi-dimensional
view, Sternberg (1986) identified three
interrelated dimensions of interpersonal
love: intimacy, passion and decision/commitment.
Intimacy is largely, but not exclusively,
derived from emotional investment in an
interpersonal relationship and refers to the
feeling of connectedness. Passion is largely,
but not exclusively, derived from motiva-
tional involvement leading to physical and
psychological arousals. Finally, decision/
commitment is the cognitive component of
love. Decision entails the recognition of the
loving relationship by the partners in
the short-term and commitment refers to the
desire to maintain a loving relationship in
the long run. Sternberg further argued that
in order for love to exist, it is not necessary
that all three dimensions to be present. Dif-
ferent types of love can exist depending on
the presence or absence of various compo-
nents. However, complete love exists when
all three dimensions are present.
Conceptualization of brand love
On the basis of Sternberg’s (1986) tripartite
conceptualization of interpersonal love,
Shimp and Madden (1988) conceptualized
consumer–brand relationship along three
dimensions: liking, yearning and decision/
commitment, which correspond to
Sternberg’s (1986) intimacy, passion and
decision/commitment components of inter-
personal love. Liking and yearning repre-
sent the feelings of intimacy with and passion
for a brand, respectively. Similarly, on a
cognitive level, decision refers to the indi-
vidual’s recognition of the liking and
1–8

