The effect of shared brand use on brand variety seeking in romantic relationships

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to uncover the dimensions of shared brand use as a part of romantic relationships and examine the dynamics among shared brand use, brand preference similarity, brand variety seeking and relationship satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 1,820 MTurk respondents participated in four online surveys and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Findings

The findings of the study show that shared brand use has five use dimensions: special occasion, mundane, activity, nostalgia and relational identity expression; shared brand use leads to brand preference similarity that elicits increased brand variety seeking as a part of the relationship and relationship satisfaction moderates the effect of brand preference similarity on brand variety seeking.

Originality/value

Building on extant literature on branding, variety seeking and shared consumption, the authors develop a measure that captures different facets of shared brand use as a part of romantic relationships, move beyond the existing research on variety seeking in the context of experiential purchases to show how romantic relationship partners engage in purposeful brand variety seeking as a part of their romantic relationships and document that relationship satisfaction is an important factor that influences how partners purposefully engage in brand variety seeking.

Citation

Kara, S. and Vredeveld, A.J. (2020), "The effect of shared brand use on brand variety seeking in romantic relationships", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 37 No. 6, pp. 701-710. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCM-09-2019-3415