Ciencias Administrativas, Teoría
y Praxis
Num.
2 Año 12, Julio-Diciembre 2016, pp. 211-225
You love it, i love it, too: a social
network analysis approach to brand
love1
Lo
amas, yo también lo amo: las redes
sociales como enfoque en el análisis del amor hacia las marcas
Teresa Treviño*, Flor Morton**, Carolina Robles***
Abstract
Brand love is a person’s
emotional attachment to a brand. We
propose that brand love cannot be separated from the social context in which
it exists. This paper’s objective is to analyze how different
aspects of a person’s network
influence the love that a person feels toward a brand. Our research contributes to the
existing branding literature by identifying: a) the more a
person consumes a brand, the greater love the
consumer feels toward that brand; b) men and women love (or express their love)
for brands in significantly different ways, and women are likely to express or feel greater
brand love than men;
and c) differences in consumers’ ages have an impact on brand love. Additionally, by using a personal network analysis
approach, we conclude that people who love a brand and occupy a central position
in the participant’s network have a
greater influence on the participant’s
brand love. Furthermore, the results suggest that people of the same gender as
the participant will have a greater influence on the brand love that the
participant feels as well. Overall, these findings suggest that attitudes toward brands are socially
constructed.
Keywords: brand love, reference groups, social network analysis, homophily, centrality.
Resumen
El amor
hacia una marca se refiere al apego emocional
que tiene un
consumidor hacia ésta. En
este trabajo, se
propone que el amor a la marca se debe de entender en el
contexto en el que este fenómeno existe. El objetivo del presente trabajo es analizar
cómo los diferentes aspectos de las relaciones personales de un consumidor influyen en el amor
que éste siente hacia una determinada marca.
Específicamente, nuestra investigación contribuye a
la literatura de
mercadotecnia al identificar que: a) Entre más se consuma una marca,
mayor será el apego emocional del consumidor hacia
ésta; b) los hombres y las mujeres aman (o expresan
su amor) a las marcas de diferentes maneras, siendo
las mujeres quienes tienen
mayor probabilidad de expresar el amor hacia
una marca; y c) las diferencias en las edades de los consumidores influyen en el amor hacia las
marcas. Adicionalmente, mediante un análisis de redes
personales, se concluye
que los consumidores que aman a una marca y que
ocupan una posición central en la red del participante, tienen mayor influencia
en el amor de marca que siente el participante.
Además, los resultados sugieren que la
igualdad de género entre participante y personas en su red, tiene mayor influencia
en el amor de marca que
1 Un resumen
del presente artículo fue presentado y publicado en la memoria del Tercer Coloquio
de Mercadotecnia de la EGADE Business School efectuado en Monterrey, Nuevo León, México, el 12 de Diciembre, 2013.
* Doctora en
Ciencias Administrativas, Profesora de Cátedra, Tecnológico de Monterrey. E-mail: ttreviño@itesm.mx
** Doctora en
Ciencias Administrativas, Profesora de Cátedra, Tecnológico de Monterrey. E-mail: flormorton@itesm.mx
*** Maestra en Mercadotecnia, Candidata
a Doctorado en Ciencias Administrativas, Tecnológico de Monterrey.
E-mail: crobles@tca-ss.com
Artículo recibido: 5 de febrero de 2016
Artículo aceptado: 10 de junio de 2016
dicho
participante siente. En general, estos resultados sugieren que las actitudes hacia las
marcas – especialmente el amor de marca
- se construyen socialmente.
Palabras clave: amor de marca,
grupos
de referencia, análisis de redes sociales, homofilia, centralidad.
Clasificación
JEL: M30
Introduction
Brand love
is a concept
that encapsulates the
relationship between consumers and their brands, how
this relationship is
developed and strengthened, and the consequences of this relationship. According to the
literature, brand love is equivalent to interpersonal love; a person falls in love with a brand
due to its qualities, and this love can then grow over time (Batra, Ahuvia, & Bagozzi, 2012). Previous
research has focused
on studying brand love as an individual behavior that a
person develops. Other research has addressed the antecedents and consequences
of brand love, such as brand loyalty and positive word-of- mouth (Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006).
