”Why don’t you have your own car?” : A master thesis investingating how Access-based consumption creates consumer-brand relationships for car brands.

Ownership-based consumption mode has been perceived as the normative ideal in how consumer-brand relationships are created. Today, Access-based consumption mode allows consumers to access brands among other consumers without needing to sole- or joint own them. Even though its popularity, there is a limited and quite unclear understanding of how Access-based consumption affects the consumer-brand relationship. The purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent an Access-based consumption mode creates a consumer-brand relationship, compared to an Ownership- based consumption mode in the context of car brands. In order to fulfill our purpose, both a quantitative and qualitative research method was conducted on members of carpools representing Access-based consumption mode, and car owners representing Ownership-based consumption. A theoretical framework Brand Relationship Quality, composed of six dimensions was used to understand the consumer-brand relationship. Our research shows consistently that Access-based consumption creates a weaker relationship between consumers and car brands in all dimensions of BRQ-model compared to Ownership-based consumption. One group of dimensions identified to relate to emotional attachment; Intimacy, Brand-Self Connection and Love/Passion, have relatively higher difference between the two consumption modes. Another group of dimensions related to values of functionality and practicality; Commitment, Brand Partner Quality and Interdependence, have less difference.