SCHOOL OFMANAGEMENT

1

THE BRAND LOVE RELATIONSHIPITS NATURE AND CONSEQUENCES

Aaron Ahuvia UM-Dearborn College of Business

UM Art & Design

Rajeev Batra

Richard BagozziUM Ross

© 2008, Aaron C. Ahuvia

The love emotion vs. the love relationship

The love emotion

The love relationship system

© 2008, Aaron C. Ahuvia

Love and the duck test

Tacit knowledge and prototype definitions The love prototype provides

a list of the elements the together form the love system.

Not all elements of the system need to be present in every case of love.

Data collection

• 18 interviews approximately 2 hours each, with students including both traditional and older returning students.

• Respondents discussed brands and branded products of their own choosing in various categories (consumer electronics, clothing, etc) or meeting specific criteria (e.g. a brand or product they have used for a long time).

• Respondents chose brands and products that they loved or which came as close to love as possible.

© 2008, Aaron C. Ahuvia

Surfacing tacit knowledge

• Do – use the prototype for it’s normal purposes

• Categorizing

• Ranking

• Watch – respondents introspect on their thought process as they perform these tasks

• Tell – respondents share their introspective observations with the interviewer

© 2008, Aaron C. Ahuvia

A grounded theory approach

• Responses are coded

• Based on the explicit or implicit reasoning of the respondent, and conceptual plausibility as determined by the research, relationships are noted between constructs

• Interviews are reviewed so that all relationships have multiple sources of support and no instances of contradiction

• Relationships between constructs are input into Atlas ti which is used to produce graphics

© 2008, Aaron C. Ahuvia

Full grounded theory model of brand love

© 2008, Aaron C. Ahuvia

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Not love-materialistic

Sooth~

Shallow

Global: Negative~

Sacred experience

Service~

Head loyalty

Relat ionshipmetaphor

Functional

Benefits: Many~

Emotions: Lowarrousal

Group~

Higher order needs

Deep~

Synthetic solut ion Intensity ofrelationship orexperience: Low

Miss: False

Sacrif ice~

Comfortable~

Price-high: worth it~

Unique: False~

Hedonist icPrice-low: negativecheap

Attract ion/Desire~

Intensity ofrelat ionship orexperience: HighFit~

Invest:$

Expression of self :authentic~

Quality: TInvest: Time~

Miss~

Connects to lifeevents

Attachment~

Jealousy

Invest: Effort~

Long term: true

Intrinsic~

Brand Love

Think~

Price-high:negative~

Bored with item

Good for you: true

Loyalty

Good for you: false

Emotions: negative

trust Global: positive~

Attribute:Pos~

Extrinsic benefits~

Loves brand~

Invested

Frustration

Attribute:Negative~

Connects toperson~

Importance

One dimensional

Expression of self :inauthentic

Just funct ional~

Attitude: Posit ive~

Emotions: positive

Benefit~

Expertice

Loves brand: False

Public image

Part of life~

Long term: false

Unique~

Emotions: Higharrousal

Price-low: bargain

Part of self

Love at f irst sight

Hand loyalty

Loved brands are great!

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Functional

Benefits: Many~

Quality: T

Brand Love

Good for you: true

Loyalty

trust

Global: posit ive~

Attribute:Pos~Extrinsic benefits~

Importance

Benefit~

Price-low: bargain

Intrinsic~

Emotions: posit ive

© 2008, Aaron C. Ahuvia

Love is deep

© 2008, Aaron C. Ahuvia

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Higher order needs

Brand Love

Connects toperson~ Deep~ Shallow

Hedonistic

Just functional~Not love-materialistic One dimensional

We are what we love and we love what we are

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Group~Synthetic solution

Invest:$

Expression of self:authentic~

Invest: Time~

Connects to lifeevents

Attachment~

Invest: Effort~

Brand Love

Think~

Loyalty

Invested ExperticePublic image

Part of self

© 2008, Aaron C. Ahuvia

Attraction and natural fit

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Attraction/Desire~

Emotions: Higharrousal

Fit~

Part of self Love at f irst sight

Brand Love

Expression of self:authentic~

© 2008, Aaron C. Ahuvia

Part of life

© 2008, Aaron C. Ahuvia

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Intensity ofrelationship orexperience: High

Connects to lifeevents

Long term: true

Part of life~ Part of selfAttachment~

Head loyaltyHand loyaltyBored with item

Loyalty

Brand Love

Ad show love is long term

© 2008, Aaron C. Ahuvia

Miss if lost

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Part of life~

Unique~

Sacrif ice~Attachment~

Miss~

Brand Love

Higher order needs

Benefit~

Part of self

© 2008, Aaron C. Ahuvia

© 2008, Aaron C. Ahuvia

Love is magnetismLove is what we call the psychological system that underlies:

Intrinsic attraction,

Intrinsic loyalty,

while not excluding extrinsic instrumental concerns

Love is fundamentally about finding someone/something so desirable we want to make them part of who we are.