However, what remains unclear is how other
individuals influence consumers in
this area, encouraging them to fall and/or stay in love with a brand. We propose that brand love cannot be
separated from the social context in which it exists.
The literature on reference group theory
is a
relevant basis for this research. It is said that people
tend to compare themselves with others because the latter serve as a source of
information that facilitates decision-making and
criteria selection. Using
reference group theory to analyze consumer behavior
is interesting, as previous
research has shown that there is congruency between group membership and brand
usage (Escalas & Bettman, 2003).
Some concepts
from social network theory can also be used to examine
how the characteristics of the members of a person’s network influence this person’s decisions with respect to brands.
More specifically, homophily, which suggests that people with similar
characteristics tend to interact more frequently,
and centrality, which recognizes the influence of the
most central person in a network, may be relevant to the concept of brand love.
Additionally, concordantly to literature on social networks, in
this paper we refer to the focal node
as “ego” and “alters” to
the nodes to which the ego is directly connected
(Borgatti, Mehra, Brass, & Labianca, 2009).
This
paper’s objective is to analyze how different aspects of a person’s network
influence the love that this person
feels for a brand. In our
research, we attempt to understand how the characteristics of the members in a
person’s close network affect the love that this person feels for
a brand.
This paper
is structured as follows. The first section addresses the literature
on brand love and references concepts from group theory and social network
theory that help to form a foundation for the present
research. The second section presents the methodology used to collect and analyze the data.
The third section presents the results
of the statistical analysis. Next, the findings are discussed. Finally, the implications of the results are
described, and possibilities for further research are suggested.
Literature
review
Brand
love
The choice
of one brand
over another presents an opportunity for consumers to show
themselves to others as they are or as they wish to be (Parker, 2009). Brands reinforce how consumers
see themselves; consumers choose brands that are congruent with their
self-image (Maehle, Otnes, &
Supphellen,
2011). Self-congruity
theory explains that consumers prefer
brands that have a symbolic meaning that matches their self-perception;
consumers become more emotionally attached to brands that are congruent with what they are,
want, or wish to be (Govers & Schoormans,
2005; Sirgy,
1982).
Aaker and
Fournier (1995) argued
that “the brand is treated as an active, contributing partner in the dyadic
relationship that exists
between the person
and the brand” (Aaker & Fournier, 1995,
p. 393). Previous
research has established that consumers develop
a sense of security by
creating connections with their brands
and that they
develop relationships with their
brands as they do with other people (Fournier,
1998). Brand love is a feeling within the consumer-brand relationship and is
often described as having elements, characteristics, and dimensions that are
similar to those of interpersonal love (Batra et al., 2012).
According to Batra et al. (2012),
the elements of the brand
love prototype are antecedents, the core, and consequences. The antecedents
of brand love are what cause consumers
to fall in love with a brand: the brand’s
exemplary qualities (Batra, et al., 2012). The core of brand love is the consumer’s
feelings for the brand, and the elements of the consumer- brand relationship that might deepen
that bond are: (1) strongly
held values and existential meaning, (2) intrinsic rewards, (3) self-identity, (4)
positive affect,
(5) passionate desire
and a sense of natural fit, (6) emotional bonding and anticipated
heartbreak, (7) willingness to invest, (8) frequent thought and use, and (9)
length of use (Batra, et al., 2012). Finally,
the consequences of brand love are the consumer actions and
intentions that are
associated with brand love: (1) repurchase intentions, (2) willingness
to pay a higher price, (3) positive word-of-mouth (WOM), and (4)
resistance to negative information
(Batra, et al., 2012).
Because the
repurchase or frequent use of items by a particular brand reflects
a consumer’s loyalty to the brand and because consumer loyalty
is highly correlated with brand love (Carroll &
Ahuvia, 2006), we hypothesize that the
more a person visits or consumes the brand´s beverages, the greater his/her
brand love for that company will be.
H1: The more the ego
visits/consumes the brand (Ego Frequency), the greater the ego’s brand love.
