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Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research Author(s): Susan Fournier Source: The Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Mar., 1998), pp. 343-373 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2489622 Accessed: 29/09/2010 18:31 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpress. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Consumer Research. http://www.jstor.org Consumers and Brands: Their Relationship Theory in Consumer eve lopin esearch SUSAN FOURNIER* Although the relationship metaphor dominates contemporary marketing thought and practice, surprisingly little empirical work has been conducted on relational phenomena in the consumer products domain, particularly at the level of the brand. In this article, the author: (1 ) argues for the validity of the relationship proposition in the consumer-brand context, including a debate as to the legitimacy of the brand as an active relationship partner and empirical support for the phenomenological significance of consumer-brand bonds; (2) provides a framework for characterizing and better understanding the types of relationships consumers form with brands; and (3) inducts from the data the concept of brand relationship quality, a diagnostic tool for conceptualizing and evaluating relationship strength. Three in-depth case studies inform this agenda, their interpretation guided by an integrative review of the literatureon person-to-person relationships. Insights offered through application of inducted concepts to two relevant research domains-brand loyalty and brand personality-are advanced in closing. The exercise is intended to urge fellow researchers to refine, test, and augment the working hypotheses suggested herein and to progress toward these goals with confidence in the validity of the relationship premise at the level of consumers' lived experiences with their brands. has focused on bona fide partnerships formed between persons, with the bulk of published studies concerninig manufacturer-supplierand service-provider partnerships as a result (Berry 1983; Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh 1987). The brand loyalty literatureis perhaps most capable of informing theory concerning consumer-brand relationships. This research stream has stagnatedof late, however (Lehmann 1996), with the majorityof insights and contributions generated before the emergence of methods capable of truly informing the phenomenology of consumerbrand bonds (SherTy 1987). Although "loyalty" itself is a fertile relationship concept, its nuances have been lost in traditional brand loyalty research. Operationalizations relying on sequence or proportion of purchase perhaps better reflect a notion of inertia than loyalty with its full relational significance. Even well-intentioned attempts to consider loyalty as more than repeat purchase (Jacoby and Chestnut 1978) reduce the process to "narrowly cognitive utilitariandecision-making," thus failing to capture "the talismanic relationships consumers form with that which is consumed" (Belk, Wallendorf, and Sherry 1989, p. 31). Conceptualizing loyalty as a long-term, committed, and affect-laden partnershiphas also constrainedrelationship-inspired insight by implicitly encouraging ignorance of the many other potentially valuable relationship forms that may characterize consumer-brandbonds. As a result, the basic questions of whether, why, and in what forms consumers seek and value ongoing relationships with brands remain largely unanswered (Webster elationship principles have virtually replaced shortterm exchange notions in both marketing thought (Webster 1992) and practice (Peppers and Rogers 1993), precipitati'ngwhat has been considered a paradigm shift for the field as a whole (Deighton 1996). Despite increased acceptance and relevance, it can be argued that the relationshipperspective has been vastly underTealized in the marketing literature. The limited work that exists largely informs relationship marketing practice as opposed to the development of relationshipmarketingtheory (Sheth and Parvatiyar 1995). In a sense, the field has leapt ahead to application of relationship ideas and the assumption of relationship benefits without proper development of the core construct involved. Particularlylacking are relationship-inspiredstudies in consumer as opposed to business markets, especially those concerning the consumer product domain (Sheth and Parvatiyar 1995). Empirical research concerning relationships formed at the level of the brand has been especially scant. Understandably, relationship research *Susan Fournier is assistant professor of business administration at HarvardUniversity GraduateSchool of Business Administration, Cambridge, MA 02163. This article evolved from the author's dissertation at the University of Florida. Special thanks are extended to the author's thesis committee (Richard J. Lutz, chair; Greg Neimeyer; Alan Sawyer; and Barton Weitz), to David Mick, to the JCR reviewers and editors who helped shape the manuscript, and, above all, to the three women who shared the stories that inspired this work. 343 ? 1998 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inic. 0 Vol. 24 * March 1998 All rights reserved. 0093-5301/98/2404-0001$03.00 344 1992). Valuable exceptions exist (see, e.g., Blackston 1993; McCracken 1993; Olsen 1993, 1995; Schouten and McAlexander 1995), yet existing work stops short of developing a grounded and fully articulatedrelationshipbased frameworkfor the study of consumer-brandinteractions. The interpersonalrelationships literaturecapable of informing this task has been scarcely used in the consumer behavior field. While a significant literature on people and their special possessions has evolved (Ahuvia 1993; Belk 1988; Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton 1981; Douglas and Isherwood 1979; Richins 1994; Wallendorf and Arnould 1988), this work concerns relationship theory only indirectly, if at all. Construct labels are borrowed from the relationship paradigmwithout explicit consideration of interpersonal theory to develop those constructs (see, e.g., Ball and Tasaki [1992] and Kleine, Kleine, and Allen [1995] on attachment). Others capitalize upon fundamental relationship tenets without explicit development of theoretic relationship implications per se (e.g., Blackston's [1993] treatment of the brand as relationship partner). Researcherswho have applied interpersonal relationshiptheories to the study of consumer-object interactionshave been highly selective in their treatments. Theories of love (Shimp and Madden 1988), commitment (Dick 1988), and trust (Hess 1995) receive the bulk of researchers' attention to the exclusion of other important relationship constructs. None have yet offered a comprehensive relationship-orientedview of consumer-brandinteractions one that starts with basic relationship principles and builds an integrative framework to explain and explore the form and dynamics of those interactions in everyday life. The present article provides a framework for better understandingthe relationships consumers form with the brands they know and use. The intent of the exercise is to develop a solid conceptual foundation from which brand relationship theory can be cultivated and to illustrate portions of this framework as a way of demonstratingutility of the consumer-brandrelationship idea as a whole. Toward this end, the author argues that (1) brands can and do serve as viable relationship partners; (2) consumerbrand