Foreword Introduction: The Why, How, and So What of Consumers’ Relationships with Their Brands Part I: The "What" of Brand Relationships: Exploring Brand Relationship Varieties and Type 1. When is our Connection to Brands like our Connection to People?: Differentiating between Consumer-Brand Relationships and Interpersonal Relationships 2. Exploring Relationship Analogues in the Brand Space 3. Understanding Negative Consumer Responses: Motivations for the Brand Avoidance Relationship 4. Brand Flings: When Great Brand Relationships Are Not Made to Last 5. Examining Childhood Consumption Relationships 6. Mental Accounting in Consumer-Brand Relationships Part II: Understanding Consumer-Brand Relationship Bonds: Brand Love and Other Strength Indicators 7. Love Actually?: Measuring and Exploring Consumers’ Brand Love 8. Brand Love: Interpersonal or Parasocial Love Relationships? 9. Brand Relationship Quality – Conceptualization and Measurement: Results of a Cross-Industry Study in the German Consumer Market 10. Brand Forgiveness: How Close Brand Relationships Influence Forgiveness 11. Relationships Are Complicated: On Construct Validity when Consumer-Brand Relationships are Systems Part III: How Goals and Identity Drive Consumers’ Relationships with their Brands 12. This Store Just Gets Me!: Customer Chemistry and its Role in Identity Construction 13. Beyond Relationship: Metaphor Transfer and Beyond 14. Teenagers’ Purposive Brand Relationships: From Social Filters to Shoulders to Lean On 15. Brands Can Be like Friends: Goals and Interpersonal Motives Influence Attitudes toward Preferred Brands Part IV: Managerial Applications and Extensions of Consumer-Brand Relationship Ideas 16. Firing Your Best Customers 17. On the Complexity of Managing Brands in a Social Media World 18. Corporate Identity and its Reflective Effect in Developing Brand Relationships 19. Brand Humanity: Transforming the Business of Building Brands Final Reflections: So Where Do We Go from Here?
Susan Fournier is Associate Professor and Dean's Research Fellow at
Boston University, USA. Her research explores the creation and
capture of value through branding and brand relationships and she
has received five awards for her published work. She is an
Editorial Board member of the Journal of Consumer Research and
Journal of Marketing amongst others
Michael Breazeale is Assistant Professor of Marketing at University
of Nebraska at Omaha, USA. His primary areas of research include
the consumption of experiences and emotional branding. Mike has
published articles in publications such as International Journal of
Market Research, Marketing Management Journal and Journal of
Business Research
Marc Fetscherin is an Associate Professor of the Crummer Graduate
School of Business and the International Business Department at
Rollins College, USA. His research has been published in leading
academic journals such as International Business Review,
International Marketing Review, European Journal of Marketing
and Journal of Brand Management
'…a stimulating and challenging treatment of the topic…a valuable
addition to any brand scholar or marketing practitioner.'Kevin Lane
Keller, E.B. Osborn Professor of Marketing, Tuck School of
Business, Dartmouth College, USA'The book addresses consumer-brand
relationships, which are critical for branding academics and brand
managers alike. The authors do an impressive job in pulling
together the various stages in brand relationships.' Bill
Merrilees, Research Leader, Griffith Business School, Australia'If
you want to truly understand one of the most important concepts in
branding, the consumer- brand relationship, you need to read the
multiple perspectives provided in this book. This is a treasure of
insights that will advance your thinking and your brand.'- David
Aaker, Vice Chairman of Prophet, Professor Emeritus at the Haas
School of Business, University of California, Berkeley'In the midst
of this global economic crisis, Consumer-Brand Relationships
re-focuses us on the primal foundations of branding: individuals,
lived experiences, relationships and humanity. This book offers a
vibrant framework for re-mastering our human understanding of
brands. With this as a foundation, we can fine-tune our brand
measurement systems and deliver improved present and future
financial performance through the discipline of branding.'- Ed
Lebar, CEO of BrandAsset® Consulting™, a division of Young &
Rubicam Brands'Few subjects are more top-of-mind to marketers than
the quest for resonant ‘brand relationships’ with customers. Yet,
for all the talk in today’s socially networked world, there is
little real scholarship applied to the actual science of
relationship-building. In Consumer-Brand Relationships, the authors
have taken a major, comprehensive step towards understanding the
real drivers of successful brand-consumer intimacy. Through
scholarly assessment and pragmatic insights, the real meaning of
‘brand relationships’ is revealed: how they are built, nurtured
and, too often, abused. Read, learn and profit!'- Hayes Roth, Chief
Marketing Officer, Landor Associates'Every marketer aspires to move
his or her brand from one that is preferred to one that is loved.
