a meaning-based construct created in a dynamic and dyadic process between brand
and consumer is much easier than adapting these thoughts to actual branding
strategies! The literature behind the relational approach is very accurate and
detailed when it comes to methods and scientific background. The same literature
does not, however, give much advice when it comes to managing the brand, nor
does it provide insight into best practice case examples: ‘Relationship marketing is
powerful in theory but troubled in practice’ (Fournier et al. 1998, p. 44).
As mentioned in chapter 1, the analysis behind this book rests upon the Kuhnian
notions of paradigms and scientific revolutions. And the relational approach
seems to be the indicator of a major paradigm shift in brand management.
Therefore, we have chosen to touch only briefly upon the managerial implications
of the relational approach and thereby also leave space to focus on its academic
implications. There should be no doubt of the importance of the relational
approach; it seems almost impossible to find a brand management publication
from 1998 and onwards that does not quote Fournier’s brand relationship theory.
Managerial implications
From the literature we can deduce the following implications: the management
has to be founded on meaning; the marketer is offered the opportunity to go far
beyond the concept of brand loyalty; a relationship is a volatile entity; and the
amount of information can be overwhelming. The same literature, however,
provides some overall guidelines on how to manage a ‘relational’ brand success-
fully. The brand has to act as a true friend.
The fact that the process is dynamic implies that the management of the brand is
an ongoing process in which meaning is negotiated on a continuous basis. The
marketer should be able and willing to continuously adapt the strategy to fluctua-
tions on the meaning negotiation. Managing meaning thereby requires insight into
the lives of the brand’s customers as well as a continuous integration of the lived
experiences of consumers into the execution of the brand strategy. This condition
leads to one of the factors that make the management of the relational brand
difficult: the risk of information overload.
Wanting to manage your brand by means of the brand relationship theory, you
need real and deep insight into your consumer base: ‘True customer intimacy – the
backbone of a successful, rewarding relationship – requires a deep understanding
of the context in which our products and services are used in the course of our
customers’ day-to-day lives’ (Fournier et al. 1998, p. 49). As explained in the
methods and data section of this chapter, the methods for acquiring the right kind
of data in the relational approach supply the marketer with a vast amount of
unstructured data. This data and information complexity in the relational process
contains the risk of a standstill.
By entering the ‘life-worlds’ of your consumers you have the opportunity to gain
true insight into how the brand in question fits into the lives of customers. A ‘rela-
tional’ marketer collecting and analysing knowledge about his or her customers
runs the risk of having to integrate incompatible knowledge in the branding
The relational approach 171