The Personality of Brand Lovers

Abstract

In everyday conversation, people frequently talk about ‘loving’ products, brands, and consumption activities such as skiing or eating out at restaurants. Previous studies have found that talk about love is more than a colorful figure of speech (Ahuvia, 1993). There is mounting evidence that consumers use mental schemas and processes such as love not only in interpersonal contexts (“I love you”) but also in consumption contexts (“I love my car”) (Aaker, 1997; Ahuvia, 2005; Batra et al., 2012; Fournier, 1998). Brand love is a legitimate form of love alongside romantic love, parental love, friendship love, unrequited love, and other types of love. Henceforth, we will use the term ‘brand love’ in a very general way, to refer to the love of brands (including nonprofit brands), products and services, product categories (e.g., cell phones, fashion), as well as specific products (i.e., a particular consumer’s cell phone).