relationships are valid at the level of lived experience; and (3) consumer-brandrelationships can be specified in many ways using a rich conceptual vocabulary that is both theoretically and managerially useful. Collectively, the argumentssupportthe potential of theoretically sound relationship applications in the brand context. The thick descriptions contained herein yield insight not only into theories of symbolic consumption but into those of brand loyalty and brand personality as well, generating many productive avenues for future research. The exercise is intended to urge fellow researchers to, refine, test, and augment the relationship-inspired working hypotheses (Guba 1981) presented herein and to progress toward these goals with confidence in the validity of the relationship premise in the consumer-branddomain. True to its discovery-oriented task (Wells 1993), the investigation is exploratory and descriptive in flavor. JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH Three purposively selected case studies inform the research agenda. Four core conditions that qualify relationships in the interpersonaldomain (Hinde 1995) serve as broadly construed, a priori themes by which the study is designed, analysis is guided, and arguments are structured: (1) relationships involve reciprocal exchange between active and interdependentrelationshippartners;(2) relationships are purposive, involving at their core the provision of meanings to the persons who engage them; (3) relationships are multiplex phenomena: they range across several dimensions and take many forms, providing a range of possible benefits for their participants;and (4) relationships are process phenomena:they evolve and change over a series of interactions and in response to fluctuations in the contextual environment. The sections below provide a selective review of the literaturethat informs the a priori themes of reciprocity, meaning provision, multiplicity, and temporality. First, theories of animism and impression formation are marshaled in support of an argumentfor the brand as a reciprocating relationshippartner.This argumentis instrumental to the article: it grantslicense to pursue the relationship proposition to its fullest conclusion and provides an anchor around which a framework relationship strength is later structured.The literaturereview for conditions 2-4 exposes the reader to important relational concepts and propositions, grounding study design and analysis procedures. Case stories are analyzed around these central tenets, the exposition of which reveals the phenomenology of relationships in the consumer-branddomain. CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS The Brand as Relationship Partner For a relationship to truly exist, interdependence between partnersmust be evident: that is, the partnersmust collectively affect, define, and redefine the relationship (Hinde 1979). The premise that consumer actions affect relationship form and dynamics is easily accepted. Comfort in thinking about the brand not as a passive object of marketing transactions but as an active, contributing member of the relationship dyad is a matter more deserving of note. One way to legitimize the brand-as-partneris to highlight ways in which brands are animated, humanized, or somehow personalized. The human activity of anthropomorphizing inanimate objects has been identified as a universal in virtually all societies (Brown 1991). Theories of animism (Gilmore 1919; McDougall 1911; Nida and Smalley 1959; Tylor 1874) suggest that there exists a felt need to anthropomorphizeobjects in orderto facilitate interactionswith the nonmaterialworld. Consumers show no difficulty in consistently assigning personality qualities to inanimate brand objects (Aaker 1997), in thinking about brands as if they were human characters (Levy 1985; Plummer 1985), or in assuming the perspective of the brand in order to articulate their own relationship CONSUMERS AND THEIR BRANDS views (Blackston 1993). Consumers' acceptance of advertisers' attempts to humanize brands and their tendencies to animate products of their own accord suggest a willingness to entertain brands as vital members of the relationship dyad. Theories of animism provide insight into the specific ways in which the vitality of the brand can be realized in the relationship.Three process mechanisms are implied in these earlier writings, each varying in the degree to which the humnancondition is approximated. The first animistic form involves instances in which the brand is somehow possessed by the spirit of a past or present other. The use of spokespeople in advertising (e.g., Bill Cosby for Jell-O) qualifies here as an example. Spokespersons may have personalities that so strongly fit those of the brands they advertise that the brand, in a sense, becomes the spokesperson with repeated association over time. McCracken's (1989) idea that spokespersons are effective because they deliver the spirit of the endorserthrough product usage reflects this theory. Brand-person associations of a more personal natureare also common. A brand of air freshener that grandmotherkept in her bathroom, a floor cleaner that an ex-husband always used-these brands can become so strongly associated with the pastother that the person's spirit comes to dwell in the brand and is evoked reliably with each use. Brands originally received as gifts (McGrath and Sherry 1993) are likely infused with the spirit of the giver as well, with these person associations again serving to animate the brand as a vital entity in the consumer's mind. Another form of animism involves complete anthropomorphization of the brand object itself, with transference of the human qualities of emotionality, thought, and volition. Anthropomorphizedbrandcharactersserve as examples. Charlie the Tuna and the Pillsbury Doughboy are identifiable characters endowed with the capacity to laugh, joke, scheme, and conspire. In a variation on this animistic form, limited human qualities are attributedto the brand, though the brand itself is not enlivened as a thinking, feeling entity. Research on person-object relations reveals thatpeople assign selective humanproperties to a range of consumer goods (Belk 1988; Rook 1985, 1987), most notable among them tools, food, drink,clothing, weaponry (Gilmore 1919), and household technologies (Mick and Fournier 1998). For the brandto serve as legitimate relationshippartner, it must surpass the personification qualification and actually behave as an active, contributingmember of the dyad. Marketing actions conducted under the rubric of interactive and addressablecommunications qualify the brand as a reciprocatingpartner.Animated brandcharactersalso satisfy the activity criterion through their performances. It is argued, however, that the brand need not engage these blatant strategies to qualify as active relationship partner. At a broad level of abstraction, the everyday execution of marketingplans and tactics can be construed as behaviors performedby the brandacting in its relationship role. Research on impression formation (Srull and 345 Wyer 1989) suggests that all observed behaviors are translated into trait language and that these traits form the basis for the evaluative concept of the person. Olson and Allen (1995) applied this theory to explain how brand personality develops from the actions of brand characters in advertising. A logical extension of this thinking is to view all marketingactions as a set of behavioral incidents from which trait inferences about the brand are made