and Starbucks Coffee are just a few examples of brands that managed to create and maintain deep emotional bonds with their customers, driven by love and ...
How to Create High Emotional Consumer-Brand Relationships? The Causalities of Brand Passion Hans H. Bauer, Daniel Heinrich, Isabel Martin, University of Mannheim Abstract As emotional consumer-brand relationships have a high impact on consumer behaviour, brand managers tend to create passionate brands, e.g. by using emotional advertising messages. Although the role of emotions is frequently discussed in marketing literature, the causalities of brand passion are rudimentarily analysed in empirical research. This gap is addressed by developing a causal model incorporating important brand- and consumer-related antecedents and purchase-determining consequences of brand passion. The empirical data, analysed in a LISREL approach (n=969), suggests that only brandrelated determinants such as prestige or uniqueness influence brand passion which affects relevant factors such as purchase intention. Results provide detailed implications and a platform upon which future research can be build. Introduction People living in today's almost demystified world of consumption are increasingly looking out for new opportunities to fill their lives with meaning. Consumers often satisfy this deeply rooted desire through the consumption of material products or the possession of beloved objects (Ahuvia, 2005; Wallendorf and Arnould, 1988). In this context the development of close relationships between consumers and brands are reported (Muñiz and Schau, 2005; Schouten and McAlexander, 1995). Harley-Davidson, Manolo Blahnik and Starbucks Coffee are just a few examples of brands that managed to create and maintain deep emotional bonds with their customers, driven by love and passion. In practical experience, the focus lies on generating brand passion because of its positive effects on consumer behaviour as the willingness to pay a price premium or to spread positive word-of-mouth. Hence, during the last years a rising number of marketers have attempted to create passionate brands by using emotionally-laden advertising messages and slogans such as McDonald's "I'm loving it" or Maserati's "excellence through passion". The increasing importance of passionate brands in marketing practise necessitates the analysis of the determinants and consequences of brand passion. The theoretical background of high emotional consumer-brand relationships is provided by Sternberg's (1986) triangular theory of love, which conceptualizes interpersonal love as an interaction of three components: intimacy, decision/ commitment and passion. Passion appears as the so called "hot" component (Sternberg, 1986) that leads to romance, physical attraction and specific actions such as adoration and idealization of the partner (Djikic and Oatley, 2004; Hatfield, 1988). Based on the triangular theory of love, Shimp and Madden (1988)
2189
highlight fundamental similarities between interpersonal love and consumer love to objects. Ahuvia (2005) confirms consumers' ability to love products and brands. Further research shows that within emotional consumer-object relationships especially the passion component has a significant impact on consumer behaviour, such as devotion or loyalty (Pichler and Hemetsberger, 2007; Whang et al., 2004). This perception received support from findings of Fournier (1998), Belk, Ger and Askegaard (2003), Thomson, MacInnis and Park (2005), Carroll and Ahuvia (2006) and recently from Matzler, Pichler and Hemetsberger (2007). Thus, in a consumption context, brand passion can be defined as a primarily affective, extremely positive attitude toward a specific brand that leads to emotional attachment and influences relevant behavioural factors. However, only little empirical research has focused on the causalities of brand passion. The aim of this study is the conceptualization of a model of consumers’ brand passion that integrates important antecedents and consequences. Hypotheses Development Consumers do not necessarily become passionate about all brands. According to Thomson, MacInnis and Park (2005) people build up long-lasting high emotional relationships only with a few selected brands. As reported by Hoyer and MacInnis (2001), humans engage in passionate relationships and even religious practices with unique brands because of the desire to overcome feelings of self-uniqueness and affiliation to their in-group. Approaches like the theory of social identity (Lee and Ottati, 1996) and the theory of optimal distinctiveness (Brewer, 1991) support these assumptions. The above considerations lead to the formulation of the following hypothesis: H1: Brand uniqueness has a positive effect on brand passion. Love plays an important role in the construction and maintenance of identity because love influences one’s sense of self (Aron and Aron, 1985; Aron, Paris and Aron, 1995). Consumer-brand relationships research reasons that a consumer's love would be greater for brands that play a significant role in shaping his identity (Fournier, 1998). In their study, Caroll and Ahuvia (2006) examine self-expressive brands which they define as brands that consumers perceive as a way to enhance their social self and/ or to reflect their inner self. The authors conclude that self-expressive brands have a positive impact on brand love. In this respect, the following hypothesis can be formulated: H2: Self-expressive brand has a positive effect on brand passion. Prestige has always been nominated as constituting an essential symbol of a person's social standing or status (Eisenstadt, 1968). Within the social logic of mimesis (Girard, 1977), the symbolic object is not so much a reflection of a consumer's desire for this special good as it is the wish for social recognition. Consumers tend to relate the prestige of a brand to their own identity in order to increase their self-esteem (Bizman and Yinon, 2002; Eastman, Goldsmith and Flynn, 1999; Mael and Ashforth, 1992). The theory of
2190
