What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
What Brands Do Consumers Love? - A Study of Fashion
Brands and Food Brands
Exposé
Sanya Saif
European Master in Business Studies
2013-2015
What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
Table of Contents
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................ 3
LIST OF FIGURES............................................................................................. 3
LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................. 3
ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................... 4
1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................ 5
2. PROBLEM STATEMENT AND RESEARCH QUESTION .................................... 7
2.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT ..................................................................................... 7
2.2 RESEARCH QUESTION ...................................................................................... 7
3. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ..................................................................... 8
4. REVIEW OF LITERATURE ........................................................................... 11
4.1 BRAND LOVE ............................................................................................... 11
4.2 BRAND RELATIONSHIP .................................................................................... 15
4.3 BRAND ENGAGEMENT.................................................................................... 16
4.4 BRAND ATTACHMENT .................................................................................... 17
4.5 FASHION CONSUMPTION ................................................................................ 18
5. HYPOTHESIS ............................................................................................. 20
6. METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................... 24
7. OVERVIEW OF CHAPTERS ......................................................................... 25
8. WORK PLAN ............................................................................................. 26
9. BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................... 27
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
List of Abbreviations
BRQ – Brand Relationship Quality
WOM – Word Of Mouth
List of Figures
Figure 1. Sternberg’s dimensions of love
Figure 2. BRQ and its seven facets
List of Tables
Table 1. Literature review: Journals/ Articles
Table 2. Literature review: Books
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
Abstract
Title: What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
Keywords: love, brand love, categories of brands, differences, food brands, fashion brands
Background: The concept of brand love claims that consumers feel a feeling of „love‟
towards brands and this feeling can be considered similar to the feeling of love we feel
towards people. Even though the definition of „love‟ remains debatable, the general notion of
romance is considered when we talk about brand love. Brand love is comparatively a new
field of study and one can see that not many studies have been carried out in this area. This,
therefore, makes the scope of study in this field quite vast. The studies that have been
carried out are mostly in the direction of proving whether brand love exists or not and some
also show differences in this concept when applied to different cultures. This study, thus, can
be seen as a step forward.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to carry this concept of brand love a step further and
see if there are any differences in it if we look at different categories of brands. Studying all
categories of brands is not feasible for one study and comparison among all would be next
to impossible, therefore for this study, two categories of brands will be compared; fashion
brands and food brands. The reason for choosing these two categories is further explained
in the description.
Method: Mixed methodology is applied to collect data. Online questionnaires will be sent out
which will generate more qualitative data in the form of text. As this study does not take into
account cultural impacts, the whole world population from the age of 15 to 75 is considered
as our sample.
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
1. Introduction
There is no one agreed definition of „love‟ and many schools of thought present different
definitions. As Whang, Florida and Allen put it in their article „Falling in love with a product:
the structure of a romantic consumer-product relationship‟ - “Love is an outcome of bidirectional interaction between two partners, yet its highly dynamic interactivity makes it
challenging for researchers to study.” As love is seen to be interpersonal, it raises a question
whether love towards products and brands can be romantic even if it‟s not towards another
human being?
Branden (1980) define love as “The origin of our desire to love lies in our profound need to
value, to find things in the world which we can care about, can feel excited and inspired by. It
is our values that tie us to the world and that motivate us to go on living. Every action is
taken for the purpose of gaining or protecting something we believe will benefit our life or
enhance our experience” (p.67).
From this definition we can see that the concept of romantic love is not only restricted
towards other human beings. (Whang, Florida & Allen, 2004) Therefore when brand love is
discussed, it refers to the romantic feelings people may feel towards products/brands.
Different viewpoints exist and many definitions have been given of this concept, which is
further described in the theoretical background section.
In the article 'When consumers love their brands: Exploring the concept and its dimensions',
Albert, Merunka & Valette-Florence (2008) carried out an exploratory research to find out
whether love in a romantic way exists between consumers and brands. They based their
study on social psychology‟s definition of love, which applies the relationship paradigm. An
internet study was carried out which didn‟t include the words „love‟ or „liking‟ and the attitude
of consumers towards the brands they mentioned were studied. The conclusion of this
research was proving that this kind of love do exists between consumers and brands. Albert
(2009) carried out another study „The feeling of love toward a brand: concept and
measurement‟ which was focused towards understanding the concept in more detail and
development of new scale to measure brand love.