and through which the brand's personality is actualized. This importantconceptual point-that the everyday execution of marketing mix decisions constitutes a set of behaviors enacted on behalf of the brand-forms a cornerstone of the relationship argument. With a focus on brand behavior, one can articulate a theory of how the brand relationship role is constructedand begin to see ways in which the brand, acting as an enlivened partnerin the relationship, contributes to the initiation, maintenance, and destruction of consumer-brandrelationship bonds. Undoubtedly, there exists a lack of parallelism in applying the reciprocity criterion to an inanimate brand object. A brand may enjoy selected animistic properties, but it is not a vital entity. In fact, the brand has no objective existence at all: it is simply a collection of perceptions held in the mind of the consumer. The brand cannot act or think or feel except throughthe activities of the manager that administers it. In accepting the behavioral significance of marketingactions, one accepts the legitimacy of the brand as contributing relationship partner. A weaker form of the argumentdraws comparisons between consumer-brandrelationships and human relationships involving partnersthat lack tangible vitality or mortal status (see, e.g., Caughey [1984] on relationships between fans and movie stars; Buber [1946] on relationships with God or mortal status; Hirschman [1994] on people's relationships with pets). These works lend credibility to the idea of extending the partnershipanalogue into the brand domain as well. Relationships: ProvidinrgMeanings in Psycho-Socio-Cultural Context At their core, relationships are purposive: they add and structuremeaning,sin a person's life (Berscheid and Peplau 1983; Hinde 1995). The development of per-sonality depends in large part on relationships forged with others (Kelley 1986). Meaningful relationships can change selfconcept through expansion into new domains (Aron and Aron 1996) or reinforce self-concept throughmechanisms of self-worth and self-esteem (Aron, Paris, and Aron 1995). This meaning-provision notion is accepted by consumer researcherswho study possessions and their broad consequences for self-definition (Belk 1988; Holt 1995; Kleine et al. 1995; McCracken 1988; Richins 1994; Sirgy 1982; Wallendorf and Arnould 1988). Since the relationship is, in essence, what the relationship means, understanding a given relationship requires a mastery of the meanings the relationship provides to the person who engages it. Three important sources of 346 meaning the psychological, the sociocultural, and the relational are identified, each serving as a context that shapes the significance of the relationship for the person involved. Relationships both affect, and are affected by, the contexts in which they are embedded. A fruitful way to map the psychological context of a given relationship is to specify the identity activity in which the relationship is grounded. Considering the work of Mick and Buhl (1992) and others (Cantor and Zirkel 1990), three central connection points in a goal-based personality framework can be specified. First, relationships may help resolve life themes-profound existential concerns or tensions that individuals address in daily life (Csikszentmihalyi and Beattie 1979). Though they may operate below the level of conscious awareness, life themes are deeply rooted in personal history and are thus highly central to one's core concept of self. A relationship may also deliver on importantlife projects or tasks (Cantor et al. 1987; Caspi 1987; Erikson 1950). Life projects involve the construction, maintenance, and dissolution of key life roles that significantly alter one's concept of self, as with role-changing events (e.g., college graduation), age-graded undertakings(e.g., retirement), or stage transitions (e.g., midlife crisis). Most concrete and temporally bounded are relationshipsrooted in currentconcerns, a series of discrete, interrelatedactivities directed toward completion of daily tasks (Klinger 1987; Little 1989). It is easy to conjecture how relationships can connect at different levels of the goal hierarchy:a parent-childrelation may help resolve an existential life theme of marginality versus significance, for example, while a functional relationship with one's day-care provider may service a career project or current concern. It is important to note that relationships may add significant meanings to the lives of the persons who engage them at each level or depth of the operative goal connection. Prior research highlights five broad sociocultural contexts circumscribing relationship attitudes and behaviors: age/cohort, life cycle, gender, family/social network, and culture (Dion and Dion 1996; Gilligan, Lyons, and Hanmer 1990; Levinger 1995; Milardo and Wellman 1992; Stueve and Gerson 1977). These factors systematically influence the strength of relationship drives, the types of relationships desired, the nature and experience of emotional expression in relationships, styles of interacting within relationships, the ease with which relationships are initiated and terminatedand the degree to which enduring commitments are sought. The importance of sociocultural context is mirroredin consumer research concerning the socially embedded character of consumption meanings and preferences (Holbrook 1993; Holt 1997; Olsen 1995; Sherry 1991; Thompson 1996). In thinking about the significance of an individual relationship it is also important to consider the networked nature of the phenomenon. Relationships exist within the context of other relationships (Parks and Eggert 1991 ). The idea that the meaning of a given relationship is inextricably entwined with other relationships in the portfolio JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH is echoed in consumer research concerning the complementarity of consumption constellations (McCracken 1988; Solomon and Assael 1988) and the cultural meaning of "brandscapes" in materialist society (SherTy 1987). Relationships as Multiplex Phenomena Relationship research must be acutely sensitive to variations in form (Berscheid and Peplau 1983). The distinctions between relationship classes in the interpersonal sphere are so profound that specialists dedicated to the study of specific relationship types have emerged (e.g., Hayes [1988] on friendship and Kelley et al. [1983] on close relationships). Some have found it useful to collapse across forms to study core relationship dimensions. Relationships are frequently distinguished by the nature of the benefits they furnish to their participants (Weiss 1974; Wright 1974). Socioemotional provisions include psychosocial identity functions (e.g., reassurance of selfworth, announcement of image, and social integration) as well as the rewards of stimulation, security, guidance, nurturance, assistance, and social support; instrumental provisions are functionally tied to the attainmentof'objective, short-term goals. Relationships are also distinguished by the types of bonds that join parties together. These may be substantively grounded (as with task, obligation, or investment bonds) or emotionally based, the latter ranging in intensity from superficial affect to simple liking, friendly affection, passionate love, and addictive obsession (Fehr and Russell 1991; Sternberg 1986). Otherdominantrelationshipdimensions include kin (nonvoluntary) versus nonkin (voluntary), formal (role-related) versus informal, equal versus unequal, and friendly versus hostile (Wish, Deutsch, and Kaplan 