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This paper aims to explore the impact of brand authenticity on forming self-reinforcing assets (enticing-the-self, enriching-the-self and enabling-the-self), which subsequently influence the brand-self connectedness and consumers’ behavioral intentions.

The authors surveyed 347 consumers in the USA and Brazil and used structural equation modeling to test the relationship among brand authenticity, self-reinforcing assets, brand-self connectedness and behavioral intentions.

Brand authenticity was found to influence the self-reinforcing assets. In turn, the self-reinforcing assets promoted closeness toward the brand, thereby increasing the behavioral intentions of consumers to buy a product, visit a store/website in the future and recommend the brand to other people.

Marketing practitioners can use these results to promote better brand positioning by considering brand authenticity as a key factor in how consumers cognitively assess brands.

This paper shows that brand authenticity is a key antecedent of consumer–brand self-reinforcing assets.

In recent years, the notion of consumer‐brand relationships has drawn increasing attention from both researchers and practitioners in the field of service brand marketing. However, different paradigms conceptualize and measure this notion from diversified perspectives. The current study, integrating and modifying the main concepts of different consumer‐brand relationships paradigms, proposes to test an integrative‐model.

The paper conducts an exploratory investigation and a cross‐regional survey, alongside the statistical technique of structural equation modeling, confirms the appropriateness of the entire model structure as well as the causal path pattern explicated by the proposed Strategic Management of Service Brand Relationships model.

According to the Strategic Management of Service Brand Relationships model, service brand commitment and service brand love partially mediate the effects of eight relationship components on service brand loyalty. Moreover, amid the eight relationship components, there are three components (satisfaction of affective attributes, trust, and self‐concept connection) also exercising a direct positive influence on service brand loyalty.

The Strategic Management of Service Brand Relationships model delineates the antecedents and consequence of positive service brand relationships. Specific indicators of the latent constructs as well as the causal pathways among these constructs provide strategic principles for fostering strong and durable brand loyalty through consumer‐brand relationships in the context of service brand marketing.

This paper aims to outline the role of brands as relationship builders and to offer a better understanding of the recent developments and key literature in the area of consumer–brand relationships.

This paper is an editorial based mainly on a literature review on consumer–brand relationships. It uses the sentiment range and passion intensity to position various brand relationship constructs. This work follows the same bibliometric-analysis approach used by Fetscherin and Heinrich (2014) and looked for publications in the Web of Science on brand relationships, with reference to Fournier’s (1998) seminal work and data collected for the period between January 2010 and November 2018.

First, this work presents the key consumer–brand relationship terms and positions the work on brand love, brand like, brand hate, brand dislike and brand indifference. In addition, the bibliometric analysis offers a number of insights into the current state of the academic research in the area of consumer–brand relationships, including a clear indication that the research on consumer–brand relationships is increasing.

This work and the whole special issue together help in the understanding of brands as relationship builders, clearly explaining the continuum from strong positive or negative relationships with brands to no relationship with brands and the current state of research in the area.

The purpose of this paper is to make up the deficiency of theoretical research in nostalgic marketing and is helpful for the original theories of brand marketing and experiential marketing to deepen further.

The paper uses the approach of the empirical study. Based on the literature review, a theoretical model of the impact of nostalgic emotion (NE) on brand trust and brand attachment is constructed and corresponding research hypotheses are proposed. Then nostalgia-themed restaurants are selected to complete a questionnaire survey, and SPSS22.0 and LISREL8.70 are used for data analysis and hypothesis testing.

The results of the paper show that NE consists of four dimensions in the context of China: atmosphere nostalgia, interpersonal nostalgia, family nostalgia and personal nostalgia. Among these, NE has a significant positive impact on brand trust and brand attachment; further, brand trust has a significant positive impact on brand attachment and plays a partial mediating role in the impact of NE on the latter.

As the nostalgic restaurant industry is the research object, the theoretical model described here may be limited to this specific industry. The potential applicability of the theoretical model to other service industries requires further study.

The results of the paper are helpful in building a good nostalgic experience, increasing consumer trust in restaurant brands, and strengthening the connection between NE and restaurant brand reconstruction.

The results of the paper on the impact of NE on brand trust and brand attachment provide a referential basis and guide for services’ companies (e.g. restaurants) to revitalize the services’ brands.

The first contribution is that NE scale is constructed for the nostalgia-themed restaurants. The second contribution is that the paper reveals the mechanism of the impact of NE on brand trust and brand attachment.

Fashionable brands need to develop brand attachment so that their consumers become fans and act as apostles by recommending them. But how can companies develop brand attachment? This paper aims to investigate, on the one hand, the role of four drivers of brand attachment (perceived quality, brand personality, credibility and awareness) and three effects (loyalty, buying intention and perceived risk). On the other hand, three groups of fashionable brands with different positioning strategies are compared to analyze if the brand positioning strategy moderates the proposed relationships in the analyzed country.

To achieve the two objectives, surveys with the same instrument were conducted twice, and a sample of 1,922 consumers from the three most populated cities of Ecuador (Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca) took part in the study. They chose fashionable brands with functional (n = 1,066), hedonic (n = 463) and symbolic (n = 393) positioning strategies. They mentioned, for example, functional brands such as Avon, La Lechera, Nokia or Converse; hedonic brands such as Christian Dior, Oreo, Apple or Timberland and symbolic brands such as Axe, Coca-Cola/Coke, Motorola or DBond.

