Building Brand Love in Malaysia: A Qualitative Study · Wijaya (2012) foresee the important of...

Journal of Arts & Social Sciences Vol 3, Issue 2, 35-52 (2020)

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Building Brand Love in Malaysia: A Qualitative Study * Joon Chew, Dan

Faculty of Business, Raffles University, Malaysia. Email:[email protected]

Khalil Md Nor

Azman Hashim International Business School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Email: [email protected]

___________________________________________________________________________ Abstract The metaphor of human interpersonal relationship has greatly inspired researchers into adopting the similar concept in consumer consumption. This study has ride on this metaphor in searching for a deeper understanding of consumer brand love relationship development and progression. The purpose of this study is to gain the insight of consumer and their brand love relationship formation from the developmental perspectives. Built upon the interpersonal love relationship development theories, this study proposes a framework of Malaysian brand love relationship stages of development and progression. The qualitative explorative method was used to conduct this study. Twelve informants were interviewed in Johor Bahru and Kuala Lumpur on their brand relationship in the automotive product category. The findings has unveiled how Malaysian progresses in their brand love relationship development and this knowledge could change the way we build brand loyalty in Malaysia.

Keywords: Brand Love, Stages of Progression, Stages of Development, Consumption *Corresponding author ___________________________________________________________________________

Introduction

The notion of love in consumption has drawn enormous attention in the recent years in the field of marketing especially in searching for long term sustainability in consumer and brand relationship. The adoption of interpersonal love theories in marketing can be traced in the earlier works of Shimp and Madden (1988) and Fournier (1991). The linkage between the theory of interpersonal love and consumer consumption and material possession has since become an increasingly popular research topic. Especially in the past decades (from 2000 to 2015) have demonstrated extensive studies in several aspects of brand love, i.e. i) the concepts and dimensions of love in consumptions (Whang et al., 2004; Albert, Merunka and Florence, 2008; Albert, Boyer, Lefebvre, Merunka and Florence, 2007; Ahuvia, Batra and Bagozzi, 2008, 2012), ii) the aspect of brand love antecedents and consequences (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006; Bergkvist and Larsen, 2010; Broadbent et al., 2010; Sarkar, 2011; Kang, 2015) and iii) formation of close relationship between consumer and their brands (Reimann et. al. 2012), iv) the hierarchy of effects of brand love (Wijaya, 2012), v) brand love validation and practical scale (Bagozzi, Batra and Ahuvia, 2016) and vi) brand love relationship dynamics (Langner, Bruns and Fischer, 2014; Schmid and Huber, 2019)

Although current studies of brand love have offered a good fundamental understanding of how consumers emotionally connects with their brands, such as defining the meaning of love for a brand and the positive consequences of achieving love in a brand, however, very few studies explore the insights how consumers and their brands’ love relationship develop and progress. Most of the current studies of brand love have placed the love formation between consumers and brand in a “static” context.

Rationally, in the context of human interpersonal love relationship, it is understood that a love relationship do not form overnight, rather it evolves with the passage of time from a stranger to lover. Similarly, a consumer and brands love relationship will not happened overnight, it evolves with the passage of time before the consumer were emotionally attach to the brand. Therefore, it is important for


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marketers to understand the developmental stages of the consumer brand love relationship (i.e. from knowing the brand to loving the brand), in order for them to track and develop the proper marketing communication strategies in cultivating their consumer-brand love relationship. Reviews of Consumers’ Brand Love Relationship Development

Can consumer falls in love with a brand? Studies strongly shows consumer do falls in love with their brands. Leading researchers such as Shimp and Madden (1988), Ahuvia (1993) and Whang et al. (2004) have discovered consumer possess strong emotional attachment with product or brand, such as loving their pets, cars, bikes, painting, musical instruments, books or computers. In fact, the adoption of interpersonal love theories in branding can be traced in the earlier works of Shimp and Madden (1988) and Fournier (1991). The pioneering work of Shimp and Madden (1988) have suggested that nature of interpersonal relationship and consumer-objects relationship were highly similar. Fournier (1991) extended the consumer and objects relationship study from the perspective of product meaning framework, have discovered that consumer and objects can establish a relationship through the dimensions of meaning of a given objects such as the attributes and emotional dimensions of product. Albert, Menduka and Florence (2008) explored the fundamental dimensions of consumer brand love relationship and their findings suggest that consumer brand love relationship consist of feeling of passion, pleasure, attractions, trust and one will also experienced dreams about the brand, retain memories about the brand and evaluate the beauty, uniqueness and duration with the brand.

Recently, researchers have extended the brand love studies from the perspective of consumers’ learning and responses with the brand they loved. Wijaya (2011) had conceptually developed a hierarchy effects of love towards brand from an extended classical AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire and Action) model. Wijaya’s conceptual model foresee that consumers brand relationships will progress from stage of hate → neutral →good perception → good experience → good feeling → brand liking → brand fans → brand obsession → brand love. This conceptual model suggests that in the short-term effects of advertising, marketers should focus on consumers’ attention, interest, search, desire, action, like/dislike and in the long-term effects of advertising marketers should focus on consumers’ sharing and love towards the brand. However, Wijaya’s framework remains as conceptual discussion as empirical testing was not conducted.