1976). Relationships in Dynamic Perspective Temporalitydistinguishes the relationshipfrom the isolated transaction(Berscheid and Peplau 1983). Relationships are constituted of a series of repeated exchanges between two parties known to each other; they evolve in response to these interactions and to fluctuations in the contextual environment. For purposes of study, researchers generally decompose the continuous process of relationship development into manageable growth segments. Most adopt a five-phased model of initiation, growth, maintenance, deterioration, and dissolution (Levinger 1983), wherein each stage is one interval in a sequence of changes in type (e.g., evolution from friends to lovers) or level. of intensity (e.g., an increase or decrease in emotional involvement). Theories differ in the number of stages that are posited, the nature of the processes presumed critical for development at each stage (e.g., intimacy, love, commitment, trust, behavioral interdependence, self-other integration), and the mechanisms governing transitions between stages (e.g., novelty and CONSUMERS AND THEIR BRANDS arousal, comparison versus available alternatives, stress accumulation). METHEOlDOLOGY Study Design and Data Collection Discovery-oriented project goals dictated the use of phenomenological interviewing (Thompson, Locander, and Pollio 1989) over more structuredapproaches to inquiry. By permitting an understandinigof the subjective meanings of consumers' lived experiences with brands, the technique was also better suited to the task of establishing consumer validity of the brandrelationshipproposition as a whole. Modified life-history case studies (Denzin 1978) were conducted for three women in different life situations, two of these involving stage-relatedtransitions: Jean, a 59-year-old barmaid living with her husband; Karen, a recently divorced 39-year-old working mother of two; and Vicki, a 23-year-old graduate student in her final year of study at a majoruniversity. Informaints were interviewed for a total of 12-15 hours each in a series of four to five in-home interviews conducted over a three--nonthperiod. Informanitsreceived specially tailored gifts valued at $100 in exchange for their participation. Informants were purposively selected to maximize chances of uncovering insight on important brand relationship phenomena, a legitimate goal in this founidational researchphase (Erlandson et al. 1993). The gender qualification recognized previous research suggesting that women exhibit more and stronger interpersonalrelationships and brand involvements (Guest 1964; Sherrod 1989). Variations in age/cohort and life cycle allowed attention to sociocultural factors driving relationship behaviors in both interpersonaland consumer behavior domains. Transitional cases permitted analysis of brand behaviors in periods of heightened identity negotiation (Schouten 1991) and relationship development activity (Andreasen 1984; Stueve and Gerson 1977). Size restrictions on the informantpool ensured the depth concerning life worlds and brandrelationship portfolios necessar-yfor thick description (Erlandson et al. 1993; Mick and Buhl 1992). All interviews and analyses were conducted by the author to permit the holistic perspective sought through the method. Interviews were designed to yield two complementary types of information: (1) a first-persondescription of the informant's brandusage history and (2) contextual details concerning the informant's life world. Stories describing the genesis, evolution, and usage of brands in the informant's repertoire were elicited. Brands in this study included packaged goods as well as durables, semidurables, and services, each discussed as informants saw fit and as time allowed. To stimulate discussion, kitchen cabinets were opened and informants were instructed to "'tellthe story' behind any brand in the inventory. The remaining course of the interview was set by informants. Specific 347 relationishipconiceptswere not promupted,and an explicit attem-ptat avoiding relationslip referenicesin probes was made. In the traditioniof emergent design (Erlandson et al. 1993) visual tools including developmental time lines and dimensional maps were included as adlhoc discussion aids to clarify temporal and meaning-based aspects of chosen brand relationslhips.Life-history informationiwas gathered from a closing interview session anida followup survey focusing on major life experiences, core decisions, and key transitionpoints in informanits'lives (Tagg 1985). Data Analysis Understanding braindrelationships at the level of felt experience requiredtwo types of interpretationof the verbatim transcripts,both following the general procedures of grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin 1990). Idiographic analysis (Mick and Buhl 1992; Thompson, Locander, and Pollio 1990; Thompson et al. 1994) started with an impressioniisticreading of transcriptsand identification of recurrenitbehavioral and psychological tendencies maniifest therein. Identity issues were sunmmuarized within the framiieworkof life themes, projects, and coIncerns described earlier. Brancdstories were then considered individually and collectively for their manifestation of personialitythemes such that a holistic understanding of brandrelationishipswithin the context of the consumner emerged. The second level of interpretationiinvolved across-person analysis?the goal of which was to discover patterns across brand episodes and individuals that could help structure an understandingof consumer-brandrelationship phenomena. Collectively, informants generated 112 brand stories for analysis. Theoretical properties of the brand relationships represented in these stories were identified through the constant comparative method using axial and selective coding procedures (Strauss and Corbin 1990). The analyst sought an understanidingof the range of types in the relationishipcategory, the processes by which relationslhipsdeveloped over time, the conditions under whiclh relational phenomena were pronounicedor minimized, and the major consequences of relationship engagem-ient,especially those concerning other noteworthy brand phenomena (e.g., satisfaction and loyalty). As per the foregoing literaturereview, a priori codes included dimensionality (voluntary vs. imposed, friendly vs. hostile, intense vs. superficial, equal vs. unequal), affective character (strength, direction, and type of tie), relationship provisionis(socioemotional vs. functional rewards), and stage of relationship development (initiation, growth, maintenance, decline). Basic relationship descriptors were also coded (e.g., relationslhipduration,frequency of interaction, category exclusivity, initiation source), and consumers' use of interpersonal relationship analogues was noted. Coding schemes were modified as anialysis progressed and new concepts were uncovered. In both the idiographic and across-person analyses, the focus was on relationships formed with specific brands as opposed to JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH 348 product categories, as identified through evidence of meaning transfer to the level of the brand (McCracken 1993). Issues of Trustworthiness Several techniques were employed to elevate the trustworthiness of this inquiry (Erlandson et al. 1993). Member checks gauged the credibility of the author's interpretive claims against the views of those sharingtheir stories. Three colleagues reviewed interview transcriptsand interpretive summaries in a peer debriefing process. These procedures caused