where brand consumption and brand loyalty are to be understood as closely inter-
twined with consumers’ ‘inner realities’. The focus is not on the mere transaction or
the exact moment of choice but on all that lies behind consumption choices. The
consumer’s whole identity (as perceived by the consumer himself) is to be under-
stood if one wants to gain insight into brand consumption.
Thereby, the emphasis moves away from the domain of the marketer and into
the ‘chaotic’ domain of consumers. Even though the managerial implications of
the relational approach are not very concrete, the approach leads the way towards
new horizons where the role of consumers’ social interaction (the community
approach) and their cultural context (the cultural approach) are being conceptu-
alized and translated to managerial implications. These approaches also feature a
variety of qualitative methods that have become acceptable by the launch – and
immense success – of the relational approach.
It seems that brand management in a way ‘lets go’ of the brand via this
approach. The brand is suddenly ‘out there’ in a chaotic and ever-changing
context. In the previous approaches, the concrete interaction between brand and
consumer is being investigated from different angles and there is a focus on
defining what a brand is. In the relational, the community and the cultural
approaches brand management research seems to expand focus to different
scenarios (consumers’ individual life worlds, social interaction with other
consumers, and cultural context, respectively) where the brand is not the ‘main
character’ or the starting point of the research, but merely a factor like many others
in complex individual, social and cultural networks.
Summary
The management of a brand relationship is a dynamic process, leaving room for
the negotiation of both similar and conflicting views and many different players. It
goes without saying that it is difficult to manage in practice. The approach is
meaning-based, implying brand value is co-created in an ongoing process between
brand and consumer. This means that the marketer has to let go of total control of
the brand and incorporate the meaning created by consumers in the management
of the brand. Furthermore, the management is considered a very dynamic process
where the meaning is constantly negotiated under the influence of the many
factors influencing both human and brand relationships.
In truly understanding the consumers lies a risk of information overload,
leaving the marketer with too much knowledge to incorporate it in the brand
communication. The approach, however, also contains the opportunity to go far
beyond the notion of brand loyalty and understand howand whythe brand is being
consumed on a continuous basis in addition to ifit is being consumed.
If one wants to reap the benefits of this understanding, it is pivotal to treat
customers as true friends. The real-life brand relationship should reflect the
prerequisites of the relational approach in the sense that the brand–consumer
exchange is seen as a dyadic and dynamic process. The consumer should accord-
ingly be treated as an equal partner and not just sources of information.
The relational approach 175