This study set out to extend the exploration of consumer brand love relationship development from the perspective of consumers’ learning and responses. The aims is to empirically identify and conceptualise the framework of consumer brand love relationship stages of development. The discovery of consumer brand love relationship stages development may provide a great help to marketers in making prediction of consumer brand love formation. In addition, it will enabled marketers to foresee the relationship stages of progression that offered the ability to explain the intensity of love relationship between the consumer and their brand. Brand Love in Asia

Twenty years ago, a study suggested that Asia’s consumer generally took longer time to establish brand loyalty than the western consumers (Schutte and Ciarlante, 1998) and they suggested that Asian’s cultural characteristics such as adverse to social risk and conformity with group norm had delayed Asia’s consumer establish loyalty towards a brand. Interestingly, in the recent years, studies suggested that there was a shift in Asian’s consumption behaviour. Lim & Ang (2008) study indicates that as Asia’s economy progresses, Asian consumers’ consumption values are likely to shift from


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utilitarian to hedonic preferences. They found that in a less cultural conditioning (open) Asia economy, consumers were less likely to be influenced by compliance behaviour (i.e. conformity with group norm).

A reviewed into the current consumer brand relationship literatures in Asia, interestingly, research on hedonic aspect of branding in Asia have consistently surfaced. These have demonstrated that Asians were gradually embracing the concept of brand love and brand relationship. For instance, Pang, Keh and Peng (2009) study found that there was a strong impact of using rational advertising in simulating consumer brand love among Chinese consumers. Similarly, Sakar (2011) have also found the presence of romantic brand love relationship among Indian consumers and this brand love emotion were positively linked to their conative loyalty. Wijaya (2012) foresee the important of brand love concept in advertising. A revisit study of brand love by Kang (2015) in India have also found the presence of brand love among young Indians.

The embracing brand relationship and brand love among Asians probably have benefited many western brands making its inroads into Asia. Asia become the vital market for western brands such as Louis Vuitton, Channel, Johnny Walker and many more with an average turnover of some US$90 billion in 2014 (Shukla 2015a). Barua (2017), from Deloitte Insight reported Asia retail sales has grew from US$1.0 trillion in 2001 to US$6.6 trillion in 2016 surpassing the total United States retail sales in the same year. Asia consumers were pursing western brands, but interestingly Asia consumer demonstrated a very selective behaviour in their brand relationship. For instance Donald, (2015) reported that some western brands that popular in Asia were experiencing disappointing performance such as Prada, Nestle, Rolls-Royce. The recent study by Shukla (2015b) have revealed that Asian consumers were no longer consider as a laggard market that will buy anything that made in the west. His study further illustrates that Asian consumers were driven by several consumptions values such as functional values and self-directed values. This shifting of brand relationship among Asia consumers were not fully understood. Could it be these western brands did not understand Asian consumers’ behaviour? Probably not, because top brands such as Prada, Nestle or Roll-Royce have spent many years in Asia, it is unlikely that they were lack of knowledge about Asia consumers’ behaviour. Could it be more likely reason that western brands lack of in-depth understanding of how Asian consumers connect with their brands, specifically how Asia consumers’ brand-relationship develop and progress over time. Probably there was a missing of fundamental understanding of how Asian consumer engage with their brands. Methodology

In this explorative study, qualitative approach were adopted to explore and understand the love relationship development between the consumer and the brand they loved. An in-depth interview approach were used. An easy to follow sequence of qualitative process was adopted, i.e. i) participation selection and sampling, ii) the interview process, iii) transcribing the interviews, iv) qualitative data analysis and findings. First, a non-probability sampling was adopted, where the units of study are deliberately selected to reflect certain features of individual or groups within the sampled population (Ritchie and Lewis, 2003). The informants were identified based on their gender, ethnicity and the ability to converse in English or Bahasa Malaysia.

Second, the interviews were conducted in the service centre, independent car workshops and informant’s office. The in-depth interviews were conducted face to face, audio and field were recorded for effective transcriptions. Every interview had begun with a strict protocol of self introduction, purpose of study, durations, explanation of academic ethics and requesting for respondent’s consent.

Third, each of the interviews was transcribed from the field notes and audio recordings. Each of the interviews’ discourse were transcribed into proper sentence structure and arranged in sequence from first informant interviewed to the last interviewed. Fourth, the interviews content were systematically analysed using tables to segregate each discourse. Next, each of the informant’s brand


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relationship development were synthesised and use word association and frequency analysis to identify the stages of development. Data Collection

The data collection focused on the context of automotive category. Cars are often used in brand studies due to its capability of harbouring instrumental and hedonic value and also illicit hedonic reactions (Lastovicka and Sirianni 2011).

Three (3) independent automotive workshops visited and permit us to conduct the interviews. Although it is a difficult task in contacting and obtaining approval from respondents to participate in the depth interview, however, for the period of eight (8) months the researcher managed to get twelve (12) car owners to participate in the in-depth interviews. Eight (8) males and four (4) females were interviewed, age group between 20 to 60 years old, urban and well educated. The demographic profiles of the informants are shown in Table 2 below. The in-depth interviews were conducted in the workshops’ waiting lounge, audio recorded that lasted around 30 minutes to 1 hour per interview. There were around 25 open questions, where the respondents were asked about the brand they loved, their interpersonal relationship development and their brand love relationship development.

In this qualitative exploration, the main focused is on the aspects of consumer brand love relationship development. Therefore, firstly, the respondents’ self concepts of brand love relationship development were explored. Secondly, the inquiring how the respondents’ perceived their brand relationship sequence of progression from the lowest stage of intensity to the highest stage of intensity were investigated.

