Is love really blind? The effect of emotional brand attachment on the perceived risk of really new products
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-09-2018-2005 |
| Pages | 81-96 |
| Date | 01 July 2019 |
| Published date | 01 July 2019 |
| Author | Khaled Aboulnasr,Gina A. Tran |
Is love really blind? The effect of emotional
brand attachment on the perceived
risk of really new products
Khaled Aboulnasr and Gina A. Tran
Department of Marketing, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, Florida, USA
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of emotional brand attachment in consumers’evaluation of new products that
represent technological innovation.
Design/methodology/approach –A quantitative study was conducted using survey data from a nationally representative probability sample of US
consumers (n= 624) to understand the role of emotional brand attachment in the context of consumers’evaluation of really new products (RNPs). A
framework was developed and tested using structural equation modeling that included emotional brand attachment, brand trust, product
incongruity, product familiarity, perceived risk, willingness to try, product evaluation and word-of-mouth intent ions.
Findings –The results support the role of emotional brand attachment in the diffusion of RNPs. Specifically, results indicated that increased brand
attachment reduces consumers’perceived risk associated with a RNP and increases brand trust. Both constructs played a key role in shaping
willingness to try the innovation, word-of-mouth intentions and product evaluation. Findings of this paper add explanatory power to demand-
prediction models that more accurately describe the mechanism of the innovation adoption process. For marketing managers, the results emphasize
the importance of consumer–brand emotional connections.
Research limitations/implications –The paper used a cross-sectional design; it would be interesting to use a longitudinal design to examine if the
role of emotional brand attachment changes over time and how the changes might impact consumers’per ceptions and behaviors in the context of
RNPs.
Originality/value –This is the first paper to explore the role of emotional brand attachment in the context of RNPs and consumers’potential
behavioral outcomes.
Keywords Innovation, Product evaluation, Perceived risk, Brand attachment, Emotional branding, Word of mouth, Willingness to try,
Really new products
Paper type Research paper
Disney was ranked highest on the list of brands with the
strongest emotional bonds with consumers followed by Apple
and Amazon according to the 2019 Brand Intimacy Study
(http://mblm.com/lab/brandintimacy-study). This comes as no
surprise given that major brands are increasingly looking to
foster strong emotional connections with their customers.
According to the same study, the top 10 ranking firms
consistently outperformed S&P and Fortune 500 indices for
revenue and profit growth over a ten-year period (MBLM,
2019).
Conceptualized as a construct that captures brand passion,
love and affection (Hung and Lu, 2018), emotional brand
attachment has mainly been investigated within the
overarching context of relationship marketing (Japutra et al.,
2014). It is within this paradigm that consumers were found to
establish relationships, identify and develop emotional
connections with brands in a manner analogous to
interpersonal relationships (Fetscherin et al., 2019;Hung,
2014;Veloutsou, 2015). These emotional bonds were
identified as a source of competitive competency, a powerful
driver of brand equity and to have a critical impact on a firm’s
financial success and corporate well-being(Hung, 2014;Malär
et al.,2011). Emotions experienced by consumers toward a
brand were found to be a key indicator of the strength of the
consumer–brand relationship (Karjaluoto et al., 2016). Given
the significant influence of consumers’emotional attachment
to brands on a broad range of crucial businessoutcomes such as
brand loyalty, willingness to pay a higher price and word-of-
mouth, the topic has deservingly received increasing attention
from academic researchers as well as marketing practitioners
(Jiménez and Voss, 2014;Karjaluoto et al.,2016;Park et al.,
2010). Extant research has been investigating the antecedents
and consequences of successful consumer–brand emotional
connections (Hung and Lu, 2018;Japutra et al.,2014;Roy
et al.,2013).
While prior research has shed light on important
consequences of brand attachment, little is known about the
Thecurrentissueandfulltextarchiveofthisjournalisavailableon
Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
29/1 (2020) 81–96
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-09-2018-2005]
Received 1 September2018
Revised 24 September 2018
14 March 2019
13 May 2019
Accepted 18 May 2019
81
role of such emotional attachment in the context of new
product introductions. The purpose of the current study is to
extend prior research by investigating the role of emotional
brand attachmentindeveloping consumers’perceptionsto new
products that represent radical technological innovation. It
answers to calls urging for investigatingthe role of brands in the
diffusion of innovation process (Brexendorf et al.,2015).
Specifically, the presentstudy aims at exploring the mechanism
through which emotional brand attachment influences
consumers’responses to technological innovation through
reducing perceived risk and building brand trust. Innovation is
considered an essential engineof growth for many firms (Slater
et al.,2014). It represents a key source of building competitive
advantage and generating sustainable financial returns.
