In real life people relate to one another in many different ways. The same is
true as to how they relate to the brands they buy. To reduce it simply to a
matter of loyalty or lack of loyalty is like saying that you either marry
everybody you meet or they will never be a meaningful part of your life.
(Fournier 1998b)Brand relationship theory builds on a comprehensive phenomenological study.
Thereby, the scientific and philosophical tradition of phenomenology is added to
the context of brand management. This addition implies a significant shift in the
way brands and consumers are perceived and investigated.
The other six approach chapters of this book feature the same structure, ending
with the managerial implications of the approach. This chapter deviates from that
structure.
Brand relationship theory has become very influential and the brand rela-
tionship metaphor has in many ways become the equivalent of the interpretive
branding paradigm that has been dominant since the mid-1990s. The idea of the
brand relationship provides great insights and is yet very elusive and difficult to
translate into concrete managerial implications. Therefore, the concluding
section of this chapter is renamed ‘Implications of the relational approach’. In
this section we will only touch briefly upon the managerial implications and also
allow space for explaining the tremendous academic impact of this approach.
This concluding section will describe how and why it can be identified as a
paradigm shift fuelling the forthcoming approaches by entering the life-worlds of
consumers, applying an entirely qualitative research design, and focusing on
meaning instead of information.
Assumptions of the relational approach
In the previous approaches, we have seen quite a development in the assumed
brand and consumer perspectives. In the economic approach (chapter 4) and the
identity approach (chapter 5), the point of departure for understanding brand
value creation is the organization from which the brand stems. In the consumer-
based approach of chapter 6 the brand was presumed to be a cognitive construal
in the mind of the (cognitive man) consumer. In the personality approach (chapter
7), a dialogue-based brand–consumer exchange was introduced to the field of
brand management. The relational approach of this chapter also implies a
dialogue-based take on brand management and does, in several ways, resemble
the personality approach.
However, we have chosen to present the personality and the relational approach
as two different approaches because they stem from very different scientific and
philosophical traditions and thereby imply very different consumer perspectives
and the use of very different methodologies.
The relational approach is grounded in phenomenology. Phenomenology is a
qualitative, constructionist research tradition emphasizing the accessing of an ‘inner
reality’ and, as a consequence, the validity of ‘lived experience’. The relational
The relational approach 153