Past
research suggests that men and women differently
express emotions such as happiness, sadness, loneliness, and
love,
indicating that women tend to
express these emotions more than
men do (Balswick
& Avertt, 1977; Brody, 1985; Simpson
& Stroh,
2004). For
example, the results of a study of the gender differences in self-rated emotional expressiveness show
that, in general, women have
significantly higher confidence in expressing their love or affection to males than vice versa (Blier
& Blier-Wilson, 1989). Additionally,
because previous research in marketing describes brand love as having
characteristics, elements, and
dimensions that are similar to those of interpersonal love (Batra et
al., 2012), we believe that men and women will also differently
express their love of particular brands. More
specifically, we hypothesize that
women will express greater brand love than men.
H2: Women (Ego Female) will be more likely to express brand love than men.
Other
research about brand behavior and choice has shown that age is positively
related to brand loyalty, which means that older people tend to exhibit more loyal behavior
toward brands. Previous studies about age and brand behaviors show
that “middle-aged” people are more likely to express high
loyalty to brands (Wood, 2004).
Because loyalty is one variable that is related to brand love,
indicating strong attachment to a particular brand, we propose that this
age-loyalty phenomenon can also be applied to brand love.
Therefore, we hypothesize the
following:
H3: The older the ego is (Ego
Age), the more brand love the ego will express.
Reference groups
A reference group can be described as a social group that is
important to a person and against
which he or she
compares himself or herself.
Using reference group theory to analyze consumer behavior
is interesting given that previous research has shown that there
is congruency between
group membership and brand usage
(Escalas & Bettman, 2003). Because consumers use other people as
information sources, they also evaluate
their
beliefs and decisions by comparing those
beliefs and decisions with those of other individuals. We argue that consumers actively construct
their preferences and, more importantly,
their love for brands using their reference groups as
a source of information.
This conjecture is based
on the theory that people tend to behave
in a manner that appears consistent with the choices of the social group to
which they belong.
Two types of reference groups have been identified in previous research. The first group is the
normative referents, which include parents, peers and teachers. Because the
members in this group interact directly,
they influence the individual’s attitudes,
values and norms. Research
has proposed that family members in particular are likely
to be of greater importance to the individual because individuals tend to
identify more closely with their families. The second group comprises the comparative referents, which include
people such as celebrities and professional athletes. Although individuals do not have direct contact with these referents, they
provide aspirational behaviors and standards that others emulate (Childers
& Rao, 1992).
The literature
also suggests that
society can influence purchase decisions. Specifically for products
that are classified as high in social
involvement, the influence
of one’s social group on brand
choice has been found to be significant (Witt & Bruce, 1972). Because the
selected brand for this study
can be considered a brand that involves socialization, we propose that the
influence of the group members in a person’s close
network and the degree to which
those members love this brand will influence
that person’s brand love. In other words, if A (ego) has close friends, family, or coworkers (alters) who love this brand, the more likely it is that s/he will love the brand as well.
Social networks
Centrality
Centrality is one of the most important structural attributes of social networks. The concept of
centrality has been
widely
discussed,
and
it can be described as the node or point
in a network that occupies the most central position. A person who is positioned
on the central node is expected
to be structurally more
central than any other person in the network (Freeman, 1978). There are several
measures that can be used to analyze centrality, such as degree, betweenness, and closeness.
The concept of centrality is relevant
to this research because we suggest that a person’s structural position will help to determine his/her level of
influence. For example, if A is a central person in
the network of his/her friend B, then A will influence B to a greater degree. Therefore, we hypothesize the following:
H4: The more central the network position
of an alter who loves the brand (Central Alter Brand Love), the greater the brand love of the ego.
Homophily
Homophily is a phenomenon
in which contact between similar people
occurs more frequently than contact among dissimilar
people (McPherson, Smith-Lovin, & Cook, 2001). This concept is especially interesting in the context of this
research because we are attempting to study how people who engage in a specific
behavior (consuming one brand and loving
it) influence another person’s brand
consumption and love. Previous
research has found that the demographic characteristics of a
person, such as age and gender,
usually show substantial homophily (McPherson, et. A., 2001). In other
words, people of the same sex and age will tend to interact more frequently. In a study of young boys and girls, it
was found that boys tend to play
with other boys
and that girls tend to socialize with other girls.