reanalysis of the data on several occasions toward the goals of mutual comfort, objectivity, and recognizability in interpretation.Triangulationof multiple stories from the same person, of interviews conducted with the same persons at multiple points in time, of concepts reflected in alternatebrand stories, and of information from multiple data sources (e.g., grocery lists, shelf contents, stories of other household members) also lent confidence to the credibility of results. Purposive sampling of informants possessing distinctly different experiences and understandings of the phenomena of interest allows for transferabilityjudgments of the insights obtained, as does the thick description offered herein. IDIOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS Informant interviews are interpreted below, first in terms of the personal and sociocultural contexts defining each informant's life world, then in terms of the brand relationships collectively occupying that world. Especially meaningful brandrelationships are highlighted, and threads tying those relations together are identified. An attempt to link the person's overall brand relationship portfolio to identity issues salient at the time of interviewing is made such that a coherent picture of the role of brandrelationships in the consumer's life world emerges. Descriptive analyses of relational phenomena are seeded throughoutthese stories for development in the later section on cross-case findings. Case I: Jean Jean's Life Story. Jean is 59 years old. She lives with her husband of 40 years in a middle-class suburb of a northeastern city not 10 miles from the town in which both she and he (and their mothers and fathers before them) were born. Jean and Henry reluctantlymoved "way out in the country" back in 1963 so that Henry would have a shorter commute to his manufacturingjob. While Henry will soon retire from this job after 40 years, Jean still works-60 hours and six days a week-tending a small neighborhoodbar in her blue-collar hometown. Jean has had this job for 13 years. She likes keeping a "base" in the town where all of her brothers and most of her nieces and nephews still live. Before the presentjob, Jean worked as a waitress at an ethnic social club down the street from her present establishment, serving food and drink to "the locals" as they played cards and celebrated their birthdays and weddings. Jean worked only weekend nights duling the 20-some-odd years she was with the social club. She thought it importantto be home to raise her girls, aged 30 (Lizzie), 35 (Linda), and 40 (Laurie), now "scattered all across the country." Jean grew up in the house her Italian grandfatherbuilt. He carefully crafted the inlaid wood floors, constructed the masonry walls and fireplaces, and painted dogwood blossoms across the dining and living room ceilings. Jean was born in this house, as was her mother before her. It is the house her brother, his wife, and two of their three grown children now occupy. The house is a symbol of all Jean believes in: it is at once family, independence, and hard work. Jean gave 10 years of her life to the consuming care of her critically ill mother so that the nursing home would not take this house, her mother's only asset. Jean's sacrifices paid off: when her mother died and appointed her executrix of the will, Jean signed the house over to her brother. Over the last three years, Jean depleted her "entire life savings" covering his mortgage payments so he would not lose the house to the bank ("His credit's so bad, he could only get a short-term 18 percent builder's loan. It's real tough for him to come up with the money."). She would give more if she had it: "After how hard I worked for that house, I can't let him lose it now." Jean lived with her mother, stepfather, and three half brothers until the age of 19 when she married her high school sweetheart in the Catholic church across the street. A strong believer in God ("I pray everyday") and his protection of those who "sacrifice and work hard," Jean is no longer a practicing Catholic. Barred over 30 years ago for confessing the use of birth control to her priest ("We could not afford anotherbaby. . . . We had nothing . . . Henry was only making $40 a week"), Jean never approachedthe church for reconsideration.Honesty and integrity are very important to her: "They wouldn't let me stay, but they forgive people for adultery? I can't have communion but they can? That's not right. I could go back now, I guess, but I don't. I believe in God my way." Jean "didn't grow up with very much," both in the way of money or family support. The illegitimate child of a father she would never know, Jean was somewhat an outsider in her own home. Many aunts and uncles were against her remaining in the family at all, pleading unsuccessfully with Jean's mom and grandmotherto put her up for adoption. This battle for acceptance got tougher with the sudden death of her grandmotherat age 50. But Jean soon discovered that superiorperformanceof household tasks offered a surefire mechanism through which she could fit in with her family and garner their support. I thinkmy mom treatedme that way becauseI stood for what she would never have. She was so beautiful.The partygirl. Look at this picture:the Gibsongirl. Whenshe got pregnantshe was sent awayfor awhileandeverything 349 CONSLJMERSAND THEIR BRANDS changed. She marriedFrankie;I don't know if anyone else would have her. She never loved him. And, he never really cared for me because I was not his. So, I spent most of mnytime doing things for him and her, cleaning the houLse. taking care of them, my brothers, because at least that was something that I really knew how to do right. Such was born the purpose that would organize the rest of Jean's life: resolution of a cenitral life theme of marginality versus significance through successful performance of the traditional gendered tasks of mother and wife. To this day, Jean wants desperately to be affirmed by society in these, the roles she values most. Accomplishment as a cook and housekeeper remain a major source of happiness, pride, and satisfaction in Jean's life. What do I do everyday'?I cook. I cleani.My white clothes are white. You can pick up a sheet of miniethat is 10 years old and people think they are brandnew. I iron them. I don't dry them. I never dry my sheets. Never. To me, they are rags when you do that. "Why do you do that," people say, "You're weird.'" Because I like to sleep on a sheet that is ironed. That's my preference.I've always done it. Like Lizzie will say, "Mom, you don't lhaveto iron my sheets when I brin,gthem over to do the laundry." But Allan (her husband) goes, "Oh, your mother did the sheets, huh?" So, it must make a difference. Everybody always says what a beautiful house I have. That makes me feel good. Jean's tough childhood taught her a lot of lessons. She learned that if you want something, you do it yourself "'cause nobody is gonna do it for you." With no more than a high school education, Jean discovered the value of diligence and hard work. She lives by one of her mother' s credos: "You want, you work, you get." These beliefs keep Jean from retiring despite her husband's urgings: "If I retire, he'll give me five bucks a week. Forget that! I want my own money so I can do. Do what I want to do."' Jean's self-appointed "theme song,'' "She Works Hard for the Money" by Donna Summer, captures her feelings: "She works hard for the money; So hard for the money. She works hard for the money but they never treat her right."' Jean's