A CONSUMER-BRAND RELATIONSHIP FRAMEWORK FOR STRATEGIC BRAND MANAGEMENT By SUSAN FOURNIER A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1994 Copyright 1994 by Susan Fournier Completing a dissertation is a monumental task--a task that unavoidably dominates (and for quite some time) not only your life, but the everyday lives of all those around you. No one knows this more than Morgan, who artfully managed the burdens of my dissertation along with those of his own. How can you thank someone enough for finding the time in their own crazy schedule to selflessly help you through yours? For tolerating the bear so long in hibernation? For just being there and never giving up on you? In all honesty, I do not think I could have done it without you, Morgan. But, you know that ... ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Though penned through my own hand, this thesis has many spiritual fathers. My undergraduate faculty at UMass, who opened up the field of Marketing to me in the first place, and made me feel at home in it. Jerry Olson, who never let me forget my promise to pursue doctoral education. Young & Rubicam, the firm that granted me the opportunity to experience the problems addressed in my dissertation in their rawest form. Sandy Jap, LISREL teacher extraordinaire. The cleaning lady, whose zeal to recycle saved me from writing Chapter 8. Corinne Faure: surrogate chairperson, dearest friend. Julie Ritter, who selflessly donated her time, talent, and compassion throughout the past four years. The members of my doctoral committee, with their unwavering support of this topic and my efforts to explore it. And, of course, Richard J. Lutz, red pen and all, who, with incisive guidance at crucial turns, shaped this dissertation into something far greater than I ever imagined possible. A mentor in every sense of the word. Rich found the keys within me to bring this thesis to fruition. He would accept no credit, though much of the credit is his. A final toast to my parents. Gene and Joan, whose unwitting gift of an old school desk and some discarded text books set this entire academic endeavor in motion. Though the process has probably taken longer than they ever imagined, they lived each day with more faith in my abilities than I had myself. And they never asked anything more of me in all my years than for me to be happy. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF FIGURES xii ABSTRACT xiii CHAPTERS 1. INTRODUCTION 1 Motivation for the Research 1 A Perspective on the Problem 2 The Relationship Metaphor 3 Relationship Thinking in Marketing 5 Academic Applications of the Relationship Metaphor 8 Summary of tihe Opportunity 10 Dissertation Research Agenda 10 2. THE BRAND AS RELATIONSHIP PARTNER 14 Considering the Brand as a Partner in the Relationship 14 The Brand as Personified 14 The Brand as a Member of the Relationship Dyad 18 The Brand as Active Contributor to the Relationship 21 Implications of Adopting the BARP Perspective 23 Conclusions and Limitations 27 3. RELATIONSHIP THEORY LITERATURE REVIEW 29 What is a Relationship? 29 Interdependence 29 Temporality 31 The Tie that Binds 32 V On Relationship Development and Change 34 Relationship Evolution over Time 34 Stage Models for the Study of Relationship Development 36 Relationship formation 41 Expansion and growth 43 Relationship maintenance and stability 46 Relationship deterioration 50 Relationship dissolution 54 A Critique of Relationship Stage Models 54 Individual Differences Affecting Relationship Activity 59 Motivational Dispositions 59 Personality Traits 60 Socio-Cultural Context 62 Historical context 63 Gender 63 Age and life cycle effects 64 Conclusions 65 4. A QUALITATIVE EXPLORATION OF BRAND-PERSON RELATIONSHIPS 67 Goals of the Research 67 Method and Study Design 68 Data Analysis 70 Issues of Reliability, Validity, and Control of Biases 71 Idiographic Case Analyses 74 The Case of Jeanie 74 Jean’s Brand Relationships 80 The Case of Karen 85 Karen’s Brand Relationships 88 The Case of Vicki 94 Vicki’s Brand Relationships 96 Summary of Idiographic Analyses 102 Across-Person Analysis of Brand Relationship Phenomena 105 Do Person-Brand Relationships Exist? 105 How Do Brand-Person Relationships Develop? 109 Relationship initiation phase 109 Relationship consolidation and maintenance 112 Relationship breakdown 117 Trajectories of relationship development 118 Conclusions 120 5. THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SCALE TO MEASURE BRAND RELATIONSHIP QUALITY 122 Why Conduct Research on Brand Relationship Quality? 