TY - JOUR
T1 - How we relate to brands
T2 - Psychological and neurophysiological insights into consumer-brand relationships
AU - Reimann, Martin
AU - Castaño, Raquel
AU - Zaichkowsky, Judith
AU - Bechara, Antoine
N1 - Funding Information:
For helpful feedback on earlier versions of this research, the authors thank the editors, Carolyn Yoon and Baba Shiv, three anynomous reviewers, Arthur Aron, Debbie MacInnis, and Oliver Schilke as well as the session audiences at the 2009 American Marketing Association Summer Conference and the 2010 American Marketing Association Winter Conference. For help with data collection, the authors thank Ourania Petasis. Financial support was provided by the Google & WPP Marketing Research Awards Program , grant # 2009–10 .
PY - 2012/1
Y1 - 2012/1
N2 - In three experiments, this research provides new insights into branding by studying the psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms of how consumers relate to their beloved brands. The authors propose that emotional arousal decreases over the brand relationship span, while inclusion of the brand into the self increases over time. Results of experiment 1 indicate greater self-reported emotional arousal for recently formed brand relationships, as well as decreased emotional arousal and increased inclusion of close brands over time. Additionally, the moderating role of usage frequency of the brand brings out an interesting nuance of the way these effects operate. Experiment 2 measures skin conductance responses and reveals increased emotional arousal for recently formed close relationships but not for established close brand relationships, corroborating the results based on self-reported data. In experiment 3, a functional magnetic resonance imaging study reveals an association between established close relationships and activation of the insula, a brain area previously found to be a crucial mechanism in diverse but related psychological phenomena such as urging, addiction, loss aversion, and interpersonal love.
AB - In three experiments, this research provides new insights into branding by studying the psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms of how consumers relate to their beloved brands. The authors propose that emotional arousal decreases over the brand relationship span, while inclusion of the brand into the self increases over time. Results of experiment 1 indicate greater self-reported emotional arousal for recently formed brand relationships, as well as decreased emotional arousal and increased inclusion of close brands over time. Additionally, the moderating role of usage frequency of the brand brings out an interesting nuance of the way these effects operate. Experiment 2 measures skin conductance responses and reveals increased emotional arousal for recently formed close relationships but not for established close brand relationships, corroborating the results based on self-reported data. In experiment 3, a functional magnetic resonance imaging study reveals an association between established close relationships and activation of the insula, a brain area previously found to be a crucial mechanism in diverse but related psychological phenomena such as urging, addiction, loss aversion, and interpersonal love.
KW - Close brand relationships
KW - Consumer neuroscience
KW - FMRI
KW - Insula
KW - Self-expansion theory
KW - Skin conductance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84857795412&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84857795412&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jcps.2011.11.003
DO - 10.1016/j.jcps.2011.11.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84857795412
SN - 1057-7408
VL - 22
SP - 128
EP - 142
JO - Journal of Consumer Psychology
JF - Journal of Consumer Psychology
IS - 1
ER -