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This study aims to examine how brands can leverage on advergames as an interactive marketing tool to foster prosumer culture and build a sacred brand. Drawing from game theory, this research scrutinizes how advergame format (cooperative vs noncooperative) influences consumers’ perceived brand sacredness by harnessing positive brand relationship quality (BRQ) and intention to prosume. It also examines how reward types moderate the relationship between advergame format and advergamers’ BRQ.

Three different studies were conducted. Study 1 develops a measure to capture advergamers’ intention to prosume. Study 2 uses survey to collect data from brand-controlled gaming community platform. Study 3 is an experiment that uses 2 (game format: cooperative vs noncooperative) × 2 (reward type: hedonic vs utilitarian) between-subject format.

Study 1 provides a reliable and valid measure to capture “intention to prosume.” The results of Study 2 elucidate that (non) cooperative advergame format generates strong cold (hot) BRQ, leading to intention to prosume, which, in turn, drives brand sacredness. The results of Study 3 elucidate that using (utilitarian) hedonic rewards strengthens the impact of (non) cooperative advergame format on (cold) hot BRQ.

This research has examined the roles of cooperative vs noncooperative game design formats and hedonic vs utilitarian reward formats. Future research may focus on other possible advergame design formats and reward types.

This research provides insights to advergame marketers toward designing appropriate hedonic or utilitarian game rewards to strengthen the impact of cooperative vs noncooperative advergame format on brand sacredness through enhancing BRQ and intention to prosume among the target advergamers.

This research applies game theory in the advergaming context to manoeuvre game format and rewards so that a sustainable prosumption culture is built, which has strong beliefs about the sacredness of the brand.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate various factors that shape young adult consumers’ smartphone-based service app involvement and their subsequent development of brand loyalty for the app.

A survey was conducted to test the hypothesized relationships. The survey data were analyzed using SPSS-based PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2013).

The study results show that consumer can perceive an app to be largely hedonic or utilitarian, and the perceived app design (hedonic vs utilitarian) impacts consumers’ involvement with a particular service app category. Further, the findings elucidate that the impact of app hedonism on app category involvement is moderated by consumer’s surfing task orientation and the extent to which app arouses their imagination. On the other hand, the impact of app utilitarianism on app involvement is moderated by consumer’s information-seeking task orientation and perceived relevance of the information. Finally, app category involvement predicts loyalty toward a particular brand in the service app category. The effect of app involvement on brand loyalty is moderated by hot and cold brand relationship quality in cases of hedonic and utilitarian apps, respectively.

The value of this research lies in identifying relevant managerially actionable moderators that shape the relationships between perceived dominant app design (hedonic vs utilitarian), app category involvement and app brand loyalty.

This research is conducted in the context of beauty salons in India, to investigate how enhanced perceived acceptance in interpersonal relationships through consuming beauty salon services can generate narcissistic brand love among consumers via the mediation of brand happiness. It also investigates the moderating impact of consumer's anxious interpersonal attachment style and cynicism on the relationship between perceived salon brand-interpersonal acceptance goal congruence and salon brand happiness.

To test the hypothesized relationships, a survey was conducted among 225 regular consumers of beauty salon brands. The data were analyzed using Hayes' (2017) process macro in SPSS.

The results suggest that perceived goal congruence between beauty salon brand-interpersonal acceptance positively influences brand happiness, which in turn predicts consumer's narcissistic brand love. Consumer's anxious interpersonal attachment style positively moderates the effect of brand-interpersonal acceptance goal congruence on brand happiness, while cynicism negatively moderates the path.

Value of the study lies in extending interpersonal acceptance and rejection (IPAR) theory to the domain of consumer–salon brand relationship, to posit that if salon brands satisfy consumers' interpersonal acceptance goals, there is a potential for such happy consumers to love the salon brand, albeit narcissistically.

This research investigates how advergame design elements (fantasy vs realistic advergame experiences) may impact players' brand patronage (BP), under the influence of mediators (hot and cold brand relationship quality [BRQ]) and moderators (advergame reward system and brand personality).

This research comprises of a survey (study 1) and a lab experiment (study 2).

Study 1 shows that fantasy (reality) based advergame experience leads to brand patronage through strong mediation of hot (cold) BRQ and weak mediation of cold (hot) BRQ. Introducing a utilitarian (hedonic) advergame reward system positively moderates the effect of fantasy (reality) based advergame experience on cold (hot) BRQ. Study 2 shows that an advergame that elicits fantasy (realistic) experience and offers hedonic (utilitarian) rewards for a brand having affective (vs cognitive) brand personality strongly impacts hot (cold) BRQ.

This research is an effort to understand how gamification as leisure information systems may be used to create gamers' advergame experiences that elicit BP by strategically designing advergame reward systems specific to brand personality types.

The purpose of this study is to capture the strength of consumer’s perceived brand sacredness. The authors developed and validated a measurement scale composed of three related dimensions: supremacy, mesmerization and communitas.

Six empirical studies were conducted to identify the brand sacredness construct domains, develop and validate the measurement and test the nomological network between brand sacredness and it antecedent and outcome variables.

Results from a series of studies provided robust supports for the scale structure and demarcated the construct domains from other consumer–brand relationship measures. Testing of nomological validity of the scale further showed that brand sacredness is influenced by brand love, emotional brand attachment and brand loyalty and, meanwhile, provides explanatory power to predict theoretically related outcome variables, including transcendent consumer experience, defense of brand, incorporation brand in extended-self, brand ritualism and brand evangelism.