self-esteem and the theory of social identity support these considerations. According to Belk (2004), an extreme identification with a brand, caused by the prestige of this brand, can lead to enthusiastic and passionate feelings. Hence: H3: Prestige of the brand has a positive effect on brand passion. Hedonic products (products for which experiential consumption, fun, excitement or pleasure is a primary benefit) tend to generate strong emotional responses on the consumers' side (Chandon, Wansink and Laurent, 2000; Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982). Research suggests that hedonic products have a positive effect on brand love (Caroll and Ahuvia, 2006). Moreover, the hedonic characteristic of a product determines passion as one of the three components of Sternberg's (1986) triangular theory of love (Whang et al., 2004). Based on these considerations it is expected that: H4: Hedonic brand has a positive effect on brand passion. The consensus that the most important factors of an individual's personality can be described with the five factor model (Goldberg, 1990), has led to a revitalization of personality scholarship in the last twenty years (Funder, 2001). In marketing research, the model of the Big Five has been adopted to study a variety of different behaviours and emotional responses. Baumeister and Bratslavsky (1999) noticed that personality has a strong influence on how passionate an individual is. Additionally, some studies related extraversion to positive emotions (Matzler et al., 2005; Mooradian and Olver, 1997). Matzler, Pichler and Hemetsberger (2007) have shown that extraversion has a significant effect on consumer passion. Based on this idea, it can be concluded: H5: Consumers' extraversion has a positive effect on brand passion. In the brand equity literature, it is widely recognized that to the extent an individual associates value to a brand he will be more willing to pay a higher price for the brand and to recommend it to other consumers (Aaker, 1991; Aaker, 1996; Hutton, 1997; Keller, 2003; Vázquez, Belén del Rio and Iglesias, 2002; Yoo, Donthu and Lee 2000). According to Thomson, MacInnis and Park (2005) a relation between the strength of consumers’ passion for a brand and their willingness to pay a price premium for that brand exists. Furthermore, consumers appear more likely to engage in positive word-ofmouth behaviour when they experience notable emotional relationships (Dick and Basu, 1994; Westbrook, 1987). As a result of these considerations, the following assumptions can be made: H6: Brand passion has a positive effect on willingness to pay a price premium. H7: Brand passion has a positive effect on positive word-of-mouth. The attitude toward a brand is an important determinant of purchase behaviour (Miniard, Obermiller and Page, 1983). Eagly and Chaiken (1993) have proved in their study that the attitude toward a brand influences the attitude towards the purchase of the brand what
2191
then again impacts the consumer's willingness to buy. As brand passion is defined as an affective positive attitude toward a brand, the following direct linkage is suggested: H8: Brand passion has a positive effect on purchase intention. Methodology and Sample The theoretical assumptions discussed in the previous chapter were examined by means of an online questionnaire. Following a socio-demographic survey of relevant personality traits, participants were asked about their level of awareness of two common brands ("Apple" and "Porsche"). Test persons who did not know any of the presented brands were excluded from the study. Subsequently, the questions of the measurement constructs required for the testing of the suggested model were presented randomly with reference to one of the named brands. During the three week field study time, 1.104 consumers participated in the survey of which 969 people filled out the questionnaire completely. The data sample contained 46.3% females and 53.7% males. Except for the factor hedonic brand which was measured by a semantic differential, all items were collected using a 5-point Likert scale. As far as possible, existing measurement scales were used. A pre-test (n=42) served as guarantee for the internal consistency of the measurement instruments. Additionally, based on Cronbachs α and the item-to-total correlation some items were eliminated or modified and the final set of items was confirmed. The results indicated a sufficient construct operationalisation. LISREL 8.72 (Jöreskog and Sörbom, 1993) was used for the evaluation of the measurement and structural model. The analytic approach was based on the two-stage procedure suggested by Gerbing and Anderson (1988) as the best possible evaluation of a LISREL model. Before the model was calculated, all factors were tested with several CFA statistics and Fornell-Larcker tests (Fornell and Larcker, 1981) were done to ensure discriminant validity. After all measurement models were accepted, the causal structure was analysed using Maximum Likelihood. Table 1 shows the commonly suggested global and local fit indices used (Bentler and Bonett, 1980; Homburg and Baumgartner, 1995; Hu and Bentler, 1999) that are all found to be within the guidelines. Furthermore, except hypothesis 5, all hypotheses were confirmed as illustrated in the final model in figure 1. Table 1: Global and local fit indices for the causal model fit indices value (condition) fit indices (local) (global) χ2/df 4.329 (≤ 5.00) construct reliability RMSEA 0.059 (≤ 0.08) indicator reliability SRMR 0.076 (≤ 0.08) cronbach alpha NNFI (TLI) 0.98 (≥ 0.95) R2 of structural equations GFI 0.90 (≥ 0.90) average explained variance CFI 0.98 (≥ 0.90)
2192
value (condition) 0.80 [min] (≥ 0.60) 0.49 [min] (≥ 0.40) 0.79 [min] (≥ 0.70) 0.42 [min] (≥ 0.40) 0.57 [min] (≥ 0.50)
brand uniqueness
ξ1 self-expressive brand
ξ2 prestige of the brand
γ1
H1 γ11=0.24 ***
hedonic brand
η2
H
H6 β21=0.64 ***
2
2 =0
.28
** *
H3 γ13=0.39 ***
ξ3
price premium
brand passion
η1
H7 β 31=0.72 ***
*** H 4 =0.10 γ 14
ξ4 consumers‘ extraversion
+ word-of-mouth
η3
H8 β 41=0.67 *** puchase intention
H5 n.s.
η4
ξ5 *** significant at=p