attitudes toward work are deeply utilitarian. She learned the powerful enabling capabilities of money anid the way it helps remove vulnerabilities. Jean reflects upon the possessions she has acquired as tangible evidence of her sacrifices and hard work. These possessioins demonstrate that one can indeed rise above circumstances and "be somebody." Why do I like this house so much? I like to see my things that I like, that I worked so hard for. Makes me feel good. Look at Henry's brotherDavid. He never did anything with his life. Nothin-g!Fifty years old and lhedoesni't eveni owni a house. The only thing he's got is an apartmentbecause his brother lets him live there, a car because his motlher gave it to him, anida job because his brotherownls the place. Everybody always says, "Oh, poor David." Bullshit. lHe has notling because he does nothing. Period. These people spend their money on drinking and scratch cards and they have nothinig to show for it. Well, I do. I have all these nice thllngs. Jean is a second-generation Italian from a town where over half the people are Italian. For years, Jean limited the expression of her ethnic identity to negotiate her marriage "across the tracks" to a boy whose mother not only hated 'Guiineas,'' but warned that if he marriedone, 'his kitchen would smell like garlic all the time." Althougl Jean still ''doesn't allow garlic in her house' ( 'It makes me sick . . . just the smell of it''), she has recently taken to speaking Italian with tlheold metnin the bar. She even talks of visiting Italy someday, a big step for someone who has only twice been on a planie.It is with Italians that Jean finds much-needed comfort and acceptance. I like to be Italian. Italianisare nice, friendly people. If I ever get the chance to travel -and I hate to go anywhereI'd like to go to Italy. I thinlkI would feel really com'fortable there. Italians care about people. About family.... Not that I am just f'orItalianipeople, buLt. . . . Take Henry's family. They don't give a slhitabouLtaniybody.Somebody dies there anidthey are gonie. He used to say, "Well, somebody dies in your fa-mily and they get professionial In hiis family, someonie dies anidthey have a mouLrniers!'' party! I'll nieverforget the first time I wenit to a wake in his family. Nobody evein cared. It was . . . ai different feeling. .. Italian people miss you wlheniyou are gone. They are closer. I thilnk. Jean's love of Italians also stems from their mutual love of the concept of family, broadly construed. The celebration of personal relationships organizes much of Jean's life. Sundays are reserved for informal dinners among extended family memubers.Saturdays are spenlt caring for her nephew's three-year-old ("the family's only baby" ). Weeknights after work often include "a quick trip to her brother's on the way home.' But every day in the bar. Jean is part of a "family" as well. Jean is a meimiberof a closely knit commiunitywhere everyone of the has intimate knowledge of the other. All mem-nbers community are observers and participants in a vibrant network that ties them to a common heritage and binds them to a future that will be shared by all. Through her work as barmaicldJean has found not only legitimacy through finanicial security, but also the affiliative meanings her life lacked as a youth. I like this towin. I kniow everybody; the cops, the firemiien, their kids. I know what is goinlg on1, who lives in wlhose lhouse,who is, haviniga baby, who is screwing wlho.I know everybody that comiiesinito the bar. Their parenits.Their like that too. I always kids. I like that. And the custome-ers ask themn,'"How is your motlher-doing'?How is your-job? Did you make out all right at the doctors?" I treat the like people anidthey kniow I am inter-estedin customner-s just gives themnanid their problems. The other barteniderthem a drink and nieversays anything to them. They doni't like that. Withini this social structure, Jean is expectecl to be loyal and to share resources that becomne available. These are 350 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH requirements she fulfills all too well. Jean will leave her mark on the world by being thought of and felt in the lives of those she has touched and helped. Compassion and sacrifice: this is the stuff Jean is made of. I can't tell you how manypeopleowe me money.Lots of money.SomeI'll probablyneversee again.Butthat'sokay. I want to give it to them. I like to share.If you want it, I've got it. If I can give it to you, I will. If I can help you, I will. I don't do it for people to like me becauseI don't careone way or the other.I don'tgive a shit.I do it because I can.No matterwhatit is, I will alwaysofferit. Peoplesay I give awayeverything.I don'tcare.I will give anythingI haveto someoneto help themout.Money,food, whatever. Jean's group connectedness is a source of both joy and anxiety. Strong connections within the network subject her to peer approval, normative expectations, and reciprocity demands. Jean is sometimes torn between following tradition ("They say that you are supposed to . . ") and asserting her personal freedom ("I am my own person. I like what I like. I don't do something just because somebody else does."). Jean stirugglesto lise above the meaninglessness that characterizesmany lives at the bar ("They're all on unemployment,collecting from the government one way or another.They drink and gamble away everything") while at the same time remaining connected to the people she knows and loves. In response, Jean creates a private self, sheltering sacred experiences that are uniquely hers. Quietly, Jean accommodates the sometimes contradictoryideas and false expectations that othersimpose on her as she battlesto resolve her secondary life theme of affiliation versus independence. I lovejewelry.I havelots of nicejewelry.ButI don'twear it to the bar. No way! They all get so jealous, so I just don't wearit. Henrygave me a fur coat and I neverwear that there either. They make me laugh. They think I'm richbecauseI am alwaysgivingeverybodyeverythingand 'causeourhouse is so nice. But I wearstuff off the markdown rack! Hand-me-downs!That's all right. Let them thinkthat.I don't care. * Jean's daily life enjoys little variation on a theme: she cleans, works, plays cribbage and dominoes, and listens to and passes on the tales of others. She lives and will likely die within a few miles of where her mother lived and died, and her mother before her. She knows of and about everyone that makes up her life world. This grounding lends a sense of predictability, security, and constancy to Jean's life. It provides her with balance in a world that is constantly evolving. This suggests Jean's third life theme of stability versus change. I don't like to makechanges!I am happybeing the way I am. I have lived in this house for 33 years,and I wantto stayhereafterI retire.I workwhereI grew up andI know everybodythere.I don't want to go somewherewhereI don'tknowanybody.Everybodykeepsaskingme, "What are you gonnado when you retire?Go to Florida?"The hell with that!I wannalive here! I'm doing what I want to do! I like my house.I wannastayhere!I just like. . .. I am comfortable,I guess. Jean's Brand Relationship Portfolio. Jean's life themes of marginality/significance, affiliation/independence, and stability/change are clearly reflected in her brandbehaviors. These themes suggest product categories in which relationships are likely to develop, influence the depth and breadth of chosen brand attachments, and define the criteria by which relationships are maintained. While Jean's identity themes organize her brandportfolio, that portfolio in turn helps her negotiate life themes toward a concept of self that is both valid and rewarding. Jean's brandrelationship portfolio is best distinguished by the sheer number of close relationships in it and the enduring natureof her attachments.It was hardto identify brands in Jean's repertoire that were not specified as deeply held commitments, many of which have survived for decades. Jean's most powerful brand attachments appear in food categories connected to her core identity as Italian wife and mother. Spaghetti sauce provides an excellent case in point. This direct extension of Jean's concept of self (Belk 1988) provides tangible evidence of ethnic heritage and a stream of compliments to assuage a challenged sense of worth. My mother always used to make the sauce too. All Italians do. When you make sauce, it's like your trademark.