Finally each of the interview transcribes were analysed and segregated into two sections. First, the analysis of each of the respondent’s feeling of love towards their car and second, the analysis of the respondents’ relationship experiences with the brand they loved and lastly, synthesised their brand love relationship stages of development. Data Analysis and Findings

Table 1: Demographics Profile of Informants Demographic Features Frequency Percentage (%) Genders Male Female

8 4

67% 33%

Age Distribution 20s – 30s 30s – 40s 40s – 50s 50s – 60s

1 5 5 1

8% 42% 42% 8%

Ethnicity Malay Chinese Indian

4 5 3

33% 42% 25%

Qualifications Secondary Diploma Degree MBA PhD

1 2 3 6 0

8% 17% 25% 50%

Professions Engineering Sales & Marketing Education Operation

2 4 1 5

17% 33% 8% 42%


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Finding 1 - The Feeling of Love towards Brand

Almost all informants (9 out of 12, see Table 2 below) have indicated their feeling of attachment, passion and love towards their brand, although not all respondents mentioned directly the word ‘love’ in their description of brand love relationship development. However words like ‘bonding’, ‘good feeling’, ‘concern’, ‘advocate’, ‘good care’, ‘dependence’ and ‘passion’ were used. As cross-checked the list of words used in association to love in Albert, Menruka and Florence (2008) and the way of expressing love and affections in and Kline, Horton and Zhang (2008), words such as ‘caring’, ‘passion’, ‘concern’, ‘interdependence’ were commonly used in both Americans and East Asians to associate with love. The cross-mapping results show high similarities of the words used to express or associate with love (i.e. ‘bonding’, ‘good feeling’, ‘feeling concern’, ‘good care’, dependence’, ‘passion’, ‘love’, ‘attachment’) . In addition, from the respondents’ expression it is certain that deep inside the respondents’ emotions, they are strongly attached and tightly bonded with their car brand. The below are the excerpts from the respondents.

Table 2: The Excerpts of Love Expression by Informants

1

“I see the bonding with it.” (Age 30s, male, QA Engineer, Kia owner).

2

“I guess initially I am aware of the brand, then, get to know it, then experimenting it, then, used and engage it, then develop good feeling, then became advocate.” (Age 30s, male, Sales Manager, Toyota owner).

3

“After I have purchase the brand, I have develop the feeling of concern for the car. I treated the car in good care, polishing it and keep it clean.” (Age 40s, male, Business Excellence Manager, Kia owner).

4

“I develop the feeling of liking. Now I trust and dependence on the brand a lot.” (Age 40s, male, Manager, Chevrolet owner).

5 “I was in it and after so many years my love has not changed”. (Age 20s, female, Educator, Daihatsu owner)

6 “After the phase of trust, I think I have developed the feeling of passion towards the brand.” (Age 60s, male, Operation Executive, Daihatsu owner)

7 “I went to the showroom, studied the specifications, love it and purchase.” (Age mid 40s, male, Manager, Honda owner).

8 “After purchase I have experienced satisfaction and now it is some sort like passion and love.” (Age late 40s, female, Human Resource Executive, Toyota owner).

9 “The feeling for the brand grows from time to time. The beauty of the design have trap my attachment and finally owned it now.”(Age 30s, female, Marketing Executive, Peugoet owner)

Finding 2 - Consumer Brand Love Relationship Stages of Development and Progression

In revealing consumers brand love relationship development, the informants’ brand love relationship development and progression with their brand were synthesised and interpreted (see Table 3 below). Interestingly, all the informants have indicated their brand love relationship development and progression in a stage like manner. The analyses of the interviews’ content show respondents have clearly mentioned that they have experienced the early stages of knowing, awareness, experimenting and understanding the brand through self enquiring information, advertisements and family ownership before they develop the ultimate feeling of love for the brand. The development and progression of their brand love relationship is also clearly seen in their expression how they proceed to further engage with


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the brand. The duration of ownership and the path of their brand love relationship were also clearly suggested that they progress in stages. Generally the analyses from the interviews show they moved from the stage of awareness to stage of liking and experimentation and finally arrived at the stage of passion and love.

Table 3: Respondents’ Self Concept of Brand Love Relationship Development and Progression Case Respondents’ Answer/ Quotes Respondents’ Profile Self Concept – Brand Love Relationship Development

Interview Question: Can you describe your relationship development or progression with this brand?

Interpreting and Synthesising Informants’ Brand Love Relationship Stages of Development

1) Male, Age 30s, Married, Diploma, Engineer, drive a Kia, ownership duration 2 years.

I have experience Kia and I have known about this brand for more than 8 years. I have experienced this brand through my father and he is still driven it and clocked about 180k kilometre already. We have no problem with this car, however it is an old machine, got some minor problems such noise and wear and tear, other than these it runs well.

Experience → Know → Trust → Like → Loyal

2) Male, Age 30s, Single MBA, QA Engineer, drive a Honda, ownership duration 4 years.

Firstly, I must know the details of the brand, then, I will start to try it. If I like it, I will buy it. Then, after using it and get use to it, I see the bonding with it.

Aware → Experimenting → Like → Buy → Get used > Bond

3) Male, Age 30s, Married, MBA, Sales Manager, drive a Toyota, ownership duration 1 year.

Surely it is not love at the first sight. Through recommendation and experimentation of family cars, it develops my attentions towards this brand. Initially, I don’t have any strong attention towards this brand, it is like a neutral feeling but as times goes by the liking escalate. I guess initially I am aware of the brand, then, get to know it, then experimenting it, then, used and engage it, then develop good feeling, then became advocate.

Aware → Knowing → Experiment → Using and Engaging → Liking (good feeling) → Advocate

4) Male, Age 40s, Married Degree, Business Excellence Manager, drive a Kia, ownership duration 8 years.

