Brand Relationship When Fournier Describes the Relationship

Brand Relationship

When Fournier describes the relationship that consumers have with a brand, she is referring to the attributes that consumers ascribe to that brand and then relate to. These attributes go beyond the attributes of the product itself, such that the brand can be transferred from one product to another. An example of a brand with which consumers have a high degree of relationship would be Body Shop, to which consumers often ascribe a set of values -- all Body Shop products receive these attributes to the consumer. Thus, the consumer is purchasing Body Shop first and an individual product second. Aisner (1999) discusses the concept in conjunction with New Coke. The strong relationship that people had with Coca-Cola backfired on the company, because consumers rejected a change to the product on the basis that it was not consistent with their view of the product.

In the fast food industry, some brands have more successfully created relationships than others. One of the best is McDonald's. The former creates a relationship with consumers beginning at an early age. This relationship evolves as the consumer grows older, but McDonald's always seeks to be a source of comfort and reliability to the consumer. The consumer then is more likely to have a positive view of McDonalds and is more likely to turn to the company's restaurants in times when there are a variety of similar choices. When the company faced a wave of negative publicity, consumers were publicly claiming to dislike the company, but subconsciously they still yearned for the comforting McDonalds they knew from their childhood (Mitchinson, 2010). By contrast I do not see that consumers have a strong relationship with, say, Lay's potato chips. One of the reasons for this is that both Lay's product and brand are not very well differentiated. The consumer is unlikely to ascribe attributes to Lay's, but would choose the brand more on account of its strong distribution and on account of familiarity with the product. Many consumers who take their chips seriously do not eat Lay's, for example, preferring to form relationships with boutique and underdog brands.

3. I do not think that customers have relationships with all brands. I do, however, think that companies generally want customers to have relationships with their brands. From the consumer's point-of-view, however, relationships with companies are akin to relationships with people. We meet a lot of people, but only strike up relationships with a handful of them. In my experience, the same holds true of companies. Most companies make very little impact on our psyche. However, those that do can have a strong impact.