However, technological innovation also involves a significant
level of risk related to market acceptance (Colombo et al.,
2017). This is particularly true of reallynew products (RNPs).
Compared to other types of product introductions, RNPs are
innovations that incorporate substantively different technology
and provide consumers with significantly greater benefits
compared to existing products (Hoeffler, 2003;Nielsen et al.,
2018). Despite the projected returns and the potential
opportunities, RNPs are often fraught with higher levels of
uncertainty compared to other types of product introductions.
Combined with a limited knowledgeof the new technology and
the difficulty with which to estimate their usefulness,RNPs are
often assigned a much greater level of perceived risk by
consumers (Colomboet al., 2017;Hoeffler, 2003).
Although there have been recent attempts to investigate the
role of emotions in theestablished adoptionof technological
innovations literature (Chaudhuri and Micu, 2014;
Chaudhuri et al.,2010;Wood and Moreau, 2006), this
emergent stream has completely overlooked the effect of
emotional brand attachment. Similarly, the growing
literature on consumers’attachment to brands has not
examined the role of emotional attachment in the successful
diffusion of RNPs. As such, in the present contribution, we
expand and connect the two research streams.
The present research seeks to make several important
contributions. First, this study addresses a notable gap in the
literature on the diffusion of innovation through the recognition
of the important but overlooked role of emotional brand
attachment in the diffusion process. From a theoretical
perspective, ideas from both Attachment Theory (Bowlby, 1979)
and Affect-as-information Theory (Clore and Palmer, 2009)are
used to argue that emotional brand attachment has a significant
impact on consumers’acceptance of RN Ps. By examining the
role of brand attachment in consumers’perceptions of RNPs,
this research provides a greater focus on the specific dynamics
that underlie the adoption of technologically new products.
Novel hypotheses a re developed that describe how emot ional
brand attachment pl ays a critical role in reducin g the negative
effect of perceived risk associated with RNPs. To the best of
the authors’knowledge, no prior research has investigated
this relationship. We build on the extensive research in the
area of social psycho logy revealing that judgments of ris k and
benefits are influenced by experienced emotions (Scherer
et al., 2018).
Second, the model developed in this paper (see Figure 1)
challenges conventional wisdom and questions prior
assumptions suggestingthat brand attachment only plays a role
when there is a perceived fit between the new product and the
parent brand. The assumption is that the categorization of
the new product is determined by the degree of similarity to the
parent brand category of products and that affect towards the
brand transfers to the new product only when the similarity is
moderate to high (Fedorikhin et al., 2008). However, the
present research demonstrates that emotional brand
attachment plays a significant role in consumers’response to
products classified as RNPs, which by definition are
incongruous with any existing product category. This effect
takes place through the reduction of the perceived risk
associated with the RNP as well as the enhancement of the
perceived trustassociated with the brand introducing the RNP.
Third, mixed findings in the literature regarding the cause
and effect relationship between emotional brand attachment
and brand trust are addressed. There have been disparate
conclusions as to whetherbrand attachment is a determinant or
an outcome of brand trust (Japutra et al.,2014;Loureiro et al.,
2012). Findings of the present study lend support to the
argument that emotional brand attachment is an important
driver of brand trust.
The balance of this paper is organized as follows.In the next
section, the conceptual framework is discussed and five
hypotheses are developed that address the role of emotional
brand attachment, brand trust and perceived risk in shaping
consumers’response to RNPs. The method and procedures
used for data collection and analysis is then presented. This is
followed by a presentation of the results of the structural
equation model. Next, we present a discussion of the study
findings including the marketing implications for scholarship
and practice. Finally, the paper concludeswith asection on the
study limitationsand future research avenues.
Conceptual framework
The model presented in this paperis primarily grounded in the
all-embracing Attachment Theory. Attachment refers to an
“emotion-laden target-specific bond between a person and a
specific object”(Thomsonet al.,2005, pp. 77-78). Attachment
Theory suggests that emotionalattachment to an object is a
predictor of the nature of the relationship between an
individual and the object. The intensity of this emotional
connection determines the extent of affection and passion the
individual experiences towards the object (Bowlby, 1979).
Figure 1Research model
Emotional
Brand
Attachment
Incongruity
Brand Trust
Perceived
Risk
Willingness
to Tr
y
Word of
Mouth
Product
Evaluation
Familiarity with
Innovation
H3 (+)
H1 (+)
H2 (–)
H5a (+)
H5b (+)
H5c(+)
H4a (
–)H4b (–)
H4c (–)
(Control)
(Control)
Effect of emotional brand attachment
Khaled Aboulnasr and Gina A. Tran
Journal of Product & Brand Management
Volume 29 · Number 1 · 2020 · 81–96
82
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