Interestingly, girls were shown to
interact with smaller and more homogeneous groups (McPherson, et. Al., 2001). With
respect to age, studies have also shown that social groups tend to form based on their members’ ages and that these groups may vary depending on the
type of ties involved. In the case of friendship, age is one of the dimensions that seem to have a stronger
influence on homophily (McPherson, et al.,
2001). Taking
previous
findings
about
age
and sex
into consideration, we
hypothesize that because women tend to have smaller, more homogeneous and closer networks,
the members of their group will influence their brand love decisions to a
greater degree.
H5: If the alter is the same gender as the ego, the more the alter loves the brand (Alter Gender
Brand Love), the greater the ego’s
brand love.
Finally,
because the interaction
between the variables is relevant, we also hypothesize that brand love can
be understood in terms of several variables, as the following hypothesis
describes:
H6: Brand love depends on (a)
Alter Gender Brand Love, (b) Central Alter Brand Love, (c) Ego Frequency, (d) Ego Age,
and (e) Ego Female.
Figure 1: Brand love
proposed model
Methodology
To
test our hypotheses, we used a personal network analysis methodology. The three
authors conducted individual interviews with the study participants as part of the data collection
process. Individual responses were documented using the EGONET program, a software
program that was designed to collect and analyze egocentric network data. This
program facilitated the creation of the questionnaire and the data collection
process while also providing general global network measures that
we used for
further analysis in SPSS. We
selected a popular American
coffeehouse brand as the focus of our analysis because this brand has several
important characteristics. First, because
of
its
more
than 23,000
stores
worldwide,
the
brand
is
considered a well-known brand in
Mexico and around the world. All
of the participants in the study
were very familiar
with the brand,
even if they were non-users or non-frequent users of
the brand’s products. Second,
this brand is characterized
for being an enabler and promoter of social interaction between people;
achieved by the special and personalized experience they provide in all their
store locations.
A
basic
procedure
for
network
data
is
to get respondents (egos) to identify other people (alters) to whom they are
directly related and then to ask the ego if the alters
are related in some way (Borgatti et al., 2009). Therefore, in this research
participants were asked several questions
about their brand love
for this particular brand and were asked
to name 15 persons (alters) with whom they interact often. Then, answers to questions about each alter and his/her
attitudes toward the brand were recorded, along with answers to questions about the interactions between the participant-alter pairs. To conclude
the interview, the
network graph was shown
to the participants and then discussed. In general, all of the participants
agreed that the social groups to which they belonged were accurately represented. In total, 40 participants
were invited to be part of the experiment following a convenience and snowball
sample technique. Since each of the 40 participants (“egos”) answered
information about other 15 people, we have information about 600 alters. The
interviews were conducted by the three authors, in the city of Monterrey, Mexico. This city is characterized by having strong influence
by the US culture, due to the closeness to the American border. Additionally, all participants belong to a medium-high socioeconomic status.
The distribution of the sample
was 42.5% male and 57.5% female; their ages ranged
from 15 to 55 years, with an average of 32 years
(SD =
12.05) (for additional demographic information, see Annex1). The participants’ responses
were later grouped and
analyzed using a
series of linear regressions
in SPSS to
determine the influence of several variables on brand love and the frequency of consumption of the
brand’s products.