This study is based on cross-sectional survey data obtained from respondents belonging to well-established brand communities. A longitudinal study involving recent and emerging brand communities could provide an enhanced understanding of the evolution of brand sacredness with time, including brand sacralizaton process as well as possible de-sacralization process.

The study provides significant insights for brand managers to create an enduring brand and ascertain that consumers find their affiliations with the brand and make it the sacred core of their lives by fandom management through brand evangelism.

This study adds to the theory on consumer–brand relationship realm by delineating the domains of brand sacredness with its defining feature of extraordinary experience transcending an ordinary brand. It contributes to the existing body of branding and customer-based brand equity literature by incorporating the spiritual aspects of faith, passion and devotion into measuring the value of a brand.

This research aims to extend brand relationship theory to the domain of online gaming by augmenting the understanding of the role played by fantasy state in digital game in impacting gamers' immersive relationships with digital game brands. In this quest, the research examines how fantasy state in game (FSG) creates game brand immersion (GBI) through the mediation of emotional game brand attachment (EGBA) and the roles of individual's need for escapism (NE) and anxious attachment style (AAS) in moderating the aforementioned relationships.

The research employs a pre-test followed by two quantitative studies. Quantitative data were analyzed using the PROCESS macro.

Results from Study 1 illustrate that perceived fantasy in game generates EGBA, which, in turn, predicts GBI. Further, Study 2 establishes that the effect of fantasy in game on EGBA is moderated by gamer's NE. The moderating effect of NE is moderated by individual's AAS.

Value of the study lies in extending consumer–brand relationship theory to digital gaming domain which enhances the understanding of how fantasy state in digital game can lead to GBI and the roles played by individual personality characteristics like escapism motivation and AAS in the process.

This research aims to investigate if consuming fashion apparel brands for the purpose of social appearance expressiveness may garner calculative brand commitment, through the mediation of narcissistic brand love. It also tests moderation of gender for the aforementioned mediated relationship.

The research has a core qualitative component (Study 1), which focuses on an interpretivist approach using a grounded theory paradigm to analyze data (N = 37) collected from semi-structured depth interviews. It is followed by a positivist survey based enquiry (study 2), and the data (N = 245) were analyzed using Haye’s (2017) process macro.

Analysis reveals that Indian consumers fall in narcissistic love with those apparel brands that aid their quest for maintaining desirable social appearances and develop a calculative commitment toward the brands, which aid this quest. The effect of social appearance expressiveness of apparel brand on consumers’ narcissistic brand love is moderated by gender, such that female consumers (as compared to males) are more invested in consuming fashion apparel brands as a means to enhance their social appearances.

The value of this study lies in extending self-presentation theory to understand the role of consumer narcissism in shaping Indian consumers’ fashion apparel consumption. The authors investigate the narcissistic consumption orientation that evolves as a result of consumers’ desire for social self-expression, irrespective of possessing narcissism as an enduring personality trait. Thus, the findings are relevant for possibly all consumers who, given certain conditions, may temporarily develop narcissistic brand love.

Extant research evidence demonstrates that customer satisfaction in a service encounter is influenced by other customer perception (OCP). However, scholarly research on the impact of OCP on brand love and the moderating influence of customers’ attachment styles in the context of hospitality industry is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap in the literature.

The data were collected from customers of five and three-star hotels in India. Regression-based process analysis (Hayes, 2013) was used to test the proposed set of hypotheses.

The data analysis shows that OCP predicts brand love through the mediation of satisfaction. Individual’s anxious attachment style positively moderates “other customer perception-satisfaction” relationship, and avoidant attachment style negatively moderates the same relationship. Thus the effect of OCP is positively moderated by anxious attachment style, and negatively moderated by avoidant attachment style.

The value of this study lies in quantitatively investigating the roles played by OCP and individual attachment styles in shaping brand love in hospitality industry. In contrast to findings from previous research, the findings from this study suggest that anxious attachment style positively influences brand satisfaction and formation of brand love.

This study aims to examine the underlying antecedents and psychological mechanisms through which brand's communication of sustainable business practices in social media influences consumers' responsible consumption behaviour and brand relationship outcomes.

Data were collected using two surveys, from a sample of WhatsApp users (N = 632), and a sample of Facebook users (N = 471), and were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling.

The results suggest that systematic and heuristic processing of message cues about sustainable business practices communicated by the brand through online social networks influence consumers' perceptions of brand warmth and competence. These perceptions, in turn, direct consumers' responsible consumption behaviours and strengthen brand relationships. The impact of these cues is moderated by consumers' perception of the brand's motives for engaging in sustainable business practices.

The study insights can help brand managers to enhance consumers' brand-related perceptions, responsible consumption and consumer-brand relationships.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the antecedents and consequences of hospital brand attachment and associated intervening factors amongst patients and attendants in the context of the emerging Indian market where the hospital industry has a heterogeneous structure consisting of state-owned and private hospitals.

Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted to collect data. Data were coded using the grounded theory method to explore and validate interrelationships between the constructs that emerged.

Based on the data analysis, a grounded theory framework has been developed, which recognizes hospital brand attachment as the central construct, and depicts its related antecedents, consequences and intervening or moderating factors.

The study contributes to the existing body of healthcare marketing research by having discovered actionable antecedents of hospital brand attachment that could help healthcare marketers in emerging markets to formulate branding strategies that strengthen the patient–hospital brand attachment relationships. Based on the concepts explored in this qualitative study, it has been put forth that the concept of brand love or brand attachment that is well-researched in the case of general consumer brands is also applicable in the case of hospital brands, without ignoring the specific idiosyncrasies of the hospital industry.