yearning for the brand in the short-term;
whereas commitment is reflected in pur-
chasing the same brand repeatedly over
time. Shimp and Madden (1988) further
conceptualized different types of con-
sumer–brand relationships based on the
presence or absence of various components.
However, these types have not been empir-
ically validated yet. Carroll and Ahuvia
(2006) defined brand love as individual’s
emotion and passion for a trade name. Since
commitment is the core component of loyalty
(Oliver, 1999), brand love entails emotion
and passion and is distinguished from brand
loyalty by lack of commitment. The combi-
nation of emotion and passion is romantic
in nature (Sternberg, 1986) and highly
interactive (Hendrick and Hendrick, 1989;
Sternberg, 1997). Therefore, brand love is
conceptualized as emotional and passionate
feelings for a brand that might lead to com-
mitment or loyalty in due course. In what
follows we (i) identify relevant antecedents
and consequences of brand love from the
literature, and (ii) offer relevant research
propositions to guide future research.
Antecedents of brand love
In discussing antecedents of brand love it
is important to recognize that brand
love can develop either based on experience
with a brand or through controlled (firm-
sponsored) or uncontrolled (word-of-mouth)
communication about a brand (Berry, 2000).
For example, a consumer can develop a
liking and yearning for a brand without
having an opportunity to experience it at
all. Furthermore, individual personality
traits can play a significant role in develop-
ment of brand love. For example, con-
sumers who perceive a brand to be
congruent with their self-concept are more
likely to develop brand love toward that
brand (Aaker, 1997). Therefore, our discus-
sion of antecedents of brand love is organ-
ized under three headings. First, we
introduce the experience-based antecedents.
© 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX
Antecedents and consequences of brand love
These variables relate to the consumer’s
experience with a brand as a product and
a symbol (that is, consumer satisfaction and
delight) and to his/her experience with
brand-related stimuli (that is, brand experi-
ence). Second, we discuss antecedents that
are based on individual differences among
consumers, which have an impact on the
way they relate to brands (that is, romanti-
cism and materialism). Finally, antecedents
that are not experienced-based, such as
controlled and non-controlled communi-
cations, are presented.
Experience-based antecedents of brand love
As stated earlier, brand love is an emotional
and passionate relationship between a con-
sumer and a brand. It is ‘experienced by
some, but not all, satisfied consumers’
(Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006, p. 81). There-
fore, satisfaction is a necessary but not
sufficient pre-requisite of brand love. Using
projective techniques, Albert et al (2007)
identified several underlying dimensions of
brand love including long-term satisfactory
relationship with the brand. As a post-
consumption evaluative judgment (Mano
and Oliver, 1993), satisfaction is not an
entirely cognitive phenomenon; it is partly
affective. As Thomson et al (2005) argued
post-consumption satisfaction likely leads
to emotional attachment with a brand over
time. This implies that cumulative satisfac-
tion over a period of time tends to lead to
an emotional bonding between consumer
and brand.
However, satisfaction alone is not a good
predictor of brand love, as consumers can
be equally satisfied with many brands simul-
taneously. Research evidence suggests that
consumer delight, a feeling characterized
by high levels of joy and surprise in con-
nection with a consumption experience,
may be an antecedent of brand love (Kumar,
1996). Delight is a positive emotion toward
a consumption experience that far exceeds
Journal of Brand Management 1–8 3
 Roy et al
prior expectation and is accompanied by a
high level of arousal signaling its affective
nature (Almedia and Nique, 2005).
In an empirical study, Almedia and
Nique (2005) showed that arousal level in
a consumption experience can grow from
low to high; it begins with mere satisfaction
and can grow to delight. Therefore, it can
be argued that when the affective compo-
nent increases in proportion to arousal, a
satisfying experience with a brand over
time leads to consumer delight (Mano and
Oliver, 1993) and ultimately to brand
love.
Proposition 1: A satisfying brand expe-
rience over time leads to consumer
delight which in turn gives rise to
brand love.
Brand experience is an internal and sub-
jective response toward a brand and consists
of sensory, affective, behavioral and intel-
lectual dimensions, which are evoked by
brand-related stimuli and may lead to a
strong emotional bonding between the
consumer and the brand (Brakus et al,
2009). Although there is no empirical evi-
dence in the literature to explicate how
each brand experience dimension leads to
emotional brand attitude, it is plausible to
argue that affective component of brand
experience contributes to generating
romantic brand love by inducing brand-
related arousal. Thus:
Proposition 2: Favorable affective brand
experience leads to brand love.
Antecedents of brand love based on
individual differences
As stated earlier, brand love is a blend of
intimacy and passion for a brand (Carroll
and Ahuvia, 2006) and that intimacy and
passion give rise to romantic love (Sternberg,
4 © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Journal of Brand Management
1986). Therefore, brand love is romantic in
nature. As an important personality variable,
romanticism affects how individuals relate
to a consumption experience (Holbrook
and Olney, 1995). Romantic individuals
tend to be highly emotive and imaginative
who engage in hedonic consumption and
use the power of imagination to create
pleasurable experiences surrounding any
consumption act (Holbrook and Hirschman,
1982; Campbell, 1987; Holbrook and
Olney, 1995). Since brand love is romantic
in nature, individual romanticism person-
ality trait can effectively stimulate brand
love. Moreover, romantic individuals engage
in a subjective personal introspection process
(Holbrook, 1997) in order to increase the
level of emotive experiences in a consump-
tion experience.
Proposition 3: Individual romanticism
personality trait induces brand love.
Consumers vary with respect to the
importance they attach to worldly posses-
sions (Belk, 1984, 1985). Materialism
reflects a belief that possessions bring hap-
piness and success in life (Richins and
Dawson, 1992). Although several studies
have found a negative correlation between
materialism and material satisfaction (Belk,
1984; Richins, 1987; Burroughs and
Rindfleisch, 2002; Wang and Wallendorf,
2004), the relationship is not uniform across
product categories. For example, in case of
high status signaling products (that is, status
symbols) materialism is negatively related to
product satisfaction (Wang and Wallendorf,
2004), but it has no significant relationship
with satisfaction in case of low status sign-
aling products. These findings suggest that
materialistic individuals tend to be dissatis-
fied with their consumption experience
and since satisfaction is positively related to
brand love (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006), we
conclude that materialistic individuals are
1–8