The
interview was divided into three sections. First, the participant’s personal information was collected,
such as demographics and frequency of attending the brand’s
stores. Additionally,
this part of the
interview also focused on measuring brand love. For this construct, items
were selected from previous
instruments that were intended to measure brand love
(Carroll
&
Ahuvia,
2006; Batr et
al., 2012). More specifically, six
items were used to measure brand love in this research: a) Ego Love (How much do you love to go to this brand’s stores?), b) Ego Wellbeing (How good does going to this brand’s stores make you feel?), c) Ego Happiness
(How happy does going to this brand’s
stores make you feel?), d) Ego Fan (How much of a this
brand’s fan do
you consider yourself?), e) Ego Competition (When you are searching for a coffee shop, how often do you wait until you find this brand’s stores instead of going to the first coffee shop you see?, and f) Ego Price (Do
you feel this brand is worth the higher price?). All items were measured using
a five-point Likert scale. As the original
instruments were in English,
we used qualitative
approaches to construct our instrument: collaborative approach and back
translation to capture the same essence of the questions in Spanish (Brislin,
1976; Douglas & Craig, 2007). Although our
sample is small, and therefore
this study may be considered as explorative in
nature, a reliability test was conducted to determine whether these items
measure brand love as intended. The Cronbach’s Alpha was
.923,
which suggested that the items used in the questionnaire could be used to
obtain a valid measure of brand love.
The second
part of the interview considered the network information, in
which participants were asked to mention fifteen persons (also known as
“alters”) that he/she considers his/ her
closest relationships. We specifically asked participants to mention
people from different activities and
groups in which they belong, in order to improve the criteria of independence of observations.
Additionally, several
characteristics for each of the “alters” were
collected, such as
age, gender, type and strength
of relationship, and the extent to which the participant believe
this person (“alter”) loves the brand under study. Finally, the software
EGONET allows us to question
whether different pairs of the
mentioned alters are likely to interact without the person (ego) being present. This is especially useful to
construct the network and relationships around the main participant. To see the complete
interview questions, please see Annex
2.
Results
Analyzing the individual networks of participants revealed some similarities among the
participants; however,
the participants also differed in important ways that are worth discussing. For example, two types of networks
were identified.
On the one hand, we identified a very dispersed network in which two or more
groups were clearly separated (See Figure 2). People in one group were not connected
to people in the other groups. The participants who were members of this type of network were
usually involved in several activities that did not require interaction among
people in various groups. On the other hand, there were
also participants who reported
belonging to very close networks
in which all or nearly
all of the people knew each other or interacted in some way amongst themselves (See Figure 3). Participants who were members of this
type of network usually had one main activity in which they could involve family, friends and other acquaintances.
Figure 2: Dispersed
network Figure 3: Single group network
To test H1, H3, H4, and H5, we conducted correlation analyses for
Ego Brand Love and Ego Frequency (H1), Ego
Age (H3), Central Alter Brand Love (H4), and Alter Gender
Brand Love (H5). The results
of these correlation analyses show significant
(p=.000) positive correlations between each variable and brand love, providing
support for the four hypotheses (See Annex
3).
To test H2, we compared the means for brand love for men and women. The results of a Student
t-test show that there are significant differences between the two groups’
means for brand love (p=.000), with a mean of 2.382 (SD=.764) for the
men and 3.688 (SD= 1.199) for the women. This finding provides support for H2, suggesting that women show
greater brand love than men.
Finally, to test H6, we conducted a multiple
regression analysis with brand love as the dependent variable and Alter Same Gender
Brand Love, Central Alter Brand
Love, Ego Frequency, Ego Female, and Ego Age as the independent variables. The model was run
using 600 observations (previously explained); this model explained a
considerable percentage of the variation in the dependent variable, with R2 =
.515. In addition, all of the
independent variables were significant at a .01 significance level (See
Annex 4 and 5). More specifically, based on the coefficients of the regression we found that:
(1) the more the ego visits/consumes the
brand, the more the ego’s brand love (ßegofrecuency= .117, t=6.806, p<.01); (2)
women expressed more brand love than man (ßegofemale= .831, t=10.736,
p<.01); (3)
the older the ego, the more brand love (ßegoage=.010, t=3.211, p<.01); the more central an
alter who loves the brand, the more ego’s brand
love
(ßaltercentralbrandlove=
.003, t=3.693, p<.01);
and
(4)
the
more
an
alter of the same gender as the
ego loves the brand, the more the ego’s
love for the brand (ßaltersamegenderbrandlove=.220, t=10.379, p<.01). (See Figure 4 for the complete model).
