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 brand-
related 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)

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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

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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-of-
mouth 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

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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) value (condition)
(global)
χ2/df 4.329 (≤ 5.00) construct reliability 0.80 [min] (≥ 0.60)
RMSEA 0.059 (≤ 0.08) indicator reliability 0.49 [min] (≥ 0.40)
SRMR 0.076 (≤ 0.08) cronbach alpha 0.79 [min] (≥ 0.70)
NNFI (TLI) 0.98 (≥ 0.95) R2 of structural 0.42 [min] (≥ 0.40)
equations
GFI 0.90 (≥ 0.90) average explained 0.57 [min] (≥ 0.50)
CFI 0.98 (≥ 0.90) variance

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 brand uniqueness
ξ1
H1 price premium
self-expressive
γ11=0.24 *** η2
brand
ξ2 H H6
2
γ1 β21=0.64 ***
2 =0
.28
**
prestige of
*
H3 brand passion H7 + word-of-mouth
the brand
γ13=0.39 *** η1 β 31=0.72 *** η3
ξ3

*** H8
H 4 =0.10
hedonic brand γ 14 β 41=0.67 ***
ξ4
H5 puchase intention
n.s. η4
consumers‘
extraversion
ξ5

*** significant at=p<0.01

Figure 1: Final LISREL model

Results and Discussion

The objective of this research was the analysis of antecedents and consequences of brand
passion that leads to high emotional consumer-brand relationships. The final model
demonstrates which aspects of brands and consumers really determine their passion for a
brand. Furthermore, this study provides evidence for a significant influence of brand
passion on important behavioural variables.

The final model shows that brand passion is highly influenced by the prestige of the
brand (H3; γ=0.39). The result supports the suggested linkage that the prestige of a brand
is an integral antecedent of brand passion. Furthermore, brand passion is highly
dependent on the self-expressive brand (H2; γ=0.28) and on brand uniqueness (H1;
γ=0.24) which stresses the huge importance of a brand's influence on creating consumers’
identity. The hedonic brand appears to be an additional significant antecedent of brand
passion (H4; γ=0.10). The postulated relationship between extraversion as personality
trait and brand passion can not be confirmed: consumers' extraversion shows no
significant effect on brand passion (H5; n.s.). Although extraversion is a highly emotional
facet of an individual's personality, extravert individuals seem to refrain from being
passionate about the two queried brands. Does an individual's personality (as
extraversion) generally have no significant effect on brand passion? Or does the
relationship between extraversion and a consumer's brand passion possibly depend on the
kind of consumption contexts? Future researchers are encouraged to address the question
of which aspects of personality do have an influence on brand passion in different
consumption contexts (e.g. in less aesthetic and less luxury consumption contexts).

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Finally, the study's findings suggest that brand passion positively affects three key
behavioural variables: price premium (H6; β=0.64), positive word-of-mouth (H7; β=0.72)
and purchase intention (H8; β=0.67). These results confirm that high emotional
relationships are of paramount importance in driving consumer behaviour. For marketing
academics, this research refines the understanding of the phenomenon of brand passion
and provides empirical support for the enormous meaning of brand passion as a relevant
key success factor.

For marketing managers, the study shows that brand passion is influenced exclusively by
brand-related facets. Hence, practitioners are left with the prestige of the brand, self-
expressive brands, brand uniqueness, and hedonic brands as target factors to be taken into
account when designing appropriate passionate brands. In this context, the following
recommendations can be given. As the perceived price of a product influences the
perceived level of prestige positively (Vigneron and Johnson, 1999), brands should be
placed in a higher price category. Due to the fact that the self-expressive brand enhances
the consumer's social self, it is essential to provide a brand image supporting the identity
of the target group. In order to increase the perceived brand uniqueness, marketing
managers should leverage communication and distribution marketing-instruments such as
fine-tuned emotional advertisements, exclusive customer clubs, sophisticated packaging
or selective distribution systems. Furthermore, to increase the hedonic character of a
brand, brands should offer an additional, remarkable benefit for the consumer proposing
an emotional shopping experience. The study of the consequences of brand passion
shows that brand passion is in a position to influence a consumer's willingness to pay a
price premium, his willingness for positive word-of-mouth communication and also his
willingness to finally buy the passionate brand. These results demonstrate the
fundamental importance of brand passion to encourage desirable post-consumption
behaviour and to actually increase economic success.

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