Up, close and intimate: qualitative inquiry into brand proximity amongst young adult consumers in emerging market

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to explore possible types of brand proximity based on respective psychological causal antecedents, and also to uncover possible marking outcomes of brand proximity.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from young adult respondents through semi-structured depth interviewing. The data were coded using a grounded theory method to interpret causal relationships between concepts.

Findings

Data coding resulted in a causal process model showing various psychological factors that would predict various brand proximity types, and also various attitudinal outcomes of brand proximity. Important emerging market context-specific findings are that the majority of Asian consumers feel emotionally close to developed foreign country originated brands, and that they use brands as a means to escape from various stress factors present in their daily lives.

Originality/value

A value of the study lies in exploring the contemporary types of psychological brand proximity and associated factors in the domain of consumer-brand relationship for the first time among Asian young adults.

Citation

Gahlot Sarkar, J. and Sarkar, A. (2016), "Up, close and intimate: qualitative inquiry into brand proximity amongst young adult consumers in emerging market", Young Consumers, Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 256-273. https://doi.org/10.1108/YC-04-2016-00593