relationships and the concept of brand relationships between brands and consumers
is verified; ‘Whether one adopts a psychological or socio-historical interpretation of
the data, the conclusion suggested in the analysis is the same: brand relationships are
valid at the level of consumers’ lived experiences’ (Fournier 1998, p. 360).
As explained in the above section, human relationships take on very different
forms and so do brand relationships. In the study behind the brand relationship
theory fifteen brand relationships are identified.
The relationship forms resemble human relationships in the way they help fulfil
goals and desires at the different life ‘levels’ of life themes, life projects and
current concerns. Some brand relationships last all life and express some of its
users’ core values and ideas; others mean a lot (the consumer displays brand loyal
behaviour) but the consumption of them changes as life progresses while others
deliver on current concerns without being a fundamental part of the consumer’s
consumption pattern. The system of fifteen brand relationships:
illustrates how the projects, concerns, and themes that people use to define
themselves can be played out in the cultivation of brand relationships and
how those relationships, in turn, can affect the cultivation of one’s concept of
self. For each woman interviewed, the author was able to identify an intercon-
nected web of brands that contributed to the enactment, exploration, or reso-
lution of centrally held identity issues.
(Fournier 1998, p. 359)The pattern of brand relationships resembles the pattern of human relationships
in the cases of the three women serving as objects of research. This suggests
that the role played by brands in the life of the individual consumer is deeply
linked to the overall identity and the way the identity is reflected in their human
relationships. A person with few but deep and lasting human relationships will
also typically display loyalty to a few preferred brands, while a person who
prefers to experiment more in the people department will also have a tendency
to be rather experiential, when it comes to brand choice. Human relationships
deliver on life themes, life projects and current concerns, and so do brand rela-
tionships.
Relationships are, however, also process phenomena and as such volatile and
intangible. The same goes for brand relationships. The goal of a brand manager
applying this theory to his or her work is to make the brand relationship as mean-
ingful, stable and lasting as possible. The brand relationship needs to be of a high
quality. Fournier advances the brand relationship theory by putting forward the
Brand Relation Qualityconstruct. The BRQ construct focuses on the quality,
depth and strength of the consumer–brand relationship. Six important relationship
factors (love/passion, self-connection, interdependence, commitment, intimacy
and brand partner quality) are identified as influencing the durability and quality
of the relationship. The relationship is basically meaning-based, reflecting the
reciprocal nature of a relationship (read more about the consequences of managing
meaning in the section on managerial implications).
160 Seven brand approaches