The results of this study show that (1) brand positioning affects attachment, (2) a functional positioning leads to higher consumers' loyalty, (3) a hedonic positioning leads to the strongest brand personality and credibility and (4) a symbolic positioning seems to be the less useful option in terms of desired effects.

First, this paper considers three different subscenarios in launching a new product: hedonic, functional and symbolic brand positioning. The comparison of these three scenarios makes progress with respect to previous research since the connection between consumers' brand attachment and positioning brand strategy has been scarcely addressed to date. Second, no study has been found that assesses the simultaneous effect of four key antecedents capable of enhancing brand attachment (personality, quality, awareness and credibility), causing three major effects (loyalty, purchase intention and decrease in perceived risk).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the complex relationships between common bond attachment, common identity attachment, self-esteem and virtual community citizenship behavior (VCCB). This study identifies two broad categories of VCCB: citizenship behaviors directed toward benefitting other individuals (VCCBI) and citizenship behaviors directed toward benefitting the virtual community (VCCBC).

The authors apply partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses, using a sample of 388 valid responses.

The results indicate that common bond attachment and common identity attachment have a significant effect on self-esteem, which, in turn, has a significant effect on VCCBI and VCCBC. The results also indicate that common bond attachment has a significant effect on VCCBI, and that common identity attachment has a significant effect on VCCBC.

This study contributes to a better understanding of VCCBs through common identity and common-bond theory, social identity theory and the stimulus-organism-response framework.

Although consumers’ tendency to support domestic companies by buying local products is growing, few studies discuss the corporate branding for domestic brands. This study aims to help domestic brands develop corporate branding strategies by examining the effects of corporate image of domestic brands on customers’ purchase intentions.

This study investigates various aspects of corporate image, including product quality, corporate ability, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and local-customer-first (a measure that is identified in this study). It conducts a survey (N = 283) and tests eight hypotheses with bivariate regression analyses with SPSS, Hayes’ PROCESS macro and structural equation modelling with AMOS to identify significant relationships.

The results show that all aspects of corporate image have significant positive effects on customers’ purchase intentions towards domestic brands. However, the effect of CSR image on purchase intention is fully mediated by the corporate ability and product quality images, whereas consumer ethnocentrism moderates the corporate ability and local-customer-first images.

This study contributes to the literature by examining the effect of corporate image on customers’ domestic brand purchase intentions in emerging economies when the product quality image in the country is low. This study also identifies a new factor, local-customer-first, and its positive effect on purchase intention. It is recommended that domestic brands strengthen their CSR, corporate ability and local-customer-first images to gain local customers’ support. Furthermore, it is found that corporate ability and local-customer-first are more highly valued by ethnocentric consumers. These findings can help domestic brands develop corporate branding strategies.

This study aims to develop and test a theoretical model postulating that a hotel customer’s brand attachment is reinforced by positive and negative switching barriers, which, in turn, determine customer citizenship behaviour (CCB) towards hotel brands.

Surveys were conducted and completed by 233 respondents in the USA who had favourite hotel brands and used these brands in the previous year. A framework was developed based on the literature, and eight hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling.

The findings suggest that a customer’s brand attachment (brand-self connection and brand prominence) to a hotel is strengthened not only by relational benefits (positive switching barriers) but also by switching costs (negative switching barriers). Brand prominence can promote CCB, whereas the impact of brand-self connection on CCB is rather limited.

This study highlights the importance of affirmative and passive reasons for customers to remain in a relationship with the hotel brand and how sub-dimensions of switching barriers are interrelated to predict a customer’s attitude and behaviour to the brand. By emphasising the role of customers’ hotel brand attachment, this study also ascertains that cognitive and affective bonds towards a hotel brand can be significant antecedents to their extra-role behaviours.

This research contributes to the hospitality literature by expanding the realm of consumer behaviour research on switching barriers, brand attachment and CCB.

The purpose of this study is to distinguish between two types of nostalgia, examine their effect on emotions and explore the relationships between nostalgic emotions evoked by past hotel experiences and consumers’ brand attachment and willingness-to-pay.

This study was based on a sequential explanatory mixed-method design. An online scenario-based experiment was complemented with online structured interviews.

The results indicate that both personal nostalgia and historical nostalgia evoke positive emotions (upbeat/elation and warm/tender). However, emotions evoked by personal nostalgia are less intense than those evoked by historical nostalgia. Positive emotions successfully predicted brand prominence and brand-self connection. Brand prominence, but not brand-self connection, was positively related to consumers’ willingness-to-pay.

The study’s findings suggest that hotel brands that focus on creating extraordinary memories, and brands with more historical themes, elicit more positive emotions among hotel customers. This, in turn, makes customers more likely to recall that hotel brand in the future and translates into higher willingness-to-pay.

This study is among the first to establish and test a conceptual model that connects nostalgia, nostalgic emotions, brand attachment and willingness-to-pay in the hotel industry context. As such, it is a rare attempt to explain the role of personal and historical nostalgia in hospitality research.

To understand consumer brand engagement processes in luxury fashion brands. Grounded on the brand engagement in self-concept (BESC), this study examines key drivers (i.e. value co-creation, social media marketing (SMM) activities, brand self-connection and brand image) of BESC that in turn, enhance brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth (WOM) in the context of luxury fashion brands.

A descriptive survey approach was utilized and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The findings reveal that value co-creation, SMM activities and brand self-connection are significantly related to BESC and subsequently, BESC is related to both brand loyalty and positive WOM. However, brand image is not related to BESC and brand loyalty but shows a strong relationship with WOM.

The recognition that consumer experiences add significant value to a brand drives companies to engage with their consumers focusing on the self-concept.