Figure 4: Brand love
model
Discussions
and conclusions
To understand how other individuals encourage consumers to fall in love and/or stay in love with a brand, we analyzed the different
aspects of a consumer’s personal
network. Based on this research, we conclude that the love that
consumers feel toward
a brand is influenced
by others, and more specifically, by
the characteristics of the persons in their network. These findings are
congruent with reference groups literature, as previous studies have
suggested that decisions
to select a
brand can be influenced
by society, especially when the
brand is classified as high in social involvement, or is publicly
consumed (Childers
& Rao, 1992).
Additionally, previous research suggested that the construct of social identity within
a brand community context, influence brand identification.
This phenomenon occurs because increased identification with a particular brand
community or group leads to greater involvement with the brand (Bergkvist
& Bech-Larsen, 2010). In line with these ideas,
this research is one of the first
to consider and measure the consumer’s close social ties and analyzes their
influence on brand love.
In
the first phase of our study, we
analyzed the personal characteristics of the ego that influence his/her brand
love toward this brand. First, we found that the more the consumer
visits/consumes the brand, the more brand love the
consumer feels for the brand. This finding supported
our theory regarding
brand love and repurchase
intentions (Batra, et al., 2012; Carroll &
Ahuvia, 2006). More specifically, literature has suggested that consumer
trust and satisfaction with a brand have an impact on purchase intentions
(Zboja
&
Voorhees,
2006). Findings
of this research
allow us to
expand this
knowledge, by considering
not only satisfaction and
trust as determinants of repurchase intentions, but
also stronger emotional bonds - brand love.
Additionally, this results
may offer managers the vision that
focusing on developing more emotional bonds with their consumers is important to achieve
desirable post-purchase behaviors (Carroll &
Ahuvia,
2006).
Second,
we found that men and women love (or express their love) significantly differently, and
that women are
more likely to express or feel
brand love than men are. This is congruent with previous
literature
on gender and brand relationships, as it has been identified that women exhibit more and stronger interpersonal
relationships and brand involvements
(Fournier, 1998). Finally, consistent with the brand loyalty
literature, we concluded that the older
the consumer is, the more
likely it is that s/he will feel and/or express brand love.
In
the second part of our research, we analyzed the characteristics of consumer
networks that might
influence their love
for the brand. First, we analyzed the centrality of the alters because the most central person in a network may have more influence than
the other network members
(Freeman, 1978). In a
consumer’s
(an ego’s) personal network, the central person (the central
alter) is the one who occupies the middle of the ego’s network, and this individual has a higher probability of
knowing and interacting with the rest of the alters. Validating this centrality theory, we conclude that if an alter who loves a brand has a more central network position,
the ego will feel greater love for the brand. Second, because people with
similar characteristics tend to interact
more frequently with each other (homophily), (McPherson, et. al,
2001), we concluded that if the alter is
the same gender as the ego, then the more the alter loves the brand, the
greater the ego’s brand love will
be.
Overall,
the proposed model explains how consumers’ personal and social (network) characteristics influence brand
love. We conclude that all of the
previously discussed variables combine to influence the brand love that consumers
feel. These variables include how frequent the consumer
visits/consumes the brand, whether the consumer is a man or a woman, the consumer’s
age, the brand love of the central alter,
and whether the alter is the same gender as the consumer.
Implications, limitations and future research
The findings
obtained in this study may have important theoretical and
managerial implications. In suggesting
that attitudes toward brands are
socially constructed, we attempt to contribute to brand love theory by
generating discussion and further research on this topic. Hopefully, the research
presented in this paper will represent one of the first of many attempts
to consider the social influence that people have on other individuals’
feelings and emotions about brands. Managers and marketing practitioners can
also benefit from this paper’s results.
If it is understood that brand
love develops from consumer interactions with others, specific communication
strategies can be designed that promote social gatherings related to the brand.
Naturally, this research is not without
limitations. First, a
relatively small sample was
used in this first attempt to
study this phenomenon. Additional analysis
with a larger sample of personal networks may generate more conclusive
results. Second, because the methodology employed in this investigation was
quantitative, we were unable to develop a full understanding of the phenomenon
at play. Future research
could use an emic approach to study how a person’s network influences his/her brand love.