(My youngest brother) Johnny always says that he can tell people by the sauce that they make. Everybody loves my sauce. My brother Frankie used to sit with a bowl of just my sauce and eat it like soup. He says I make the best sauce he ever had, and he is a gourmet. Goes to a lot of nice restaurants.His ex-wife always cooked really fancy suppers. Jean exhibits especially strong relationships with all of the brands that enable her "trademark." Loyalties to Pastene tomatoes, Hunt's Sauce, Bertolli Olive Oil, Contadina tomato paste, Progresso bread crumbs, and even the Revere Ware pan she uses to cook stand strong in intensely competitive environments. Jean's highly scripted sauce-making ritual provides continual reinforcement of the brand meanings that empower the enactment of her core identity. When I make the sauce, it takes all day. I let it cook on the stove for 8 hours. I have a really big pot. Stainless steel from Revere Ware. 12 quarts. The best pot I ever had. I bought one for my daughter too. The sauce doesn't bum in it and stick to the bottom like it used to with my old one. Anyway, like I told you, I blend the Pastene tomatoes in the blender. Whole tomatoes. "Kitchen Ready" it says on the can. Now I use three at least, maybe four cans usually. And I add a little can of the Hunts special sauce. Not much, just the little can. Then I fry up the sausage in a frying pan with the Bertolli olive oil and a little bit of onion, pepper. And sometimes I make the meatballs. I make big meatballs. But I like them that way. Why bother with small meatballs? They get hard that way when you cook them. This way, a meatball, a sausage and you have a full meal. I make the meatballs with an egg and a little milk mixed into the bread crumbs. That keeps them moist when they are cooking in the sauce. I use the Italian Fla- CONSUMERS AND THEIR BRANDS voredbreadcrurnbs,Progresso,andI buythe meatat Johnnie's, they have the best. I fry the meatballsin the pan with the olive oil and onion,just a little bit to get them brownedon all sidesso theywon'tbreakapartin thesauce. ThenI takethe Contadinatomatopaste,just the small can, one can, andI put thatin the fryingpan andfry it up with the olive oil and greasefiom the meatballsand sauI sages. Frying the paste takes the strong taste out.... just put all that in the big pot, a little salt and pepper, maybe basil if I have some from someone's garden in my freezer, and I let it cook all day. I stir it every 15 minutes so it doesn't stick on the bottom.By the time it's done, it's two incheslower fromeveryonetastingit. 351 Jean develops deeply held convictions about product performanceto supporther perceptions of surviving "best brands". Oftentimes beliefs in utilitarianfunctioning are bolstered by myths that evolve over the course of the usage experience. These ancillary beliefs mark the brand as superiorand irreplaceable,affording resistance to competitive attack. Pastenewhole tomatoesin the can are the best. They use the good tomatoes,the ones thatare perfectand nice and ripe. The other brandsuse the tomatoesthat can't pass inspection. . . . Those other shampoos have chemicals thatinteractwiththe waterin my houseso theydon'twork right.They makemy hairflat.This one (Aussie Miracle) Jean also remains true to the cleaning products that supporther performancein the homemaker role she takes so seriously. Windex ("no streaks"), Bounty ("I buy them by the case"), Spic 'n Span ("no residue"), Zest soap ("no tub ring"): each of these brands has demonstrated superior performance capabilities that are rewarded through loyal purchase behaviors and heartfelt commitments. Appliances too (e.g., Electrolux, Frigidaire, Maytag, General Electric, Krups) are afforded loyalty in exchange for reliable assistance in homemaker roles. Many of these relationships have survived 20 years or more. Some serve an ego-defensive function (Katz 1960) by protecting Jean from her fear of being tagged a "dirty Guinea." Part of Jean's job upon entry into the homemaker role was to master the new world of consumer products put before her. This was a job she performed quite well. Virtually all of the brands Jean uses, from appliances to glass cleaners, have earned distinction as "the best" options available. Jean's credo of "buying the best" removes uncertainty in the performance of valued social roles. It can also be interpreted as a manifestation of Jean's quest for tangible markers of success. By surrounding herself with proven performers, Jean demonstrates to herself and others that her hard work had paid off. "Best brands" provide evidence that Jean has "made it.'" Jean's beliefs in tradition and heritage help circumscribe likely candidates for her "best brands" portfolio. She prefers "the old way of doing things" and has no doubt that "things made 20 years ago are better than the junk they sell you today." Accordingly, many of Jean's commitments are to classic brandsthat have demonstrated their reliability over time. Long-standing brands are respected for the wisdom of their experience, a wisdom for which there is no substitute. A classic brand also represents truthfulness, for with long-standing brands there is no hiding behind falsity or pretension. Finally, classics provide prima facie evidence of permanence and constancy-important themes dating back to Jean's childhood. Jean anticipates the predictability offered in her classic brands for the welcomed stability this adds in her life. Pastene tomatoes, I always buy those, they are the best. They make the best sauce. You can tell the difference. I buy the best vinegar. Progresso . . . Bounty paper towels, but I thinkthe smartestones are the ones thatlearnfrom they are the best . . . Maytag, they say that is the best makes the best fridge . . . Krups makes .Frigidaire the best coffee . . . Electrolux is the best vacuum. It's expensive, yeah, but . . . Jean bestows the "best" label only after an involved and diligent process reveals one of an array of brand alternatives as the ultimate performer. Once a victor, however, not always the champion. Because of their significance to her sense of self, Jean' s chosen brands are tested against able competitors throughout time and are ousted from the portfolio if performance appears lacking. I always used the Bon Ami but then I noticed that it started scratching the, sink. They must have put particles in there or something. I tried the Comet and that really is better. doesn't have that. . . . The Tide detergent is better be- causeof the way they maketheirpowders.They do something so the powderdissolves in the washer.The other ones aremadedifferentandthey don'tdissolve.They stay