The feeling for the car and brand is growing from time to time. I saw the advertisement of the brand, then I visit the showroom and feel the car in the showroom, such as sit in it, scan the whole car. I like it and I buy. After I have purchase the brand, I have develop the feeling of concern for the car. I treated the car in good care, polishing it and keep it clean.

Aware (saw) → Visit showroom → Feel, touch & sat in the car (no test drive) → Like → Buy → Care

5) Male, Age 40s, Married, MBA, Manager, drive a Chevrolet, ownership duration 6 years.

To describe my relationship stages of development, I would say it comes from word of mouth, I went for a test drive, I like it and I give it a try, after driving in it, I develop the feeling of liking. Now I trust and dependence on the brand a lot.

Recommendation + Aware → Test Drive → Like → Buy → Feeling of Liking (attachment) → Trust → Dependence

6) Female, Age 20s, Married, MBA, Educator, drive a Daihatsu Perodua, ownership duration 9 years.

Actually when I acquired this car, I was in need for a car. I would say my process of acquiring this car is from the need, then I went and bought it, then come to driving it, at the same time experiment the car. After awhile of driving it, I begin to like it, then may liking grew stronger, where I start to gave the car a pet name and I always call the pet name when I was in it and after so many years my love have not change.

Need → Purchase → Drive → Experiment →Passion → Love

7) Female, Age 30s, Married, MBA, Business Executive, drive a Toyota, ownership duration 7 years.

I think I started with choosing the type of car, i.e. mpv or sedan, then, I will go for the brand I like, and when the experience of driving the car is positive, I will like it. I will go for the same brand again. Once I have tried to change to other brand (Nissan) but after test drive the car, I cannot find the similar experience of my current car

Aware → Preferred brand → Experiment → Like → Attached (can’t find similar experience)

8) Male, Age 60s, Married, Diploma, Operation Executive, drive a Daihatsu

I do have or experience progression with this brand. I would say my progression starts from knowing the brand, after knowing I developed the liking towards the brand. The next phase in me is the trust. It gave me lots of trust that it will

Knowing → Liking → Trust → Passion


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Perodua, ownership durations 10 years.

perform its duty. After the phase of trust I think I have developed the feeling of passion towards the brand. The stages in my experience of 10 years with the brand are Knowing, then Liking, then Trust and finally Passion.

9) Male, Age mid 40s, Married, MBA, Manager, drive a Honda, ownership duration 4 years.

In short, I would say I was drawn to the look of the design of the car, like it and then I drive it first. After that I went to the showroom, studied the specifications, love it and purchase.

Attraction → Like → Experiment → Study Information → Love → Purchase

10) Female, Age late 40s, Secondary, HR Executive, drive a Totoya, ownership duration 9 years.

When I purchase this car, I begin with the needs for a car. I have surveyed a few brands and models. I matched the prices with my affordability. I went for test drives a few models and build some rapport with the sale personnel. After test drive the car, I search for the feeling of liking and purchase. After purchase I have experienced satisfaction and now it is some sort like passion and love.

Needs → Survey → Matching → Test drive → Liking → Purchase → Satisfaction → Passion →Love

11) Female, Age 30s, Degree, Marketing Executive, drive a Peugeot, ownership duration 2 years

I think after experiencing this brand for the past 10 years, I would say it is all begins from the aware of it, then becoming the passenger in the car; slowly it develops the feeling to own it. The feeling for the brand grows from time to time. When reaching the moment of ability to own it, I went to test drive it and it gave me the excitement to own. The beauty of the design have trap my attachment and finally owned it now.

Aware → Test Drive → Excitement → Attraction → Purchase

12) Male, Age mid 40s, Degree, Marketing Manager, drive a Kia, ownership duration 2 years

It is a bit unique when I buy this Kia. I was aware of the car, so happen that my brother owned a Kia. I tried his Kia. Now when comes to the time I bought this Kia, I just went to the Kia dealer and order one. I don’t even go to the showroom to see the car nor test drive it.

Aware → Test → Feel good → Buy

To visualise the stages of development, each of the respondent’s brand love relationships

development stages of progression were arranged in sequential mode (see Table 4 below).

Table 4: Respondent’s Brand Love Stages of Development and Progression Respondents’ Profile

Interpreting and Synthesising Informants’ Brand Love Relationship Stages of Development

Stages of progression ► Stage1 Stage2 Stage3 Stage4 Stage5 Stage6 1) Male, Age 30s, Married, Diploma, Engineer, drive a Kia, ownership duration 2 years.

Experience

Know

Trust

Like

Loyal

2) Male, Age 30s, Single MBA, QA Engineer, drive a Honda, ownership duration 4 years.

Aware

Experimentin

g

Like

Buy

Get Used to

Bond

3) Male, Age 30s, Married, MBA, Sales Manager, drive a Toyota, ownership duration 1 year.

Aware

Knowing

Experiment

Using & Engaging

Liking

Advocate

4) Male, Age 40s, Married Degree, Business Excellence Manager, drive a Kia, ownership duration 8 years.

Aware

(saw)Visit showroom

Feel, touch & sat in the car

(no test drive)

Like

Buy

Care

5) Male, Age 40s, Married, MBA, Manager, drive a Chevrolet, ownership duration 6 years.

Recommend

ation + Aware

Test Drive

Like

Buy

Feeling of

Liking

Trust &

Dependence


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6) Female, Age 20s, Married, MBA, Educator, drive a Daihatsu (Perodua), ownership duration 9 years.

Need

Purchase

Drive

Experiment

Passion

Love

7) Female, Age 30s, Married, MBA, Business Executive, drive a Toyota, ownership duration 7 years.