This study is inspired from their work of 2008. It can be seen as an extension, being based
on their findings. As they proved romantic feelings towards brands exist, this study will try to
find out what are those brands that consumers feel these feelings towards. Can they be
towards brands of any category? Are there any specific categories?
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
In order for this research to be more useful and applicable, I narrowed down the research to
two categories of brands and decided to compare fashion brands and food brands. Fashion
has many definitions, some of them are:
1) “Fashion is dress in which the key feature is rapid and continual changing of styles”
(Svendsen, 2010)
2) “ ...represents something special and striking, while at the same time he feels
inwardly supported by persons who are striving for the same thing…. It is peculiarly
characteristic of fashion that it renders possible a social obedience, which at the
same time is a form of individual differentiation” (Simmel, 2001)
3) “signifies union with those in the same class, the uniformity of a circle characterized
by it, and, uno actu, the exclusion of all other groups” (Simmel, 2001)
Food on the other hand is a simple and basic need, which we satisfy using various and
different brands.
The reason for choosing these two categories is when buying both these categories of
brands reflects something about the person. As we can see from the various definitions of
fashion, it is seen as something that differentiates one from the rest or in other words
something which creates one‟s identity. As Noesjirwan and Crawford (1982) put it “clothing is
primarily a means of communicating, not personal identity, but social identity” concluding
that “clothing is symbolic of that [social] identity and the values espoused by the group. The
same values serve as a yardstick for judging the clothing worn by others and the social
identity symbolized by it.” Therefore it is a category of brand consumers show interest and
concern towards. This is proved by the premium prices customers are willing to pay and the
commitment they show towards the brand (Schlobohm, Zulauf, Wagner, 2014)
Food brands on the other hand reflect the same principle. As food is something that is
consumed and has an effect on our body, it is also a category of brands consumers pay
attention towards. What we eat also shows something about ourselves, be it our preference
in tastes, attitude towards fair trade products, attitude towards waste disposal or just a
preference towards organic food. Although the issues mentioned above are not a part of our
study, they just show that while choosing food, consumers do pay some attention towards it.
Of course, for both fashion brands and food brands, the condition is the level of involvement
of consumers. Love towards brands can only exist if consumers are involved in the purchase
they are making. If they just buy on impulse or what seems most convenient, the concept
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
does not come into play. Therefore, level of involvement would be an important filter while
carrying out this research.
This study hence covers how to deal with the problem question, i.e. do consumers really
love fashion brands and food brands. Following is the literature review of previous works
about brand love, what factors play a part and the definitions. Unfortunately no study about
brand love in the two categories is found, so we generally talk about what theorists say
about brand love. Finally, a research study is done to prove the hypothesis.
2. Problem Statement and Research Question
2.1 Problem Statement
As previously mentioned, this study is based on the work of Albert, Merunka, & ValetteFlorence (2008) 'When consumers love their brands: Exploring the concept and its
dimensions'
Based on it, this study will take a step towards finding out what brands do consumers love. It
is not aiming to study different brands on the market but rather categories of brands. In order
to make it more specific and comparable, we only compare two categories of brands.
2.2 Research Question
The research question therefore is:
“How do consumers feel towards fashion brands and food brands?”
More specifically:
a) “How do consumers feel towards fashion brands?”
b) “How do consumers feel towards food brands?”