less likely to fall in love with any particular
brand.
Proposition 4: Materialistic consumers
are less likely to develop brand love.
Non-experience-based antecedents of brand
love
There is strong empirical support in the
literature for the notion that consumers
form impressions about a brand based on
external forms of communications, both con-
trolled (firm-sponsored) and non-controlled
(word-of-mouth). In other words, these
external communications act as cues for
the consumers to develop certain percep-
tions and attach meaning to brands even
though they have not had any direct expe-
rience with the brand. In fact, it is
generally understood that the act of pur-
chase serves to confirm or disconfirm con-
sumer’s pre-conceived product perceptions.
Therefore, we conclude that consumers’
non-experience-based beliefs, more specifi-
cally word-of-mouth, influence brand
love.
Proposition 5: Word-of-mouth commu-
nication is positively related to brand
love.
As stated earlier, brand love is one of the
six dimensions of consumer–brand rela-
tionship (Fournier, 1998). Subsequent
research (Aaker et al, 2004; Kressmann et al,
2006) suggest that there may be a pattern
of interrelationships among the six dimen-
sions where some dimensions serve as ante-
cedents of others. More specifically, extant
literature suggests that self-congruity not only
serves as an antecedent of positive brand-
related outcomes such as satisfaction and
loyalty, but also allows consumers to express
(or realize) their actual (or ideal) self. In
other words, consumers purchase the brand
© 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX
Antecedents and consequences of brand love
with which they identify. To the extent
the brand’s image is congruent with the
consumer self-concept, to that extent
stronger emotional bonding will likely
develop (Sirgy, 1986; Malhotra, 1988;
Aaker, 1997). Hence, we propose the fol-
lowing proposition:
Proposition 6: Self-congruity is positively
related to brand love.
Consequences of brand love
Consumer satisfaction has long been con-
sidered one of the cornerstones of marketing
strategy. It is still widely viewed as an
important metric and a proxy for customer
loyalty by managers (Kenningham et al,
2008). However, the relationship between
satisfaction and loyalty is not as straightfor-
ward as it seems. While loyal customers are
typically satisfied customers, satisfaction
is not always a reliable antecedent of loyalty
as not all satisfied customers are loyal
(Oliver 1999). Developing this idea further,
Oliver (1999) conceptualized six possible
relations linking satisfaction to loyalty. One
of these scenarios is particularly relevant for
the present research, that is, satisfaction is
the first step in a transitioning process that
ultimately leads to loyalty. Oliver (1999),
however, did not specify possible influences
in the transition process from satisfaction to
loyalty. We expand Oliver’s work by
proposing that brand love mediates the rela-
tionship between satisfaction and loyalty. In
other words, satisfaction can directly cause
loyalty (direct effect) or lead to brand love,
which in turn culminates in loyalty (indi-
rect effect). We further propose that satis-
fied consumer who fall in love with a brand
tend to develop much stronger loyalty
compared with those become loyal without
brand love. This is consistent with Carroll
and Ahuvia’s work (2006), in which they
provided empirical support for a positive
Journal of Brand Management 1–8 5
 Roy et al

+
−

+ +
Romanticism Brand Consumer Materialism
Experience Delight

+ + + −

+ +
Satisfaction Brand Love Self-congruity

+ +

+
WOM Loyalty

Figure 1: Theoretical framework.

relationship between brand love and post-
consumption behavior, that is, positive
word-of-mouth and brand loyalty. How-
ever, their model did not consider the
mediating role of brand love in the rela-
tionship between satisfaction and loyalty.
Therefore, we propose:
moderate the proposed relationships,
including gender, age and income. How-
ever, since the focus of this analysis is to
provide a generalized conceptual frame-
work focusing on brand love, the probable
roles played by those mediating and mod-
erating variables have not been discussed.

Proposition 7: Brand love mediates the SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION

relationship between satisfaction and
loyalty.
The research propositions discussed
above are captured in the theoretical frame-
work shown in Figure 1. In Figure 1, a
( + ) sign denotes positive relationship,
whereas a( − ) sign denotes negative rela-
tionship. Arrows flow from predictors to
the dependent constructs and double-
headed arrow represents covariance rela-
tionship between two constructs. Several
demographic variables can also mediate or
The purpose of this article was to identify
antecedents and consequences of brand
love. As a new concept in consumer
behavior and marketing, brand love prom-
ises to offer important insights to the man-
agers as well as an unexplored research
domain to the scholars. Identifying the ante-
cedents and consequences of brand love can
help managers gain a better understanding
of the factors that drive consumers’ emo-
tional attachment to the brand. The present
analysis has identified several antecedents of
brand love including individual romanticism,

6 © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Journal of Brand Management 1–8


materialism, brand experience, consumer
delight and satisfaction. A review of the
existing literature led to the development
of several research propositions related to
the relationships between the antecedents
and brand love on the one hand, and brand
love and its consequences on the other.
Romanticism, brand experience, consumer
delight, consumer satisfaction are posited to
have positive relationships with brand love,
whereas materialism is assumed to be nega-
tively related to brand love.
Future research efforts should focus on
providing empirical support to the theo-
retical relationships discussed in this article.
If in fact these relationships are validated
empirically, the findings can offer signifi-
cant managerial implications. For example,
if brand experience is positively related to
brand love and brand love is positively
related to action loyalty, the marketer must
use brand stimuli at his/her disposal to
create a pleasant consumption experience
for the consumer. In short, managers can
use the findings to develop appropriate
strategies to enhance the target consumers’
brand love, which, in turn, results in
increased loyalty.
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