Brand Love of Employees: What Is It? How Is It Affected? Does It Drive Employee Brand Behavior?

Abstract

Many studies in marketing science address the emotional relationship between brands and consumers (e.g. Fournier 1998; Fournier and Yao 1997; Nobre 2011; Patwardhan and Balasubramanian 2011; Robinson and Kates 2005; Veloutsou 2007). In recent times, attention has focused particularly on constructs such as brand love or emotional brand attachment (e.g. Albert et al. 2007; Batra et al. 2012; Bergkvist and Bech-Larsen 2010; Carroll and Ahuvia 2006; Fetscherin and Conway Dato-on 2012; Heinrich et al. 2012; Thomson et al. 2005; Malär et al. 2011; Rossiter 2012). These constructs have a positive influence on behavioral constructs such as brand loyalty and word-of-mouth.