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
3. Theoretical background
This area of research is relatively new and not many studies have been carried out on it
(Ahuvia,2005; Fournier,1998) There are some definitions of brand love given by theorists
which can be used to understand this phenomenon. When we talk about such romantic
feelings towards brands, we tend to talk about the interpersonal theories of love. Sternberg
(1986) presented the Triangular theory of love, with the three points of the triangle being:
intimacy, passion and decision/commitment. Using these three dimensions, he created eight
different types of love by the absence (-)/presence (+) of the three dimensions. (See
Figure.1 below)
Intimacy
Passion
Decision/commitment
Nonlove
-
-
-
Liking/friendship
+
-
-
Infatuated love
-
+
-
Empty love
-
-
+
Romantic love
+
+
-
Companionate love
+
-
+
Fatuous love
-
+
+
Consummate love
+
+
+
Figure1. Sternberg’s dimensions of love
Shimp and Madden (1988) based their work on this theory and came up with three
dimensions as well, which are liking, yearning and decision/commitment. They said that the
presence of all three of these dimensions leads to brand loyalty, which is the same as
Sternberg‟s consummate love. While these two theories talk about the presence or absence
of the three dimensions, there are some theorists like Heinrich, Bauer and Muhl (2006) who
say that in order for brand love to exist; all three dimensions must be present. Some argue
that brand love and brand loyalty are the same concepts while some argue them to be
different. This is based on the argument that it becomes brand loyalty if the dimension of
decision/commitment is present. Whang, Allen, Sahoury and Zhang (2004) support this view
and say that consumers might experience passionate love and emotional love for a brand
which might turn into romantic love over time.
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
We also find some theorists talking about „consumer-object‟ relationship.
For example
Fournier (1998) talks about the Brand Relationship Quality construct (BRQ), in which she
argues that passion and love are the core elements of any consumer-brand relationship and
people tend to develop intimate relationships with the brands similar to interpersonal ones.
She talks about seven facets in this relationship. (See Figure. 2 below)
Passionate
attachment
Intimacy
Love
BRQ
Brand
partner
quality
Self
connection
Personal
commitment
Nostslgic
connection
Figure 2. BRQ and its seven facets
These two paradigms (interpersonal theory and consumer-object relationship) show different
viewpoints of various theorists but both of them are criticised which is why it is difficult to say
which one of these will be agreed upon by later theorists and researchers.
So all in all, how do we define brand love? Carrol and Ahuvia (2006) define brand love as
“the degree of passionate emotional attachment that a satisfied consumer has for a
particular trade name”. On the other hand Rossiter (2012) defines brand loves as “achieved
only when “Deep Affection” and “Separation Anxiety” are jointly felt in relation to the potential
love object.” Keh, Pang, and Peng (2007) define brand love “as the intimate, passionate, and
committed relationship between a customer and a brand, characterized by its reciprocal,
purposive, multiplex, and dynamic properties”
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
After discussing the definitions of brand love and what various theorists say about it, we
move on to see the literature on this topic, the hypotheses of this study and further how this
research will be carried out.
.
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
4. Review of literature
Before conducting the study, it is important to understand where the current status of academic research lies on brand love and related topics.
In order to do that, the following journal articles and books are reviewed.
Articles/Journals:
4.1 Brand love
Topic
Title
Author(s)
Year
Source
Brand love
When
Albert,
2008
Journal of Business
consumers
Merunka, &
Research, 61(10),
love their
Valette-
1062–1075.
brands:
Florence
doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.
Content
-
Exploring the feeling of love towards brands
similar to those towards people.
-
Comparing results in France to those in
America.
2007.09.014
Exploring the
concept and its
dimensions
Brand love
The feeling of
N. Albert
2009
Advances in consumer
love toward a
research, (1993).
brand: concept
Retrieved from
and
http://hal.archives-
measurement
ouvertes.fr/halshs-
Understanding the concept and development of new
scale to measure brand love.
00545936/
Brand love
Psychometric
Ahuvia,
vs. C-OAR-SE
Aaron
Table 1. Literature review: Journals/Articles
2013
Marketing Letters, 25(2),
Analysing brand love definitions, discussion and new
235–243.
way of measurement.
What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
Brand love
measures of
Bagozzi,
doi:10.1007/s11002-013-
brand love: A
Richard P.
