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The purpose of this study is to investigate how consumer brand engagement (CBE) promotes brand love and eWOM within the influence of brand interactivity and consumer involvement, especially in the context of the smartphone industry and Chinese social media marketing. This study also examines the important role of brand love and gender in this relationship.

Data from 403 participants who are followers of the smartphone brand’s social media page was collected via an online survey. PLS-SEM was also used for examining the research model.

The findings of this research reveal that the (perceived) brand interactivity, and consumer involvement, are key factors influence CBE. As expected, brand love and consumers’ eWOM intention are significant outcomes of CBE. In particular, the relationship between CBE and consumers’ eWOM intention is mediated by brand love. However, gender did not moderate the proposed relationships.

By integrating social exchange theory and attribution theory, this study deepens the understanding of CBE and brand love by examining the relationship between brand interactivity, consumer involvement, CBE, brand love and eWOM in the context of smartphone and Chinese social media marketing.

In the competitive realm of destination branding, understanding the factors that lead tourists to develop a deep emotional connection with a destination’s brand is essential. At the heart of this emotional bond lies destination brand love – an exceptionally profound sentiment transcending mere satisfaction or preference. This concept has recently garnered attention from both tourism academia and industry practice. However, there remains a void in exploring the factors and mechanisms that pave the way for tourists to develop deep affection for a destination’s brand. This study examines the influences of self-congruence and destination immersion on destination brand love. In addition, the linkages from the four facets of self-congruence to destination brand love via the mediating role of destination brand immersion are also scrutinized.

With data collected from 421 tourists in Vietnam, the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was applied to test the research model and hypotheses.

The results reveal that (1) ideal and ideal social self-congruence impact destination brand love, (2) all four facets of self-congruence impact destination brand immersion and (3) there is an indirect effect of the four facets of self-congruence on destination brand love, mediated by destination brand immersion.

The study’s findings provide evidence that destination characteristics must be symbolic of the destination brand and consistent with its image among tourists, which is essential in understanding the complex behavior of tourists. Indeed, the results indicate that facets of self-congruence significantly influence both destination brand immersion and destination brand love. Therefore, destination marketers should develop marketing strategies that emphasize personal relevance to the tourist destination to increase their sympathy and love for the destination.

Adapting self-congruence theory and the psychology of flow theory, this study presents a model that elucidates both the direct and indirect relationships among the four facets of self-congruence: destination brand immersion and destination brand love based on the aspects of congruence between tourists and destinations. From this, it helps to explore the factors and mechanisms that pave the way for tourists to develop deep affection for a destination’s brand.

This paper aims to identify the mechanism through which consumer empowerment, created via the Facebook brand page (FBBP), is transformed into brand page stickiness. Specifically, a model examining the mediating role of FBBP experience and the moderating role of brand love is proposed and tested.

Data from 283 FBBP users were analyzed using structural equation modeling with partial least squares.

The findings reveal the positive effect of consumer empowerment and brand page experience on brand page stickiness. The mediating role of brand page experience and the moderating role of brand love were prominent in the consumer empowerment–brand page stickiness link.

This paper is novel in inaugurating the association between consumer empowerment and FBBP stickiness, which is mediated by brand experience and moderated with brand love. This paper enriches the understanding of how brand page stickiness can be enhanced in the social media context.

This paper guides managers to best utilize FBBP to create a pleasant experience and yield stickiness.

This paper aims to explore the effectiveness of ethnically targeted ads in developing consumer–brand relationships through an application of social identification theory and elaboration likelihood model among African American consumers in the service sector.

Study 1 used a 2 (service type: hedonic vs utilitarian) × 2 (strength of ethnic identification: high vs low) between-subjects experimental design. Study 2 used the same experimental design, procedure and ads as Study 1.

Taken together, the findings from these two studies demonstrate how ethnically targeted advertising, in conjunction with service type, can influence consumer–brand relationships. The results showed that those with high strength of ethnic identification had more brand love, as well as higher intentions to spread positive word-of-mouth, purchase intention and brand loyalty for hedonic services, but that this effect was not significant for utilitarian services.

The environments in which advertisements appear (e.g. in an in-store display or a magazine advertisement) is important, and consumers’ reactions to targeted ads in various environments should be considered in future research. Future studies should also examine the role of individuals’ personality traits and level of acculturation in determining their relationships with brands.

Across two studies, the authors demonstrated that ethnic ads are more effective for African American individuals with high level of ethnic identification especially for hedonic services.

The present study aims to deepen the understanding of the relationship between nostalgic brand positioning, nostalgic brand relationship dimensions and brand love.

This study is based on the data collected from 401 citizens of Tehran aged over 18 years old. Respondents admitted that they have felt love for at least one Iranian brand in their lives. The data collected from a questionnaire and the hypothesized relationships were analyzed using the partial least squares approach using Smart PLS.

The results showed that nostalgic brand positioning positively and significantly impacts nostalgic brand relationship dimensions. Also, there was a positive and significant relationship between nostalgic brand relationship dimensions and brand love. Nostalgic brand positioning has a significant effect on brand love through the mediating role of the nostalgic brand relationship.

The major contribution of this research is that, based on the construal level theory and literature review, the authors developed a conceptual model in which nostalgic brand relationship dimensions, i.e. emotional attachment, brand local iconness, and brand authenticity, explain how nostalgic brand positioning results in brand love.

This study aims to understand how brand personality affects purchase intention through brand love and perceived quality in e-commerce.

Three hundred forty-eight users of e-commerce sites in New Delhi, India, were surveyed for the study. The data set was examined using confirmatory factor analysis, and the research hypotheses were assessed using structural equation modeling.

