ROMANCING WITH A BRAND: A CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS OF ROMANTIC CONSUMER-BRAND RELATIONSHIP

The objective of the article is to investigate the structure of individual’s emotional relationship with any brand, associated antecedents and consequences based on prior literature review. Prior literature states that an individual can love a brand and the dimensional structure of this consumer-brand love is very similar to that of interpersonal romantic love. This article has criticized prior literatures in the area of love and attachment. It has also analyzed how brand loyalty is conceptually different from brand love. A set of conceptualizations have been developed.<br> The conceptualizations relate to the theoretical antecedents and consequences of romantic consumer-brand love identified. Traditional researches in the field of branding shows that satisfaction directly leads to brand loyalty. Present analysis challenges this conventional notion by stating that the relationship between satisfaction and brand loyalty is mediated by other variables, like, romantic brand love and customer delight. The article also explains how the theoretical antecedents of romantic brand love identified can be considered in the context of marketing strategy formulation and implementation.