9251-4
reply to
Batra,
Rossiter
Rajeev
Brand love
Batra,
2012
Journal of Marketing,
Investigating the nature and consequences of brand
Rajeev
76(March), 1–16.
love including concepts of brand loyalty, WOM and
Ahuvia,
Retrieved from
resistance to negative information
Aaron
http://journals.ama.org/doi/
Bagozzi,
abs/10.1509/jm.09.0339
RP
Brand love
The role of
Albert, N., &
brand love in
Merunka, D.
2013
consumer-
Journal of Consumer
Proposing and testing antecedents and consequences
Marketing, 30(3), pp. 258–
(brand identification, brand commitment and brand
266.
trust) of brand love.
brand
relationships
Brand love
Some
Carroll,
2006
Marketing Letters, 17(2),
antecedents
Barbara a.
79–89.
and outcomes
Ahuvia,
doi:10.1007/s11002-006-
of brand love
Aaron C.
4219-2
-
Brand love linked to brand loyalty and effect of
positive WOM.
-
Concluded that love is more for products
perceived as hedonic compared to utilitarian
ones
Brand love
Two studies of
Bergkvist,
consequences
Lars
Table 1. Literature review: Journals/Articles
2010
Journal of Brand
Assessing managerial relevance of brand love by
Management, 17(7), 504–
testing two antecedents – brand identification and
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
Brand love
and actionable
Bech-
518.
antecedents of
Larsen,
doi:10.1057/bm.2010.6
brand love
Tino
Effects of
Ismail, A. R.
2012
sense of community
Journal of Fashion
brand love,
Marketing and
personality
Management, 16(4),
and image on
pp. 386–398.
word of mouth:
doi:10.1108/1361202
The case of
1211265791
Studying the impact of brand personality, brand image
and WOM on brand love
fashion brands
among young
consumers
Brand love
Falling in love
Whang,
2004
http://www.acrwebsite.org/
with a product
Yun-oh
volumes/v31/acr_vol3
: The structure
Florida,
1_107.pdf
of a romantic
Central
consumer-
Allen, Jeff
Definition of brand love and analysing the romantic
feelings in consumer-brand relationship
31(1989), 320–327.
product
relationship
Brand love
Romancing
Sarkar,
with a brand :
Abhigyan
a conceptual
Table 1. Literature review: Journals/Articles
2011
http://www.managementm
Literature review of customer-brand relationship,
arketing.ro/pdf/articole/212
differentiating brand loyalty from brand love and how
.pdf
the concept can be useful for marketing strategy
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
analysis of
6(1), 79–94.
formulation and implementation
romantic
consumerbrand
relationship
Brand love
Brand love,
Landau, LD
2010
Zhurnal Eksperimental’noi
brand image
I Teoreticheskoi
and loyalty in
Fiziki. Retrieved from
Australian elite
http://scholar.google.
sport
com/scholar?hl=en&b
-
Relationship between brand image, brand love
and loyalty within Australian elite sport.
-
Discussion of brand love literature
tnG=Search&q=intitle
:No+Title#0
Table 1. Literature review: Journals/Articles
From reviewing the articles above, we discover how different authors define brand love and other concepts related to it like brand loyalty and
brand image. Different propositions about how to measure brand love and factors that influence it are also made.
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
4.2 Brand relationship
Topic
Title
Author(s)
Year
Source
Content
Brand
Consumers
Fournier,
1998
Journal of Consumer
Assessing relationship between consumers and
relationship
and their
Susan
Research, 24(4), 343–353. brands and tools for measuring the quality of the
brands:
Retrieved from
developing
http://www.jstor.org/stable/
relationship
10.1086/209515
relationship
theory in
consumer
research
Brand
Brand
Smit, Edith
relationship
relationship
Bronner,
Research, 60(6),
quality and its
Fred
627–633.
value for
Tolboom,
doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.
personal
Maarten
2006.06.012
2007
Journal of Business
Study to assess if quality of customer-brand
relationship differs from brand to brand
contact
Brand
How to
relationship
measure brand
Research in China,
relationship
1(2), pp. 300-318.
quality?
Doi: 10.1007/s11782-
Zhou, Z.