The consumer-brand relationship is a delicate dance that when
properly choreographed can create material value for both the
customer and the organization. Consumer-Brand Relationships
provides an insightful primer in understanding the framework of
what ignites, engages and sustains consumer-brand relationships
over time. This book is a must-read for organizations seeking
competitive advantage through deeper brand engagement.'- Michael
Simon, Chief Marketing Officer, Panera Bread'A brand cannot be
valuable without a true understanding of its relationship with its
customers. Consumer Brand Relationships provides a thought
provoking and illuminating journey through one of the most the
complex and multifaceted components of any great brand: its bond
with customers. Consumers change so fast within society. Read this
if you want a more thorough understanding of their world.'- Graham
Hales, CEO Interbrand London'There are few concepts in marketing as
illuminating as the consumer-brand relationship. Understanding the
relationship dynamics between brands and people is a powerful tool
for strategists, creatives, and CMOs. With terrific insight and
vision Fournier pioneered the basis for the ideas presented in this
book years ago while teaching at Harvard Business School. But in
the modern marketing era, defined by connections that consumers
actively choose, the framework has become more relevant and useful
than ever. Relationships drive economic performance. If you
understand that, and care about the relationship your brand has
with customers and prospects, read this book.'- Baba Shetty, Chief
Strategy Officer, Hill Holliday'Fournier, Breazeale, Fetscherin and
Melewar have assembled heavy hitters to take on the big questions.
I am wowed by the results. This book will transform the theory and
practice of branding enormously and take us one great leap
forward.'- Grant McCracken, MIT Research Affiliate and author of
several leading cultural branding books including Culturematic and
Chief Culture Officer'This smartly edited volume, which brings
together prominent academic and practitioner branding experts,
advances our understanding of questions fundamental to
consumer-brand relationships: their types, their properties,
drivers, and consequences to consumers and marketers alike.
Critical issues regarding the consumer as co-creator of brand
meanings as well as the boundaries of the human relationship
metaphor to the study of brands add novel insight to our
understanding of this rich topic. A brilliant concluding chapter
charts a far-reaching and powerful agenda for pushing the
boundaries of knowledge about consumers’ relationships with their
brands.'- Debbie MacInnis, Professor of Marketing, University of
Southern California'Too often relationship marketing practices have
been more relationship destructive than helpful to consumers and
their marketing sponsors. This book brings together leading
scholars who breathe new life and understanding into the
fundamental challenges of building the ‘right’ kinds of
relationships with consumers. The insights in this book will
revitalize relationship marketing in ways that will deliver value
to marketers and foster ties that are valued, strong, and that can
endure.'- James McAlexander, Professor of Marketing, Oregon State
University'The editors of this volume have assembled a valuable
collection of cutting edge works exploring the nature of the
relationship between consumers and the brands they love. The
authors have examined the subject from a variety of conceptual and
methodological approaches. I highly recommend this book for
scholars and managers who want a deeper understanding of the
fascinating connections between consumers and their special
brands.'- Tom J. Brown, President, Academic Council, American
Marketing Association and Noble Foundation Chair in Marketing
Strategy, Oklahoma State University'Branding has become the sine
qua non for effective marketing in the 21st century. Ranging from
organizational to individual brands, and from perceptions to
experiences, this book allows thoughtful scholars and practitioners
to re-engage with fundamental concepts. Consumer-Brand
Relationships offers an important conceptual and perceptual map in
todays’ fiercely competitive global world.'- Philip J. Kitchen,
Dean and Professor of Marketing, Brock University, Ontario, Canada
and author of several books and 100 plus articles on marketing and
corporate communications'Love me, love me not? An essential
question not only for people but also for brands! Yet, just like
human relationships, consumer-brand relationships are multifaceted
and vary significantly in nature and depth. This book bears
convincing witness to these many facets and variations, covering
multiple conceptual perspectives and the application of different
methods. Hence, it is a must-read for everyone interested in a
thorough understanding of how consumers embrace brands in their
daily life.'- Suzanne C. Beckmann, Professor of Marketing,
Copenhagen Business School'Consumer-brand relationships is
exceptionally rich in brand metaphors, with key human phenomena
such as love, friendship, and forgiveness being used to explain
relationships between consumers and brands. The comprehensive and
in-depth contributions develop along fundamentally subjective lines
to show how brands can become person-like when brand and individual
identities intermingle in a complex process. Another great merit of
this book is to consider both the positive and the negative sides
of consumer-brand relationships with topics such as brand avoidance
and the potentially destructive effect of CRM.'- Jean Claude
Usunier, Professor of Marketing, HEC Lausanne, University of
Lausanne, Switzerland'Exploring every facet of how people connect
with brands, this fascinating collection of papers gets right to
the heart of why branding matters more than ever. Everyone knows
that brand loyalty breeds commercial advantage. But here we see how
brands reciprocate, bestowing benefits on people, society and
culture. We learn how brand affinity is analogous to building a
friendship, falling in love, having a fling or forgiving an
infidelity. And critically, we gain a better understanding of how
social media is redefining how such relationships work.'- Jim
Bodoh, Brand Consultant, Radley Yeldar, London, UK'In many
industries the brand is the only way to differentiate your company
from your competitors. And the consumer’s emotional attachment to
your brand is maybe the only thing your competitor cannot imitate.
Thus, in-depth understanding of consumer-brand relationship is a
key issue in order to achieve sustainable advantages and earn
superior profits. The editors have done a great job providing a
comprehensive overview of the topic and addressing its many facets
by encouraging renowned scholars and experienced practitioners to
share their insights with us. This book will help understanding,
teaching and improving customer-brand relations.'- Manfred
Schwaiger, Professor Munich School of Management,
Ludwig-Maximillians University Munich, Germany'This book provides a
comprehensive overview of how consumers embrace brands. With
creativity and originality, the authors go beyond theory and
provide great insights into the blossoming area of consumer-brand
relationships.'- Christian Casal, Manager McKinsey & Company,
Switzerland
Ask a Question About this Product More... |