Are customers naturally attracted to brands? A core social motives scale for measuring brand engagement

Abstract

Purpose

To extend consumer–brand relationship research to the satisfaction of social needs, we introduce a new construct to assess consumer propensity to develop brand relationships based on the satisfaction of social needs through brands and provide a scale to measure this construct.

Design/methodology/approach

We implement a two-stage procedure based on the literature and expert judgments to formulate questions based on questionnaire data, and refinement processes and validation analyses are applied to measure the validity and reliability of the scale.

Findings

We developed a scale for measuring consumer propensity for establishing brand relationships that covers five dimensions: belonging, control, understanding, self-enhancement and trust. The scale was validated and found to be reliable.

Research limitations/implications

This research could benefit from model testing using samples from outside the USA, thus incorporating the role of culture and considering behavioral outputs.

Practical implications

The identification and operationalization of the propensity to relate to brands are important in market segmentation for more efficiently deepening brand relationships. Additionally, this conceptualization improves our understanding of the elements that contribute to the relationship between brands and consumers: belonging, control, understanding, self-enhancement and trust.

Originality/value

Although the consumer–brand relationship is recognized in the literature, the satisfaction of social needs via this relationship has been ignored. This paper aims to enhance our understanding of person–brand relationships by proposing a scheme for analyzing the degree of need satisfaction facilitated by this relationship.

Citation

Llanos, G.R. (2024), "Are customers naturally attracted to brands? A core social motives scale for measuring brand engagement", Kybernetes, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-12-2023-2622