2007
Frontiers of Business
New evaluation approach based on a brand
relationship index model (BRI model)
007- 0017-9
Table 1. Literature review: Journals/Articles
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
The articles above explain the different types of relationships that can exist between a product/brand and a customer as well as the factors that
impact this relationship.
4.3 Brand engagement
Topic
Title
Author(s)
Year
Source
Content
Brand
Exploring
Hollebeek,
2011
Journal of Strategic
Literature review of customer-brand engagement and
engagement
customer
Linda
Marketing, 19(7),
brand
555–573.
engagement:
doi:10.1080/0965254
definition and
X.2011.599493
its themes – immersion, passion and activation
themes
Table 1. Literature review: Journals/Articles
From this article we develop an understanding about the literature present on the topic of brand engagement and what it has to offer towards
this field.
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
4.4 Brand attachment
Topic
Title
Author(s)
Year
Source
Content
Brand
The role of
Belaid, S. &
2011
Journal of Product &
Brand attachment is considered as an important input
attachment
attachment in
Behi, A. T.
Brand Management,
building
20(1), pp. 37-47. Doi:
consumer-
10.1108/1061042111
brand
1108003
to brand commitment for utilitarian products
relationships:
an empirical
investigation in
the utilitarian
consumption
context
Brand
Brand
Patwardhan
attachment
romance: a
, H. &
Brand Management,
complementar
Balasubram
20(4), pp. 297- 308.
y approach to
anian, S. K.
Doi:
2011
Journal of Product &
explain
10.1108/1061042111
emotional
1148315
Explaining brand romance using the Self-Expansion
model
attachment
toward brands
Table 1. Literature review: Journals/Articles
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
From the articles above, we get an understanding about brand attachment and how it is a factor in a customer-brand relationship.
4.5 Fashion consumption
Topic
Title
Author(s)
Year
Source
Content
Fashion
A Theory on
Ma, Fang
2012
Journal of Management
Description of fashion consumption, main features of
consumption
Fashion
Shi, Huijing
and Strategy, 3(4),
fashion and relationship with innovation, classic and
Consumption
Chen, Lihua
84–92.
prevalence
Luo, Yiping
doi:10.5430/jms.v3n4
Table 1. Literature review: Journals/Articles
Unfortunately not many articles were found that could benefit us in both the fields of fashion and brand love. The article above gives us general
insights about fashion consumption and how it can be influenced.
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
Books:
Title
Author
Children's relationships1. Mindy F. Ji
Year
Content
2002
Children develop
with brands: “True
relationship with wide
love” or “one-night”
range of brands and
stand?
these relationships are
embedded in the social
environment
Table 2. Literature review: Books
Unfortunately, not many books on the related topic were found. The book mentioned in the table above is interesting as we find out that people
develop relationships with certain brands from a young age but not much research is carried out on it.
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
5. Hypothesis
In order to answer the research questions, the following hypotheses are formulated:
In the results of 'When consumers love their brands: Exploring the concept and its
dimensions', Albert, Merunka & Valette-Florence (2008) discovered 11 dimensions of love
towards a brand. Consumers who loved the brands they talked about, fully agreed with these
11 dimensions. As this study is based on their findings, we will use these 11 dimensions and
apply them to fashion brands and food brands. Therefore each hypotheses represents a
dimension from their results:
Passion
It is the first dimension discussed in the findings of Albert, Merunka & Valette-Florence
(2008) and as they say, it is often associated to the feeling of love. As it is referred to
„intense longing for union with another‟ (Hatfield & Walster, 1978), it is significant to link this
factor to the categories of brands in our study.
H1a: Consumers are passionate towards the fashion brand(s) they love
H1b: Consumers are passionate towards the food brand(s) they love
Duration of the relationship: long
Long term relationship is linked with satisfaction and intimacy with the partner (Albert,
Merunka & Valette-Florence, 2008) i.e. one of the factors of love. Therefore the following
hypotheses are made to address this factor.
