Brand Love
Buzzz Research papers : Issue 5
14th February 2010
The Buzzz Ltd Rear Suite, The Arch Barn Harewood Yard LEEDS LS17 9LF t: 0113 387 3222
What kind of love does your brand enjoy?
Some research based thinking for Valentine’s Day from The Buzzz
In 2008 a client once said to us that they wanted their brand to become ‘the most loved brand’. It seemed initially like a quaint mistranslation from someone for whom English was not a first language, but on reflection it led the team at The Buzzz to think more about the nature of brand relationships and whether in fact there was a way to compare the emotional context of a customer brand relationship with the most complex of human emotions … love.
Figure 1: Sternberg’s Theory of Love
e: info@thebuzzz.co.uk w: www.thebuzzz.co.uk
It seems appropriate to highlight a reconsideration of our initial thinking over St Valentine’s day, when traditionally people feel either more flirtatious; and / or more committed to their own relationships. When we looked to see whether there were any published research papers detailing how brand relationships could be constructed we found the most commonly referred thinking had taken Robert Sternberg’s psychological theory of love as a human expression of a relationship and attempted to transfer this wholesale to a marketing context. (Carroll & Ahuvia,
2006). This most commonly referred to model of love consists of three basic elements: intimacy, passion, and commitment. Sternberg defines intimacy as the emotional connection that is based primarily on the sharing of intense and personal information and the capacity of mutual acceptance. Passion is defined as love's motivational drive including sexual attraction and craving for sexual intimacy; passion induces attraction and appeal, and is easily aroused, but also easily dampened. Commitment is the decisive and thoughtful part of love; it involves first deciding one is "in love," which, over time, develops into a lasting commitment to
14th February 2010
The Buzzz Ltd Rear Suite, The Arch Barn Harewood Yard LEEDS LS17 9LF t: 0113 387 3222
What kind of love does your brand enjoy?
Some research based thinking for Valentine’s Day from The Buzzz
In 2008 a client once said to us that they wanted their brand to become ‘the most loved brand’. It seemed initially like a quaint mistranslation from someone for whom English was not a first language, but on reflection it led the team at The Buzzz to think more about the nature of brand relationships and whether in fact there was a way to compare the emotional context of a customer brand relationship with the most complex of human emotions … love.
Figure 1: Sternberg’s Theory of Love
e: info@thebuzzz.co.uk w: www.thebuzzz.co.uk
It seems appropriate to highlight a reconsideration of our initial thinking over St Valentine’s day, when traditionally people feel either more flirtatious; and / or more committed to their own relationships. When we looked to see whether there were any published research papers detailing how brand relationships could be constructed we found the most commonly referred thinking had taken Robert Sternberg’s psychological theory of love as a human expression of a relationship and attempted to transfer this wholesale to a marketing context. (Carroll & Ahuvia,
2006). This most commonly referred to model of love consists of three basic elements: intimacy, passion, and commitment. Sternberg defines intimacy as the emotional connection that is based primarily on the sharing of intense and personal information and the capacity of mutual acceptance. Passion is defined as love's motivational drive including sexual attraction and craving for sexual intimacy; passion induces attraction and appeal, and is easily aroused, but also easily dampened. Commitment is the decisive and thoughtful part of love; it involves first deciding one is "in love," which, over time, develops into a lasting commitment to