A GROUNDED THEORY APPROACH TO

INVESTIGATE CONSUMER-BRAND

RELATIONSHIPS IN INDIA

Sreejesh S

(IBS Hyderabad, India)

Dr. Subhadip Roy

(IIM Udaipur, India)

INTRODUCTION

●Brand-based differentiation is the most influential approach

for the development and maintenance of competitive

advantage.

●Literature focused on brand equity, brand personality, and

brand extensions.

●Basic premise of Consumer Brand Relationship (CBR):

Brand as an individual entity (Fournier,1998)

●Understanding the process by which consumers use

attitudinal and behavioral components in relationship

building is important

●Differentiation and comp adv based on CBR

LITERATURE REVIEW

oThere has been considerable research in CBR

(beginning from Fournier, 1998 to Park et al., 2013) in

the last fifteen years

oFournier (1998) used several interpersonal theories and

introduced a conceptual model of consumer-brand

relationships, called Brand Relationship Quality Model (BRQ).

oPark et al., (2013) proposed and empirically tested a new

model of consumer-brand relationships, called Attachment-

aversion (AA) Model.

CBR RESEARCH

●CBR influences consumer experience (Kaltcheva

and Weitz, 1999)

●Brand attachment and CBR (Thomson and Johnson,

2002)

●Brand Relationship Quality Scale (Kim et al., 2005)

●Individual or group level connections of CBR

(Swaminathan et al., 2007)

●Relationship quality and consumer brand

identification (Papista and Dimitriadis, 2012)

RESEARCH GAPS

●Models in CBR failed to give a consensus on the exact

dimensions of consumer-brand relationships (Aaker et al., 2004;

Chang and Chieng, 2006; Kressmann et al., 2006; Smit et al.,

2007).

●Use of interpersonal theories in CBR are questionable

(Bengtsson 2003).

●Failure to provide clear plan for model specification and

subsequent empirical testing (Breivik and Thorbjørnsen, 2008).

●Lack of studies for the measurement and operationalization of

CBR, that integrates attitudinal and behavioral constructs (Kim et

al., 2008).

STUDY OBJECTIVES

●To establish a new theoretical model for understanding

consumer-brand relationships following a non-metaphoric,

non-interpersonal approach.

●In course, the study would generate and integrate attitudinal

and behavioral dimensions of CBR.

●A more practical model of CBR grounded in data and

testable from the empirical point of view.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

● Methodological Paradigm: Qualitative● Grounded Theory (Strauss and Corbin, 1994).

● 26 semi-structured in-depth interviews

● Theoretical Sampling.

● Open, Axial and Selective Coding (Strauss and Corbin, 1994).

● Flint et al., (2002) procedure for trustworthiness of qualitative data.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

●Stage 1: Discovering Concepts and Categories

●14 semi-structured interviews were undertaken using 14

consumers of the study sample.

●68 unique concepts or codes were generated.

●68 concepts were grouped through constant comparison of

concepts, to reduce the number of concepts.

●The result of this phase led to the generation of four core

categories, seven categories and 68 sub-categories.

●Stage 2: Provisional Hypotheses Formulation

Four analytical steps were applied simultaneously as follows:

1. Relating subcategories to a category using statements which denote

the relationships between themselves and the phenomenon;

2. Verification of these hypotheses against actual data;

3. Identification of properties of categories and its subcategories;

4. Linking categories at the dimensional level.

●Stage 3: Hypotheses Testing and Theoretical Model

Development

●This stage of selective coding phase involved 12 semi-structured in-

depth interviews.

●Interview questions primarily developed from stage 2 results and

provisional hypotheses.

●Patterns identified and the data grouped to achieve theoretical

specificity.

●Helped in model specification and creating action diagram

DISCUSSION

●The theoretical model adds value to the existing literature in

consumer-brand relationships:

●First, it provides more comprehensive, detailed and integrated

understanding of how consumers actually form relationships with

brands than the previous study of individual constructs.

●Second, the theoretical model of CBR demonstrates how

relationship formation changes with changes in relationships and

helps to identify the most useful pathway through which consumers

might develop relationships with the brand.

IMPLICATIONS

●The study would help marketers to understand and

implement the strategic management of CBR

●Relationship establishment drivers

●Findings would assist managers for investing monetary

and non-monetary resources for relationship maintenance

and marketing communications.

●For academicians, a testable model of CBR

Thank

You