122 Domain Specification 124 Conceptualizations of Relationship Quality 125 VI The BRQ Construct 126 Behavioral interdependence 127 Attachment 129 Intimacy 130 Love and passion 130 Personal commitment 131 Partner quality 132 Generation and Refinement of Items to Measure BRQ 133 Data Collection 133 Analysis 135 Evidence of Convergent Validity Within Facets 136 Evidence of Discriminant Validity Across Facets 140 Assessing the Structure of the BRQ Construct 142 Additional Evidence of Validity of the BRQ Construct 146 Discussion and Conclusions 149 Theoretical Issues 150 Methodological Issues 152 Conclusions 153 6. BRAND RELATIONSHIP QUALITY CONSTRUCT VALIDATION .... 154 Objectives of the Study 154 Study Design 155 Selection of Individual Brands 156 Sample and Data Collection for Construct Validation Study 158 The BRQ Battery 159 Dependent Variables 160 Competing Explanatory Variables 161 Personal and Category Moderators 162 Analysis 163 Finalizing the BRQ Model 164 Preliminary screening 164 Refining the BRQ model 164 Convergent and discriminant validity 168 Factor Structure of the BRQ model 168 Predictive Capacity of the BRQ Measure 169 Addressing multicol linearity in the data 169 Predicting customer response outcomes with BRQ 171 Differential roles of the individual BRQ facets . 172 BRQ index versus multi-faceted conceptualization 176 BRQ predictive power versus traditional measures 177 BRQ Construct Dynamics 178 Exploring BRQ performance 179 Brand and category effects 180 Person moderators 190 Conclusions and Discussion 192 vii 7. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 260 Contributions of the Research 260 Conceptual and Theoretical Contributions 260 Does the relationship perspective really make a difference? 261 But... does the consumer-brand relationship exist? 265 Managerial Contributions of the Relationship Framework 266 Which Relationships to Pursue? 267 How to Proceed Strategically and Tactically 267 How Can Relationship Efforts be Evaluated? 273 Limitations of the Research 273 Reliability, Sensitivity, and Validity of the BRQ Measure 274 Tests Against Competing Concepts and Frameworks 277 Future Research 277 BRQ as a Moderator of Responses to Brand Transgressions 278 In-depth Focus on Relationship Forms 279 Exploring the Dynamics of Deterioration and Breakdown 280 Affecting the Relationship through Marketing Activities 281 A Note in Closing 282 APPENDIX A SURVEY MATERIALS FOR SCALE DEVELOPMENT STUDY ... 283 APPENDIX B BRAND SCREENER SURVEY 304 APPENDIX C CONSTRUCT VALIDATION STUDY MATERIALS 313 APPENDIX D SURVEY MATERIALS FOR THE TEST OF BRQ AS A MODERATOR OF REACTIONS TO BRAND TRANSGRESSIONS 328 APPENDIX E BRAND TRANSGRESSION SCENARIOS 344 REFERENCES 359 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 386 viii LIST OF TABLES Table page 2.1 A Typology of Brand Behaviors 21 2.2 A Sample of Brand Behaviors and their Likely Trait Inferences 24 4.1 A Typology of Person-Brand Relationship Forms 106 4.2 A Typology of Relationship Stressors and Disturbances 118 5.1 Reliability and Convergent Validity of the BRQ Facets 138 5.2 Goodness-of-Fit Statistics for Full and Reduced Item Sets 140 5.3 Evidence of Discriminant Validity Across the Facets 141 5.4 Fit of Alternative Structural Models 144 5.5 Factor Loadings of BRQ Facets on Second-Order BRQ Factor 145 5.6 Evidence of Concurrent Validity in Alternate Measures of BRQ 147 5.7 BRQ Facet Profiles (Mean Scores) for Different Relationship Types 148 5.8 Predictive Power of Alternative BRQ Formulations 149 6.1 Final Brand Set for Construct Validation Study 197 6.2 Item Pool Used in Construct Validation Study 198 6.3 Confirmatory Factor Analysis Results for Dependent Variables, Competing Explanatory Variables, and Person/Category Moderators 200 6.4 Descriptive Statistics for Individual BRQ Items (Arranged within their Respective Facets) 206 6.5 Evidence of Convergent Validity of the Seven Individual BRQ Facets 213 IX 6.6 Correlations Among the BRQ Facets 219 6.7 Attenuated Correlations Among the BRQ Facets 220 6.8 Evidence of Multicollinearity Among Individual BRQ Facets 221 6.9 Principle Components Analysis of the Seven BRQ Facets 222 6.10 Regression Analysis Results Summarizing the Predictive Capacity of the BRQ Measure 223 6.11 Summary of Regression Results: Predictive Roles for Individual BRQ Facets ... 224 6. 12 Regression Analysis Results for Reduced Six Facet BRQ Predictor Set 225 6.13 Internal Analysis of Supportive Customer Responses 230 6.14 Comparison of Overall Predictive Power: Brand Relationship Quality Facets Versus Brand Relationship Quality Index 232 6.15 Correlations Between the BRQ Facets and Traditional Attitude Variables 233 6.16 Comparison of Overall Predictive Power: Brand Relationship Quality Facets Versus Brand Attitude 234 6.17 Comparison of Overall Predictive Power: Brand Relationship Quality Facets Versus Brand Satisfaction 235 6.18 Hierarchical Regression Analysis Results: Incremental Valueof BRQ Facets Over Brand Attitude