Aware

Preferred

brand

Experiment

Like

Attached

8) Male, Age 60s, Married, Diploma, Operation Executive, drive a Daihatsu (Perodua), ownership durations 10 years.

Knowing

Liking

Trust

Passion

9) Male, Age mid 40s, Married, MBA, Manager, drive a Honda, ownership duration 4 years.

Attraction

Like

Experiment

+ information

Love

Buy

10) Female, Age late 40s, Secondary, HR Executive, drive a Totoya, ownership duration 9 years.

Needs + Survey + Matching

Test Drive

Like

Purchase + Satisfied

Passion

Love

11) Female, Age 30s, Degree, Marketing Executive, drive a Peugeot, ownership duration 2 years

Aware

Test Drive

Excitement

Attraction

Buy

12) Male, Age mid 40s, Degree, Marketing Manager, drive a Kia, ownership duration 2 years

Aware

Test Drive

Feel Good

Buy

Words Frequency Count

Frequency Frequency Frequency Frequency Frequency Frequency

Word Association and Frequency count over 12 informants

Aware (7) Experience (1) Need (1) Knowing (1) Attraction (1) Survey (1)

Knowing (2) Experiment (5) (test drive) Feel (1) Purchase (1) Like (3)

Trust (2) Like (4) Experiment (3) Feel good (1) Excitement (1) Drive (1)

Like (2) Buy (4) Engage (1) Experiment (1) Passion (1) Love (1) Satisfied (1) Excitement (1)

Loyal (1) Used to (1) Like (2) Care (1) Passion (2) Attached (1) Attract (1) Buy (1)

Bond (1) Advocate (1) Dependence (1) Love (2)

From the word association and frequency analysis in table 4, the researcher conceptualised the

consumers’ brand love stages of development using three levels of analyses, first, identifying the stages of development of each informant, second analysing the word association and frequency of each stage mentioned and ranked the highest frequency words mentioned, and third, conceptualising the stages of development and sequence of progression based on the highest frequency the stages mentioned. Figure 1 below shows the conceptualisation of the consumer brand love stages of development and progression.


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Figure 1: Conceptualising of Consumer Brand Love Relationship Stages of Development First Level Analysis Second Level Analysis Third Level Theoretical Conceptualisation

Discussions of Findings

The word associations and frequency analysis have demonstrated that the respondents (7 out of

12) have predominantly indicated the initial stage of awareness in their brand love relationship development. When each of the informant’s engagement experiences with their brand were studied, the informants demonstrated direct expression of their experiencing of awareness stage. The below are some of the quotes of direct indication of awareness stage,

Aware (7/12) Experience (1/12) Need (1/12) Knowing (1/12) Attraction (1/12) Survey (1/12) Knowing (2/12) Experiment (5/12) (test drive) Feel (1/12) Purchase (1/12) Like (3/12)

Trust (2/12) Like (4/12) Experiment (3/12) Feel good (1/12) Excitement (1/12) Drive (1/12)

Like (2/12) Buy (4 /12) Engage (1/12) Experiment (1/12) Passion (1/12) Love (1/12) Satisfied (1/12) Excitement (1/12)

Loyal (1/12) Used to (1/12) Like (2/12) Care (1/12) Passion (2/12) Attached (1/12) Attract (1/12) Buy (1/12)

Bond (1/12) Advocate (1/12) Dependence (1/12) Love (2/12)

Awareness

Like

Buy

Bond, Dependence & Love

Awareness

Purchase

Love

Experiment (test drive)

Like, Care, Passion, Attract, Attached, Loyal

Experimenting

Liking

Passion


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Firstly, I must know the details of the brand, then, I will start to try it. (Male, Age 30s, Engineer, Honda owner)

I guess initially I am aware of the brand, then, get to know it, then experimenting it, then, used and engage it, then develop good feeling, then became advocate.(Male, Age 30s, Sales Manager, Toyota owner) The feeling for the car and brand is growing from time to time. I saw the advertisement of the brand, then I visit the showroom and feel the car in the showroom, such as sit in it, scan the whole car. (Male, Age 40s, Business Excellence Manager, Kia owner)

I think after experiencing this brand for the past 10 years, I would say it is all begins from the aware of it, then becoming the passenger in the car; slowly it develops the feeling to own it. (Female, Age 30s, Business Executive, Peugeot owner)

It is a bit unique when I buy this Kia. I was aware of the car, so happen that my brother owned a Kia. (Male, Age 40s, Marketing manager, Kia owner)

I think I started with choosing the type of car, i.e. mpv or sedan, then, I will go for the brand I like, (Female, Age 30s, Toyota owner)

To describe my relationship stages of development, I would say it comes from word of mouth, I went for a test drive. (Male, Age 40s, Manager, Chevrolet owner)

There were also some indirect expressions of awareness stage from the discourse where the used of words such as “knowing”, “survey” and “experience”, that underlie the meaning awareness. For instance;

I do have or experience progression with this brand. I would say my progression starts from knowing the brand, after knowing I developed the liking towards the brand. (Male, Age 60s, Operation Executive, Daihatsu Perodua owner)

When I purchase this car, I begin with the needs for a car. I have surveyed a few brands and models. (Female, Age 40s, HR Executive, Toyota owner) I have experience Kia and I have known about this brand for more than 8 years (Male, Age 30s, Engineer, Kia owner)

All the above have demonstrated a clear indication that most informants begins their brand love relationship from the stage of awareness. This is consistence with the conceptualisation of interpersonal love relationship development models where a relationship begins from two strangers to know each other for the first time before progress further.