Finally, because the participants
answered questions about their perceptions of the feelings that the members of
their networks had
about the brand,
we did not directly measure the alters’ brand love. This is a popular methodology for social
networks studies, however, our
database of 600 observations was constructed by 40 participants that
answer questions about their
known alters. Additionally, we cannot ignore the fact that people from the
same “group” or network tend to be similar among them, meaning that they are
likely to not be independent observations per se. Considering all this, our results should be treated as explorative in nature, emphasizing the overall
hypotheses of this paper. Therefore, next steps for this research could
consider directly interviewing the members of each participant’s
network to
explore the entire network, and/or utilizing other complex statistical analysis
to obtain a more accurate measurement of the construct.
Finally, this research could also be expanded through analyses of other brands that have fewer social
implications, such as
toothpaste brands. These brands are not
consumed during social interaction; however,
close family and friends may still recommend these brands. If such research is conducted,
it will
be interesting to
compare the results for brand love that are obtained for
different product categories.
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Annex 1
Participants
Demographics
Annex 2
Interview
in EGONET
Part I. Ego’s Personal Information
1.
Participant’s gender.
2.
Participant’s age.
3.
How many times a week, approximately,
do you attend to this brand’s
stores?
Brand love scale (Likert Scale, 5
points)
1.
How much do you love to go to this brand’s
stores?
2.
How good does going to this brand’s
stores make you feel?
3.
How happy does going to this brand’s
stores make you feel?
4.
How much of this brand fan do you consider yourself?
5. When you are searching for a coffee shop, how often do you wait until you find this brand’s
store instead of going to the first coffee
shop you see?
6.
Do you feel this brand is worth the higher price?
Part II. Network Information
Now, please mention
15 persons that you consider
are your closest
relationships. You can mention
friends, family and people from different
groups and activities you have.
Characteristics
of each Alter:
1. Age
2.
Gender
3. Type
of relationship: Family, friend,
work friend, other.
4.
How important is this person for you.
5.
How many times a week do you see this person.
6.
How frequent to you attend this brand’s
stores with this person?
7.
How much do you think this person loves this brand?
Part III. Relationship Information
Between
actors - for each pair of alters:
1.
How likely is that these two persons interact or relate among them without you
being present?
Annex 3 Correlation Analysis |
|
|||
|
EF
EA |
CABL |
AGBL |
EBL |
EF Pearson Correlation |
.244** |
.104* |
.343** |
.478** |
Sig. (2-tailed) |
o |
0.011 |
o |
o |
N |
600
600 |
600 |
600 |
600 |
EFEM Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) |
.321** 0.034 o 0.411 |
.120** 0.003 |
.338** o |
.529** o |
N |
600
600 |
600 |
600 |
600 |
EA Pearson Correlation |
.244** |
.119** |
.222** |
.249** |
Sig. (2-tailed) |
o |
0.003 |
o |
o |
N |
600
600 |
600 |
600 |
600 |
CABL Pearson Correlation |
.104* .119** |
|
.116** |
.193** |
Sig. (2-tailed) |
o 0.003 |
|
0.004 |
o |
N |
600
600 |
600 |
600 |
600 |
AGBL Pearson Correlation |
.343** .222** |
.116** |
|
.557** |
Sig. (2-tailed) |
o o |
0.004 |
|
o |
N |
600
600 |
600 |
600 |
600 |
EBL Pearson Correlation |
.478** .249** |
.193** |
.557** |
|
Sig. (2-tailed) |
o o |
o |
o |
|
N |
600
600 |
600 |
600 |
600 |
Note: **Correlation is significant |
at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) |
|
|
|
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level
(2-tailed)
EF= Ego Frequency, EA= Ego Age, CABL= Central Alter Brand Lave, AGBL=Alter
Gender Brand
Lave, EBL=Ego Brand Love
Annex 4
Regression Brand Love Model
Annex 5
Regression analysis-ANOVAb