Exploring Teaching Brands: A Multi-Method Study of Brand Attachment Through the Facilitation of Consumer Learning

摘要

Extant literature, using brand attachment and brand experience theoretical frameworks, speaks to the positive associations that result when consumers develop personal connections with brands. Such outcomes are linked to increased brand equity, and therefore understanding these phenomena are important. Nevertheless, there remains interesting yet unexplored questions regarding how such brand attachments develop. Do brands develop unique bonds with consumers by offering them an opportunity to learn? Does coming of age with a brand or learning new skills from a brand create a deeper emotional brand attachment? Why do consumers seem to form attachments with those brands that facilitate learning? This research builds on the brand experience literature by exploring the attachments that consumers form with brands that facilitate learning as they navigate significant life transitions. First, we explore the concept of teaching brands—those brands that connect to consumers by facilitating the learning of a new and relevant skill, agency and access, particularly during significant life transitions. We model the idea of brands as continual teachers in that they form an attachment to consumers due to their perceived ability to stimulate learning and problem solving. Second, we develop a psychometrically reliable measure of consumer perceptions of brands as teaching brands.