In the second stage of relationship development, the informants illustrated rather clear indication on the stage of experimenting. The analysis of each of the informants’ discourse demonstrated majority of the informants have strongly indicated that they gone through


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experimenting stage after they were aware of the brand but before liking the brand. This is consistence with Altman and Taylor 1987; Scanzoni 1979; Knapp and Vengenlisti 1992 and Wood 2004 models of interpersonal relationship progression, where couples will explore each other’s before proceed to further intensifying stage. The excerpts below highlight the expressions of the stage of experimenting,

Firstly, I must know the details of the brand, then, I will start to try it. If I like it, I will buy it. Then, after using it and get use to it, I see the bonding with it. (Male, Age 30s, Engineer, Honda owner)

Honda owner above expressed that he test drive (experimenting) the car after knowing the details.

I guess initially I am aware of the brand, then, get to know it, then experimenting it, then, used and engage it, then develop good feeling, then became advocate. (Male, Age 30s, Sales Manager, Toyota owner)

Toyota owner above expressed, he is aware of the brand, find out about the brand and then test drive it (experimenting).

I would say it comes from word of mouth, I went for a test drive, I like it and I give it a try, after driving in it, I develop the feeling of liking. (Male, Age 40s, Manager, Chevrolet owner)

Chevrolet owner above expressed that after he knew the brand (through word of mouth), he went for the test drive (experimenting).

I have surveyed a few brands and models. I matched the prices with my affordability. I went for test drives a few models and build some rapport with the sale personnel. (Female, Age 40s, HR Executive, Toyota owner)

Toyota owner above expressed that she surveyed and matching prices of models (awareness), then went for test drive (experimenting).

I think after experiencing this brand for the past 10 years, I would say it is all begins from the aware of it, then becoming the passenger in the car; slowly it develops the feeling to own it. The feeling for the brand grows from time to time. When reaching the moment of ability to own it, I went to test drive it and it gave me the excitement to own. (Female, Age 30s Marketing Executive, Peugeot owner)

This Peugeot owner above probably sounds she has grown to like the brand before she test drive the car. However, when we analysed her total experience with the brand, we noticed that she had knew the brand for a decade and experiencing the brand as passenger and grew to like the brand.

It is a bit unique when I buy this Kia. I was aware of the car, so happen that my brother owned a Kia. I tried his Kia. (Male, Age 40s, Marketing Manager, Kia owner)

Kia owner above expressed that he was aware of the brand through his own brother, and test drive (experimenting) his brother’s car. The above have demonstrated a clear indication that most informants move from the stage of awareness to the stage of experimenting.

In the third stage of relationship development, we noticed that majority of the informants mentioned the words “like”, and some indirect expression of “feel good”, “excitement” and “trust”. We synthesised those indirect expressions words i.e. “feel good”,


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“excitement” and “trust” were pointing to the strong feeling of liking. The excerpts below highlights the expressions of the direct expression of liking stage.


Honda owner above stated that after he knew the brand, he had experimenting it and from the experimenting he evaluates his liking towards the brand before owning it.

I went for a test drive, I like it and I give it a try, after driving in it, I develop the feeling of liking. Now I trust and dependence on the brand a lot. (Male, Age 40s, Manger, Chevrolet owner)

Chevrolet owner above relates that he was aware of the brand through word of mouth, then he went for test drive (experimenting) and develop the feeling of liking after the stage of experimenting.

I went for test drives a few models and build some rapport with the sale personnel. After test drive the car, I search for the feeling of liking and purchase. (Female, Age 40s, HR Executive, Toyota owner)

Toyota owner above relates that she had surveyed few brands and models, then went for test drive (experimenting). From the experimenting experience, then she will search for the feeling of liking towards a particular brand. This Toyota owner had clearly demonstrated her feeling of liking develops after the stage of experimenting.

I saw the advertisement of the brand, then I visit the showroom and feel the car in the showroom, such as sit in it, scan the whole car. I like it and I buy. (Male, Age 40s, Business Excellence Manager, Kia owner)

Another direct expression of liking, the Kia owner above relates that he was aware of the brand through advertisement and he went to the show room to view the car and feel the internal comfort of the car. In this process of experimenting the car through views and feel (he did not mentioned about test drive), he like the car and he bought it. Although he did not mentioned test drive, but the process of experimenting through personally viewing and feel the brand had strongly indicates that he had developed the feeling of liking after experimenting the brand. It is also noticeable that some informants did not directly express the word “liking”. However when each of their discourses is carefully analysed, it is clearly noticeable that their sentiment of liking towards the brand they relates were presence. For instance, in this discourse,

“I have experience Kia and I have known about this brand for more than 8 years. I have experienced this brand through my father and he is still driven it and clocked about 180k kilometre already. We have no problem with this car, however it is an old machine, got some minor problems such noise and wear and tear, other than these it runs well”. (Male, Age 30s, Engineer, Kia owner)

Indirectly, Kia owner above was very comfortable with this brand after 8 years of involvement with the brand. Before he own the brand, he already experienced the brand and he demonstrated the trust and


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fondness towards the brand. Similarly, we have also found some informant used the concept of excitement to express liking such as below,

The feeling for the brand grows from time to time. When reaching the moment of ability to own it, I went to test drive it and it gave me the excitement to own. The beauty of the design have trap my attachment and finally owned it now. (Female, Age 30s, Marketing Executive, Peugeot owner) It is a bit unique when I buy this Kia. I was aware of the car, so happen that my brother owned a Kia. I tried his Kia. Now when comes to the time I bought this Kia, I just went to the Kia dealer and order one. I don’t even go to the showroom to see the car nor test drive it. (Male, Age 40s, Marketing Manager, Kia owner)

The first informant mentioned about her excitement to own it after she went for the test drive (experimenting). It may not be a direct expression of liking, but the word “excitement” indicates strong connections to the feeling of liking which driven her eagerness to own the brand. The second informant have indirectly expressed liking after testing the brand where his action of purchased the brand without the need to physically visit the showroom was a strong indication of liking the brand after experienced the brand through a family member.

