| Brand relationships are an important aspect of consumer behavior. They allow people to move beyond behavioral loyalty and form affective bonds with the brands they use. This paper looks, specifically, at three categories of brand relationships: brand as partner, brand as self, and brand love and commitment. Having a brand as partner relationship allows the consumer to treat a branded possession as if it were a person, possibly speaking to it, caring for it, and believing that it deserves respect. Brand as self includes the belief that the brand is linked to image, creating the desire to own a brand that seems in tune with the consumers' self-concept. Brand love and commitment represents the pinnacle of brand loyalty, forgiving a brand's transgressions or quality deficiencies, and actively seeking out the brand without considering its' substitutes.; Each of these categories of brand relationships is examined in the context of immersion into a brand community. This paper hypothesizes that as consumers become immersed in a brand community each type of brand relationship becomes stronger. Study one is a qualitative study conducted at Jeep Jamborees to better understand the progression of such brand relationships. Study two follows-up with an online questionnaire directed to both owners of the brand as well as active members of the brand community to better understand the relationship between immersion and the types of brand relationships maintained by these consumers. Results of study one show that brand relationships are not only present within the community but in some cases the brand takes on properties of sacredness in the most devoted consumers. Results of study two indicate that, as hypothesized, brand relationships become stronger when consumers are affiliated with the brand communities. |
