Brand and Consumer-brand Relationships
A brand exists in the minds of consumers (de Chernatony & Dall’Olmo Riley, 1998) and the relationships with consumers and brands are proven in the most varied scenarios (Fetscherin, Cayolla, Guzmán, & Veloutsou, 2016; Fetscherin, Guzman, Veloutsou, & Cayolla, 2019). In a sports context, markedly emotional, brand love reflects one of the extreme characteristics of the consumer attachment to the brand (Ahuvia, 1993, 2005; Batra, Ahuvia, & Bagozzi, 2012). Regardless of the market in which it operates, any company wants to be positively perceived by consumers (Keller, 2016). In addition, a brand that is distinguished and recognized in the market before a whole set of players is one of the greatest assets of any company (Davcik, da Silva, & Hair, 2015). Despite the lack of consensus on the definition of brand (Jones & Bonevac, 2013), a brand reflects a complex entity providing meaning to the product to which it is linked, either in terms of the characteristics facilitating the consumer’s decision-making process, or in terms of a set of associations created in the minds of consumers (de Chernatony & Dall’Olmo Riley, 1998). A strong brand is supposed to generate commitment and loyalty (Veloutsou, 2015), by building long-term relationships with consumers (Fournier, 1998). Consumer-brand relationships is a bidirectional mode (i.e., between the consumer and the brand), and can encompass numerous relationships (Loureiro, 2012; Cayolla, Loureiro & Reis, 2020), and perceptions are a key issue in the relationship forged (Breivik & Thorbjørnsen, 2008).