When cross referenced to the interpersonal relationship models, this stage probably indicate the differences between bilateral relationship development (human to human interpersonal relationship) and unilateral relationship development (consumer and objects relationship). In the bilateral relationship development it is likely to expect that after experimenting stage, couple will likely to progress into intensifying stage (Knapp and Vengenlisti 1992; Wood 2004). However, in an unilateral relationship development, rationally, consumers were unable to engage in intensifying activities due to the non-existent of reciprocity between human and objects, therefore it is highly likely for a human to develop strong feeling of liking after trials or experimenting.

In the fourth stage of relationship development, it is noticeable that majority of the informants mentioned the word “buy” after the stage of liking, i.e. (quotes shown below)

Firstly, I must know the details of the brand, then, I will start to try it. If I like it, I will buy it. Then, after using it and get use to it, I see the bonding with it.(Male, Age 30s, Engineer, Honda owner) I saw the advertisement of the brand, then I visit the showroom and feel the car in the showroom, such as sit in it, scan the whole car. I like it and I buy. After I have purchase the brand, I have develop the feeling of concern for the car. (Male, Age 40s, Business Excellence Manager, Kia owner) I would say it comes from word of mouth, I went for a test drive, I like it and I give it a try, after driving in it, I develop the feeling of liking. Now I trust and dependence on the brand a lot.(Male, Age 40s, Manager, Chevrolet owner)

I was aware of the car, so happen that my brother owned a Kia. I tried his Kia. Now when comes to the time I bought this Kia, I just went to the Kia dealer and order one. (Male, Age 40s, Marketing Manager, Kia owner) After test drive the car, I search for the feeling of liking and purchase. After purchase I have


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experienced satisfaction and now it is some sort like passion and love. (Female, Age 40s, HR Executive, Toyota owner)

It is foresee that this stage represent the acquisition of the product when consumer have strong liking towards the brand or product. Commonly, this could be interpreted as the rationale of acquisition process, where the informants needs to own the product in order for them to build their relationship with the brand. When cross referenced with the interpersonal love theories, Levinger (1980) had identified this stage of relationship building as where couples going through the process of strengthening their love relationship. Rationally, there was a similarity between human interpersonal love relationship and consumer brand love relationship in this relationship building stage. The only deviation is consumer need to own the brand or product in order to engage substantial involvement with the product they like. This phenomena can be explained, where in human to objects love relationship context, in order to strengthen their love relationship with the brand they like, they have to purchase the brand, whereas this ownership concept does not exist in human to human context.

In the fifth stage of relationship development, it is clearly noticed that respondents frequently used words such as “like”, “passion”, “care”, and “concern” to express the relationship phase. Based on the words used, it is noticeable that the respondents have expressed their feeling towards their cars beyond liking, i.e. (quotes shown below)

After a while of driving it, I begin to like it, then my liking grew stronger, where I start to gave the car a pet name and I always call the pet name when I was in it and after so many years my love have not change. (Female, Age 20s, Educator, Daihatsu Perodua owner)

This Daihatsu (Perodua) owner above clearly express her passionate feeling towards the car where she treated the car as a living object, similar to her pet.

After I have purchase the brand, I have develop the feeling of concern for the car. I treated the car in good care, polishing it and keep it clean. (Male, Age 40s, Business Excellence Manager, Kia owner)

This Kia owner above expressed a humanly concern of his car such as taking good care of his car. This behaviour strongly indicates a high degree of closeness and passionate feeling towards the car or brand.

After test drive the car, I search for the feeling of liking and purchase. After purchase I have experienced satisfaction and now it is some sort like passion and love. (Female, Age 40s, HR Executive, Toyota owner)

The above Toyota owner have clearly expressed her feeling of passion towards the brand after owning the brand. The interpersonal love relationship models suggest that once the couple have gone through the stage of experimenting and liking, couple will experience relationship intensifying (Knapp and Vangilisti, 1992, Wood, 2004), stage of affections (Altman and Taylor, 1979) or stage of intimacy (DeVito, 1996). We noticed that there is a similar pattern of progression in consumer brand love relationship development. We synthesised that the words (i.e. like, passion, care, and concern) indicate the feeling of closeness and passionate towards the brand.


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In the sixth stage, respondents clearly indicated their feeling of love towards their brand. The words used (i.e. bond, dependence, love, advocate) are the direct expression of relationship integration, i.e. love. (quotes shown below)

I begin to like it, then may liking grew stronger, where I start to gave the car a pet name and I always call the pet name when I was in it and after so many years my love have not change. (Female, Age 20s, Educator, Daihatsu Perodua owner)

I search for the feeling of liking and purchase. After purchase I have experienced satisfaction and now it is some sort like passion and love. (Female, Age 40s, HR Executive, Toyota owner)

Both of the above Daihatsu and Toyota owner have directly expressed their love towards their cars. It is also clearly noticeable that some uses indirect expression of love i.e. “bonding”, “trust” and “dependence” to express their attachment and love for their cars. For instance both the Honda and Chevrolet owners below,


To describe my relationship stages of development, I would say it comes from word of mouth, I went for a test drive, I like it and I give it a try, after driving in it, I develop the feeling of liking. Now I trust and dependence on the brand a lot. (Male, Age 40s, Manager, Chevrolet owner)

Both discourses content were carefully analysed, it shows the owners’ close lasting relationship, in-depth reliance and attachment with their car. This behaviour is clearly indicating love towards the car.

