WHO Langner, Schmidt, & Fischer
WHAT How love for brands compares to love for people
WHEN 2015
WHERE Psychology & Marketing
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE People love brands, they're just not in love with brands.
We all have brands we can’t imagine life without and we may even go so far as to say we love them. It’s no secret that a loved brand is one of the best things for a marketer. When consumers love brands, they’re more loyal and they spend more. But is the love we have for brands the same as the love we have for people? Do we really love brands or do we just say we do?
Short and vague answer? Not really.
Long answer? Keep reading...
WHAT How love for brands compares to love for people
WHEN 2015
WHERE Psychology & Marketing
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE People love brands, they're just not in love with brands.
We all have brands we can’t imagine life without and we may even go so far as to say we love them. It’s no secret that a loved brand is one of the best things for a marketer. When consumers love brands, they’re more loyal and they spend more. But is the love we have for brands the same as the love we have for people? Do we really love brands or do we just say we do?
Short and vague answer? Not really.
Long answer? Keep reading...
In a study done back in June, a group of German researchers wanted to examine the emotional nature of brand love and how it compares to the emotional nature of interpersonal love.
First, a little background on emotions and love. There is a common psychological framework that approaches emotion from 2 dimensions: valence and arousal. Valence basically measures how positive whatever you’re feeling is and arousal measures how intense it is.
Interpersonal love, as discussed by Langner et al. (2015), is characterized by extremely positive emotional valence and strong physiological arousal. The researchers set out to determine whether or not brand love had comparable levels of valence and arousal. They did this with two studies.
Study 1
60 undergraduate students were asked to answer open-ended questions about a brand they loved, a brand they liked, a person they loved, and a person they liked. The purpose of this phase was to collect preliminary insights into the general nature of brand relationships compared to interpersonal relationships. Researchers used qualitative methods to try and identify similarities and differences between the two relationships.
Findings revealed, and bear with me here, that:
Basically, there is high emotionality involved in brand love but it is a less emotional experience than interpersonal love. People love brands but not in the same ways and not to the extent that they love people.
Study 2
This part of the study used a combination of physiological and pictographic techniques to quantitatively measure the levels of valence and arousal evoked among participants for both brand and interpersonal love.
20 participants were shown pictures of a self-identified brand they loved and liked, a researcher-generated neutral brand, a self-identified person they loved and liked, and a researcher-generated neutral person. Valence was measured by monitoring the facial muscle activity of participants and arousal was measured using electrodermal activity (i.e. the idea that the skin becomes a better conductor of electricity when people are physiologically aroused by a certain stimulus).
Statistically, there was no real difference in the emotional valence between brand love and interpersonal love. That is, both of the emotions experienced in these types of love were positive. However, there was higher arousal found for interpersonal love as compared to brand love. But, and this is where it gets really interesting, arousal related to interpersonal liking and arousal related to brand love are similar. Basically, the emotions evoked by a loved brand are just as intense as the emotions evoked by a close friend.
In other words, we love brands, we’re just not in love with brands.
First, a little background on emotions and love. There is a common psychological framework that approaches emotion from 2 dimensions: valence and arousal. Valence basically measures how positive whatever you’re feeling is and arousal measures how intense it is.
Interpersonal love, as discussed by Langner et al. (2015), is characterized by extremely positive emotional valence and strong physiological arousal. The researchers set out to determine whether or not brand love had comparable levels of valence and arousal. They did this with two studies.
Study 1
60 undergraduate students were asked to answer open-ended questions about a brand they loved, a brand they liked, a person they loved, and a person they liked. The purpose of this phase was to collect preliminary insights into the general nature of brand relationships compared to interpersonal relationships. Researchers used qualitative methods to try and identify similarities and differences between the two relationships.
Findings revealed, and bear with me here, that:
- Brand love is driven more by rational processes while interpersonal love is driven more by emotional processes.
- People link emotional memories with the brand or person they love. Positive things experienced with either the brand or person become associated with the love.
- When attachment towards either a brand or person surpasses a certain level, people becomes scared of losing that particular brand or person.
Basically, there is high emotionality involved in brand love but it is a less emotional experience than interpersonal love. People love brands but not in the same ways and not to the extent that they love people.
Study 2
This part of the study used a combination of physiological and pictographic techniques to quantitatively measure the levels of valence and arousal evoked among participants for both brand and interpersonal love.
20 participants were shown pictures of a self-identified brand they loved and liked, a researcher-generated neutral brand, a self-identified person they loved and liked, and a researcher-generated neutral person. Valence was measured by monitoring the facial muscle activity of participants and arousal was measured using electrodermal activity (i.e. the idea that the skin becomes a better conductor of electricity when people are physiologically aroused by a certain stimulus).
Statistically, there was no real difference in the emotional valence between brand love and interpersonal love. That is, both of the emotions experienced in these types of love were positive. However, there was higher arousal found for interpersonal love as compared to brand love. But, and this is where it gets really interesting, arousal related to interpersonal liking and arousal related to brand love are similar. Basically, the emotions evoked by a loved brand are just as intense as the emotions evoked by a close friend.
In other words, we love brands, we’re just not in love with brands.
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Langner, T., Schmidt, J., & Fischer, A. (2015). Is It Really Love? A Comparative Investigation of the Emotional Nature of Brand and Interpersonal Love. Psychology & Marketing, 32(6), 624-634.