Two important conclusions emerged from the study. First, brand love and perceived quality have been considerably and favorably influenced by all six dimensions of brand personality of e-commerce brands. Second, the purchase intention toward the e-commerce sites is significantly and positively impacted by brand love and perceived quality.

This study by exploring various dimensions of brand personality, will assist e-commerce executives in increasing purchase intention toward the e-retailing sites.

This research is supposed to be the foremost to look at how brand personality, through brand love and perceived quality affects purchase intention toward e-commerce websites. The attachment theory is used in this study as a theoretical foundation for linking e-commerce brand personality to customers’ purchase intentions via brand love and perceived quality.

Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study aims to investigate the impact of online customer engagement on brand love via dual mediating mechanisms, empowerment (bright side) and stress (dark side). The roles of perceived brand quality and extroversion as weakener and facilitator respectively on the dark side effect are also examined.

An online survey is conducted, targeting people who have experience in participating in online engagement activities. The dual mediation and moderation analysis are examined.

The results confirm the proposed dual mediating mechanisms. Perceived brand quality and extroversion also significantly moderate the engagement–stress link.

This study explains the mediating mechanisms between online customer engagement and brand love, with a focus on the fast-moving consumer goods industry. This calls for further research on other industries.

This study provides marketers with insights that online customer engagement strategies are not always good and that they should be more careful in formulating such strategies.

This study advances the understanding of the relationship between customer engagement and brand love in the virtual community especially in the social media context.

This study aims to examine the moderating effect of sustainability marketing on brand loyalty of brands that advertise their sustainable development agenda goals. The study highlights the mediating effect of brand love having cognitive antecedents of brand authenticity, popularity and congruence with private and social self of the consumer.

A mall intercept survey was used to collect data from consumers who use brands that embrace sustainable marketing strategies. Only those brands were selected which are popular as well as advertise sustainable practices in their brand communication (mainstream and social media). The data was self-administered by trained research assistants, who gathered data from a sample of 350 respondents.

The findings revealed that the popularity and authenticity of a brand play an essential role in developing brand love and later influences brand loyalty behavior. A larger effect is seen on brand love when there is congruence of private and social self with the brand. The brand has even a stronger relationship with brand loyalty when moderated by sustainability marketing.

Brand love has the potential for long-term influences, only if sustainability marketing is used as a backbone. Brand managers should target an authenticity-seeking segment of consumers, who once convinced can lead to repeat business and brand loyalty and reduce dissonance. As sustainability marketing provides multiple benefits, genuine branding strategies should be devised that amalgamate into a single message spun around sustainability concerns and connecting the ethos of authenticity, popularity and self-expression. Future research may take into consideration more categories than this study on clothing, and consumer goods, adopting a mixed-methods approach. Moreover, a range of potential antecedents of brand love can be determined along with potential outcomes when aligned with external efforts such as sustainability, corporate social responsibility and international investment.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study investigating the moderating role of sustainability marketing on the relationship between brand love and brand loyalty and the mediating role of brand love between brand authenticity, popularity, social/private-self-expression and brand loyalty. It is also the first study documenting how sustainability marketing reinforces the brand loyalty for popular brands in developing countries like Pakistan. This study fills a research gap as it expands the existing literature on sustainability marketing and brand love that is generally focused on brand dimensions and not the brand communications and thus has not reached similar results.

This study aims to add to the understanding of the interactive nature of brand love by using a multilayer perspective that incorporates individual, group and societal contexts.

The qualitative empirical study uses abductive reasoning. Its theories and conclusions are grounded in naturally occurring data from an online brand community. The approach revealed new interactive processes of brand love.

This study extends our understanding of the interactive nature of brand love by adopting a layered perspective incorporating micro- (individual), meso- (in-group), macro- (in-group vs out-group) and mega-layer (societal) social dynamics that complements the predominant focus on individual psychological processes. It challenges the linear, monodirectional trajectory approach to brand love, suggesting that brand love is in constant flux as individuals move across the layers in their identification with the brand.

This study provides data from one destination brand in Finland. Future studies could consider other types of brands and contexts in other countries and cultures.

This study shows brand managers that brand lovers can be divided into subgroups with distinct drivers of their love to which brand managers should attend.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to describe the interactive nature of brand love through interactions between and within four layers of brand love. Furthermore, this study enhances our understanding of the contradictory aspects of brand love.

This study aims to analyze the mediating effect of brand love (BRL) on the relationship between service quality and brand addiction (BRA) among Islamic banks. Past studies have noted that customer satisfaction as the primary means of studying customer behaviour needs to be reconsidered because even satisfied customer switch brands, and the dissatisfied customer have repurchasing intentions. Therefore, considering BRL and BRA can be a new way of studying customer behaviour in Islamic banking.

This study used a structured questionnaire administered to 380 customers of Islamic banks. The study used structural equation modelling and Process Macro test in the analysis.

The empirical findings of this study suggest that service quality is positively and significantly related to BRL and that BRL positively and significantly relates to BRA. Furthermore, the findings indicate that BRL mediates the relationship between service quality and BRA.

The findings of this study have revealed that the triangular theory of love and expectation-confirmation theory can be combined to explain the relationship between service quality and loving relationships among customers of Islamic banks.

The study provides ways in which service providers can use service qualities to manage BRL and addiction. Based on the positive and significant relationships, managers of Islamic banks can build service qualities that are vital for creating BRL and BRA.

The link between service quality, BRL and BRA is not adequately established, especially in Islamic banking. This is important to be established because studying consumer psychology is currently considered a vital strategy for customer repurchasing and switching barriers in the modern banking business. Furthermore, integrating two theories, the triangular theory of love and expectation-confirmation theory, provide a new way of combining two theoretical aspects from different disciplines.