Brand Management: Research, theory and practice

Summary

Traditionally, we speak of relationships between people. Expanding the notion to
brands and consumers implies that consumers have the ability to endow brands
with human personality traits. Therefore, animism – or the human propensity to
endow dead objects or abstract concepts with human personalities – is the first
supporting theme in this chapter. Theory on human relationships serves as the
second supporting theme. Human relationships are important factors in all lives
and deliver on life themes, life projects and current concerns. They are also
process phenomena under influence from many different sources.
The brand relationship theory originates from a study into how consumers
experience relationships with brands. This study provides us with a framework
consisting of fifteen different brand relationship forms, resembling human rela-
tionships. But knowing what kind of relationship consumers experience with
brands is not enough. The theory also provides us with the Brand Relationship
Quality construct. It is a model that depicts how relationships are volatile process
phenomena constantly under influence of other factors. The brand relationship
theory is supplemented by research into how brand personality and relationship
norms influence consumers’ brand evaluations.

Methods and data in the relational approach

The most important methodologies of this approach are based on the scientific
tradition of phenomenology. The relational approach takes brand management
theory into the domains of experiential consumption. Here, the inner reality of the
consumer is investigated and a holistic take on the way the life of the consumer

The relational approach 165

Theory

Assumptions

Methods and data

Managerial implications

Figure 8.5Theoretical building blocks of the relational approach