H2a: Consumers have a long term relationship with the fashion brand(s) they love
H2b: Consumers have a long term relationship with the food brand(s) they love
Self congruity: congruity between self image and product image
In their work, Albert, Merunka & Valette-Florence (2008) state that couples usually have
some form of similarity, for example, in beliefs, attitudes, humour, physical attractiveness
etc. This means that when love exists, there is usually some similarity between the two
people. In the same way for love to exist between brands and customers, this similarity is
What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
expected. This is seen in the sense of product image being similar to self image. To test this,
the following hypotheses are made.
H3a: Fashion brand(s) consumers love is congruent with their self image
H3b: Food brand(s) consumers love is congruent with their self image
Dreams
Albert, Merunka & Valette-Florence (2008) say when consumers are in love with a brand,
they dream about it. This means that they think about it often and that particular brand
favours their dreams. The following hypotheses will test this dimension.
H4a: The fashion brand(s) consumers love support their dreams
H4b: The food brand(s) consumers love support their dreams
Memories: evoked by the brand
In their work, Albert, Merunka & Valette-Florence (2008) state that certain brand brings back
some memories to the consumers. These memories can be of their childhood, something
special that happened or just nostalgia, but these feelings suggest a special relationship with
the brand. Therefore, in order to understand this, we develop the following hypotheses.
H5a: The fashion brand(s) consumers love evoke some memories
H5b: The food brand(s) consumers love evoke some memories
Pleasure
Love is linked to positive emotions, including pleasure (Fehr & Russel, 1991) and when it
comes to love between a brand and a consumer, pleasure effects the duration of the
relationship (Albert, Merunka & Valette-Florence, 2008) In the following hypotheses we test
the dimension of pleasure.
H6a: The fashion brand(s) consumers love provide them with some pleasure
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
H6b: The food brand(s) consumers love provide them with some pleasure
Attraction:
Albert, Merunka & Valette-Florence (2008) describe attraction as a dimension of
interpersonal love. This means consumers feel attracted towards the brand they love. To test
this, the following hypotheses are made.
H7a: Consumers feel attracted towards the fashion brand(s) they love
H7b: Consumers feel attracted towards the food brand(s) they love
Uniqueness:
Lovers usually consider their partners unique (Albert, Merunka & Valette-Florence, 2008).
Also many respondents say that the brand they prefer is unique, which leads to feelings of
idealization often mentioned in interpersonal love theories (Murray and Holmes, 1993;
Murray et al., 1996; Sternberg and Barnes, 1985) The following hypotheses are made to test
this dimension.
H8a: Consumers see the fashion brand(s) they love as unique
H8b: Consumers see the food brand(s) they love as unique
Beauty:
“Beauty is a determinant of love relationships” (Merunka & Valette-Florence, 2008, Walster
et al, 1966) Therefore when it comes to love, beauty is considered to be one of the most
prominent factors. The following hypotheses are made to study this.
H9a: Consumers see beauty in the fashion brand(s) they love
H9b: Consumers see beauty in the food brand(s) they love
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
Trust: No disappointment
“Consumers in love seem to declare they have never been disappointed and express their
satisfaction with the brand” (Albert, Merunka & Valette-Florence, 2008) This shows that trust
is also a dimension in the concept of brand love and the following hypotheses are made to
study this.
H10a: Consumers fully trust the fashion brand(s) they love and have never felt
disappointed
H10b: Consumers fully trust the food brand(s) they love and have never felt
disappointed
Declaration of affect
This refers to the expression of love or sentiments towards another person/object/brand.
Albert, Merunka & Valette-Florence (2008) state that they did not name this dimension
„declaration of love‟ but rather „declaration of affect‟ because consumers use many different
words to express their feelings of love for example adore, appreciate, like etc. The following
hypotheses are made to test this dimension.
H11a: Consumers declare their feeling of affect for the fashion brand(s) they love
H11b: Consumers declare their feeling of affect for the food brand(s) they love
The 11 hypotheses discussed above are made to prove whether brand love exists between
consumers and fashion brand(s)/food brand(s). If these 11 hypotheses are tested to be true,
we will successfully be able to say that brand love exists in the categories of fashion and
food. The method to carry out this research is described in the next section.
