'Bye Bye Love' - Why Devoted Consumers Break Up With Their Brands
Consumer devotion and brand love have recently attracted rising interest in consumer research. Due to their high emotional attachment, brand devotees love and adore their brands and even fervently defend them against all odds. Yet, some of these relationships break down. This article addresses the question why strong emotional bonds with brands are weakened, and how consumers experience the process of emotional detachment and relationship termination. Phenomenological interviews with brand devotees revealed that – similar to personal relationships – personal transformation and physical and psychological injuries are two main categories of reasons for brand love to vanish.
Citation:
Andrea Hemetsberger, Christine M. T. Kittinger-Rosanelli, and Sandra Friedmann (2009) ,"'Bye Bye Love' - Why Devoted Consumers Break Up With Their Brands", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 430-437.
Authors
Andrea Hemetsberger, Innsbruck University, Austria
Christine M. T. Kittinger-Rosanelli, Innsbruck University, Austria
Sandra Friedmann, Innsbruck University, Austria
Volume
NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36 | 2009
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