Lovemarks Campus

A study from Loyola University, Chicago, tests Fournier’s theory of brand relationships in regard to heterosexual male shoppers of fashion and grooming products through ïn-depth interviews, collage constructions, and shopping trip observations.

Chances are your favorite erasers when you were a child were scented. This wasn’t because they made erasing any easier, but the scent added novelty to an otherwise generic item. You might not care for scented items now, but a recent study shows that you will remember a product more if it ignites your olfactory system.

What would make a Lovemarks hotel? Attentive service? Inspired décor? Or just knowing that you’ll be comfortable at an affordable price? A study by Barksey and Nash (2002) affirm that emotional connection is what determines Loyalty Beyond Reason between hotels and their guests.

Research from the University of Mannheim analyzes the antecedents and consequences of brand passion that leads to high emotional consumer-brand relationships.

This doctoral thesis by Nicholas Paul Thompson investigates the manner in which consumers maintain brand relationships, and the effect that chosen lines of communication (i.e. social networks, word-of-mouth) have on the value of these relationships. Air New Zealand is the brand primarily referred to in this study.

The participation band wagon rolls on in adland with agencies and clients seeming content to sacrifice effective communications in the name of ‘doing something on Facebook’. So how do you get it right?

While brands build and improve relationships with customers, the role of brand reputation, and that of brand tribalism, have received less attention. Moutinho and Veloutsou (2008) show tribalism is more effective than reputation when it comes to assessing brand relationship strength.

This paper provides yet more evidence of the similarities between interpersonal love and brand love, thus bolstering the basis of the Lovemarks approach. Lovemarks create priceless value in the same way that interpersonal love creates priceless value.

The Lovemarks framework, which stresses the importance of emotional connections with consumers and is defined by their Loyalty Beyond Reason, is tested by Maxian et al (2008). This paper shows that, the relationships some consumers have with brands appear to be very similar to love.