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What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
6. Methodology
Method of research: Hybrid survey- exploratory study via an online questionnaire
As this study is inspired by the work of Albert, Merunka & Valette-Florence (2008)
'When consumers love their brands: Exploring the concept and its dimensions', it will be
using the same research approach as was used by them, but a little modified to suit the
purpose of this study. In their study, interviews were first carried out to see what generally
people felt towards this area of study, later questionnaires were spread. In this study, we will
not carry out the interviews and only focus on the questionnaires, as this study is a step
forward to the research and wants to investigate these feelings for two categories of brands.
Description/data analysis: The research consists of both qualitative and quantitative
techniques: Quantitative: close-ended question, large number of respondents; Qualitative:
exploratory study, projective techniques, text answers from respondents
The projective technique is used in this study because it is effective in encouraging people to
bring forward their hidden opinions, attitudes or feelings about the object or situation. Such
methods are useful when direct methods are unable to acquire the required information
precisely or researchers need a better understanding of the phenomenon (Malhotra, 2004),
(Albert, Merunka & Valette-Florence, 2008). Therefore for our purpose of study, they seem
best.
Setting: The questionnaire will be spread in early December 2014
Instruments: Software used for online survey - Sphinx
Sample and participants: This study does not take into account nationality as a factor so,
the questionnaire will be spread as far and wide as possible using online platforms and
personal contacts. The age group considered is 15-75 because people from a very young
age show attitudes towards brands and this carries on till later in life. Also, as the medium of
survey is online questionnaire, this age group seems most suitable to be able to access it
and answer it. As the population size ideally is the total population of the world from the age
15 to 75, with an error margin of 5%, confidence level of 95% and response distribution of
50%, our sample is 385 respondents, calculated using the article „sample size calculation‟
(Kadam & Bhalerao, 2010)
24
What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
7. Overview of chapters
Abstract
List of content
List of tables
List of abbreviations
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Problem statement and reasoning
-
Importance of topic
Inspiration
Chapter 3 Purpose and research questions
Chapter 4 Literature review and theoretical background on brand love
4.1 Overview
4.2 Definitions of brand love
4.3 Different models and previous works done
Chapter 5 Fashion brands and food brands
5.1 Overview
5.2 Connection with brand love and reasons for choosing
Chapter 6 Methodology
6.1 Setup & inspiration
6.2 Execution
6.3 Results
6.4 Summary of results
6.5 Concerns for validity
Chapter 7 Discussion and conclusion
7.1 Managerial and scientific implications
7.2 Limitations of the study
7.3 Suggestions for further researchers
Chapter 8 Bibliography
Chapter 9 Appendix
25
What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
8. Work plan
Important deadlines
Time
1
1.07.2014-31.08.2014
2
1.09.2014
Tasks/Phases
Level
Finding a thesis topic
Completed
Handing in thesis proposals &
Completed
selection of one
3
2.09.2014-12.10.2014
Development of the topic and
Completed
finding the focus of study
4
13.10.2014
5
13.10.2014-23.10.2014
Handing in the Expose‟
Completed
Checking of Expose‟ & receiving
Completed
feedback
6
24.10.2014- 30.11.2014
-Elaboration of the Expose‟
To follow
-Formation of questionnaire
7
1.12.2014-14.12.2014
-Work on the Intermediate thesis
To follow
draft
-Online distribution of questionnaire
8
15.12.2014
Handing in the intermediate thesis
To follow
draft presentation
9
15.12.2014-12.01.2015
Checking and feedback on
To follow
intermediate thesis draft
10
13.01.2015-27.01.2015
-Finalising of intermediate thesis
To follow
report
-analyzing results of questionnaire
-pushing questionnaire further
11
28.01.2015
Intermediate thesis report
To follow
presentation
12
9.02.2015-28.02.2015
Studying the results obtained and
To follow
analyzing them further
13
1.03-2015-15.05.2015
Writing the final thesis
To follow
14
16.05.2015-31.05.2015
Proof reading and finalizing of the
To follow
thesis
15
1.06.2015
Final thesis presentation
To follow
26
What brands do consumers love? - A study of fashion brands and food brands
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