Product Type and Personality in Brand Relationships

This study investigated the influence of personality traits and the differential effect of product categories on brand love. Carroll and Ahuvia (2006) claim that it is relatively easier for hedonic and self-enhancing products to obtain brand love. Nevertheless, in relation to the field of consumer-brand relationships, contradictory findings exist regarding the effects of product category on relationship quality. Christy et al. (1996), Veloutsou (2007), and Wilson (2011) point to a positive effect for the influence of high product category involvement on the brand relationship quality, whereas Valta (2013) finds no support at all. Current empirical studies on brand love, however, focus on a single product category from rather high-involvement categories like consumer electronics or apparel (Batra et al., 2012; Rauschnabel et al., 2013). This raises the question whether brand love can only be obtained in those product categories. An application of the Rossiter–Percy grid is thus carried out to measure the direct influence of product category on brand love. Furthermore, we explore whether product category offers an additional explanation for the varying results of personality traits on relationships. We propose that product category acts as a moderator between personality and brand love. Therefore, the research questions this study will seek to answer are the following: RQ1: To what extent does personality influence brand love? RQ2: To what extent does the product category influence brand love? RQ3: To what extent does the product category moderate the relationship between personality and brand love