Generally, from the above qualitative analysis, the Asian brand love relationship stages of development and progression can be conceptualised as below,

Figure 2: Theoretical Conceptualisation of Asian Brand Love Relationship Stages of Development. Implications of Study

Past studies have acknowledged that consumers falls in love with their brands. This study have confirmed that consumer brand love relationship development were similar to human interpersonal love relationship development. This findings have also reaffirmed that consumer brand love relationships are dynamic in nature (Fournier, 1994; Wijaya, 2011; Langner, Bruns and Fischer, 2014; Schmid and Huber 2019).

Besides, there were several new knowledge emerged from this study. Globally, this finding has complement the existing status quo of brand loyalty concepts. Currently most of the practitioners are much depending on the proven model of brand loyalty in order to retain customers with an organisation. However, recently the concern of sustainability of brand loyalty concepts have being questioned by scholars. Godson (2009) highlighted there were fundamental differences between genuine loyalty and

Brand Awareness

Brand Experimenting

Brand Liking

Brand Passion

Brand Love

Brand Purchase


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repeat buying behaviour. He emphasised that repeat buying behaviour were generally driven by lack of choice, lack of information or taking advantages of conveniences, which made many businesses misunderstood customer that demonstrating repeat buying behaviour as an genuine loyal customers. With this new understanding of how consumer brand love relationship develops and progress over time would deepen our understanding of the dynamics of consumer brand relationship and possible identification of the relationship stages that will provides a systematic understanding and visualisation towards a sustainable consumer and brand relationship. This understanding and visualisation may also help us to develop more genuine loyal customers by shaping the love relationship in the early stages brand relationship development.

Practically, this empirically study of consumer brand love stages of development, (i.e. brand awareness → brand experimenting → brand liking → brand purchase → brand passion → brand love) will crystallise the process of cultivating a sustainable brand love relationship and more importantly marketers will have the ability to use this framework to organise specific marketing activities for each stage of development that will shape brand love relationship and ultimately achieving a sustainable loyalty. This model will be useful for brand owners who planned to explore Asian markets. This study may have also answered why Asian took a longer time to establish brand loyalty and driven by functional values. This brand love relationship developmental model suggests that Asian consumers would probably spend more time in experimenting stage before accepting the brand. This model have strongly indicates that to build brand love, brand owners need to emphasised on both pre-purchase and post-purchase marketing activities. Unexpectedly, this study have also unveiled two important insights of consumer brand relationship development. First, the current marketing practices have informed us that consumers’ purchase intention were generally driven by brand performance (i.e. durability, quality, value) and brand utility (i.e. ease of use, product design simplicity), however, this study suggests that besides brand performance and utility, the emotional factor of “liking” is equally important in driving purchase intention. Second, brand owners must be aware that the genuine relationship between the consumer and the brand they loved will only begin after they purchased the brand.This could be the most crucial phase for brands owners that not only need to convinced the brands acquisition but also must strengthening the consumer-brand relationship in the post-purchase phases.

Therefore, this model will serve as the foundation and guides for brand owners to carefully cultivate brand love and ultimately achieving sustainable brand loyalty through the stages of progression. Additionally, it also provide brand owners an alternative model of brand building rather than over depending on the current popular antecedents and outcome models of brand love.

Specifically in Malaysia context and Asia in general, this findings had highlighted that generally, Asian will emphasised on experimenting before liking and then further progression to acquisition, passion and love for a brand. With this knowledge, in practical, brand owners should create awareness and prioritising brand functional values in the stage of awareness and experimenting. These two early stages are important for brands who intend to do well in Asia. Subsequently consumer will progress to the stage of liking. This is the crucial stage in consumer brand love relationship where it leads to consumer brand acquisition (purchase) decision. Once the brand is acquired, the brand utility process will be actuated and this will leads to brand passion and brand love.

Therefore, brands’ owners needs to carefully manage the consumer-brand relationship development, (i.e. frequent communications, maintaining or surpassing expectation, product/service development and innovation and after sales service). Additionally, in Asian multicultural society (i.e. Malaysia, Singapore), offers different cultural orientation (i.e. collectivism and individualism) that will probably require marketers to adopt this brand love relationship development framework through customising of their brand love relationship programme. For instance marketers could segregate and adapt specific communication themes, messages, events and strategic intentions in each of the stages of development for different cultural orientation.


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Limitation and Future Research Opportunities

This is a maiden study on consumer brand love relationship stages of development. Although this study had provide some new depth of understanding in the field of branding, however there were several limitations to be addressed. There were considerable amount of time spent in conducting this study in Malaysia and focusing only on one product category. Hopefully this study could attract more researchers to explore this framework and adapting with more product categories. This framework intended to generalise to global consumers, hopefully it could attract researchers to expand the geographical context and broaden the generalisation of this brand love relationship development framework. In addition, the cross sectional study was solely dependent on consumer reflection of their past experiences, it is reckon that a longitudinal study will be useful in order to fully understand the stages of development and the activities in each stage the consumers gone through. It is foresee that the concept of brand love will play a larger role in the theory of marketing. Hopefully this study will contribute a small part in supporting the brand building concept in marketing theories at large.

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