on yourclothes. I have threeirons rightnow; one that someonejust gave me that is a hundred years old and that works better! General Electric I think. I really think that the things they made a long time ago were better quality. . . The stuff that has been around the longest is usually the best, that is why they are there. . . The people think that because they are newer maybe the people that make them are smarter, experience. They have been around a long time and know what is going on. Like Henr-yat work. He's been there 40 years. Knows the shop inside out. He don't know business like the MBAs from Harvard they hire as his bosses. To them, Henry's stupid because he don't know the things they teach in school. To me, he knows the most. A thread of personal relationships runs through Jean's brand portfolio as well. At one level, these relationship associations tap into Jean's life theme of affiliation/independence. Jean uses several brands that remind her of favored others, and she enjoys the pleasant memories evoked during product use. She talks of being affected by personal contacts in product and brand choice. For services, Jean tends to deal with people she knows, either through personal involvement or the second-hand familiarity of a respected friend. These contacts also add an 352 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH element of trust that reinforces Jean's theme of stability/ change and provides a guarantee of performance in important social roles, helping to balance Jean's life theme of marginality versus significance. I always hated Est6e Lauder.Just hated the smell. My motheralways used it but not me, I hatedit. (My aunt's daughter)Paulagave me someEst6eLauderfor Christmas one yearaftermy Motherpassedaway,oh thatwas so bad, and I thought,"Oh!" It remindedme of her so much.I kept thatbottleand have been buyingit ever since. If I needelectricwork,I knowan electrician.I knowsomeone whopaintscars.Someonewhopaintshouses,someone who paintsceilings and walls. They say to use Allan for the carpets.He uses Chem-Dry,that'sthe best. After 40 years of shopping, cooking, and cleaning, Jean has become somewhat of an expert consumer ("You ask me how I know it is good tomatoes? I've been making the sauce for 40 years and you ask me how I know?"). This instills in her a confidence in judgment that is not often displayed ("I always feel so stupid when I talk to people from college"). Still, Jean feels constantly challenged on her selection of favorites. Some of this pressure is real, as when friends give her this and that bran.dfor trial comparison. Jean will always try something that a friend has personally recommended, even if this creates conflict from being untrue to her loyal brands. She also feels compelled to stick with manufacturers'brandrecommendations ("I use the Murphy's Oil because they say that's the one that works best for their cabinets. . . . The Ford dealer says to use Valvoline"). Other times the pressure is from some imaginary other, the infamous "they" who appoint "best options" in the marketplace. These incidents bring into play a group-versus-self conflict that often leaves Jean in possession of multiple brands competing for her loyalty. Interestingly, in all of the episodes discussed, these moments of seeming infidelity served only to strengthen Jean's beliefs and expressed feelings of attachment to her loyal brands. They said, "Buy the Kohlerstainlesssteel sink, it is the best." So I did. But I hate it. Never buy a stainlesssteel sink, it's too hard to keep clean. . . . (My sister-in-law) Darlene bought a ham and she says, "I don't know why you pay six dollars a pound at the ham store, I bought this one next door and it is the best." She gave me a piece of it. Well, I wouldn't give you two cents for it! It's garbage! If I buy a ham, I want to buy a good ham. So, I pay three dollars more from the Honey-Ham store, but it was definitely better. . . . They say that Jif is better and Natural is better and blah, blah, blah. Well, Skippy is the best peanut butter. I have had all the other ones because someone says, you know, "Try it! It has less fat grams or whatever." But, I always, I go back to Skippy every time. Case II: Karen Karen's Life Story. Karen is a recently divorced 39year-old raising two girls aged 8 and 12 while working full-time as an office manager. Karen's demographics in large part speak to her current life situation: money is tight and Karen is busy. Her day starts at 5:00 A.M. to give her time for exercise while still getting the kids off to school and herself to work before the 8:00 checkin. Afternoons are crazy, with Karen running the kids back and forth to dance classes (young Missy takes tap; Jennifer is advanced in her study of Jazz and ballet), music lessons (Missy plays piano), and Girl Scouts. In her "spare time," Karen is trying to fix up the new apartment she just rented, meet new friends (preferably male), and decide on a car to replace her broken-down Ford. Karen's life is governed by the immediacy of a host of pressing current concerns. It is a life that requires constant juggling and creative flexibility (Crosby 1991; Thompson 1996). What's my life like? A blur. A rush. A rush from the minuteI get up in the morning.I go from one thing to anotherall day long. If it's not one thing, it's another. TodayI hadto leaveworkearlyto takeMissyto thedentist, and then to swimming.I have clothes over there to fold andput away, andthe food shoppingis still out. The kids have homeworkto do. You wannahelp? Karen is also involved in two major stage-related life transitions. Recently divorced, Karen is caught between two points of stability, and she is facing decisions that will drastically affect the remaining course of her life (Levinson and Levinson 1996). Karenhas the addedproject of negotiating a prominent midlife crisis (Levinson 1977; Rubin 1979). She experiences a sense of disparity between what she has attained and what she "really wants" and is in the process of reviewing the many voices of "self" she left unattendedall these years. A powerful sense tells her that the 40-year mark is a last chance opportunityfor pursuing significant paths of change. Another strong voice tells her to focus on raising her children in this new single-parent world. Karen's reassessment of her self-definition along inner versus outer-directedlines constitutes a central life task at this time. Should I go back to school and get the degree I never finished?ShouldI moveoutof thistownandgo somewhere else? MaybeI shouldpursuemy dreamof being a professional tennis player.I know that's crazy, silly, but it's a I dunno. thought.Youknow,taketimeforme fora change'? The kids . . . Not knowing exactly what it is that she wants to become, Karen finds herself strongly motivated by the avoidance of a self she does not want to becorne (Ogilvie 1987). Like Jean, Karen has spent her life within the limits of the city in which she was born. Unlike Jean, however, Karen feels constrained by her familiar surroundings. She senses that her family and social class heritage have circumscribed the options now open to her. She feels somewhat embarrassedby her job since it is "a clear expression of her failure to rise above her station in life." She wants to escape the fate that trapped her mother, a woman divorced at 23, never to marry again. 353 CONSUMERS AND THEIR BRANDS And, perhaps most important, she wants desperately to provide her kids with the options and encouragement she never received herself as a child. My Momneverreallyencouragedme to do anything.And thatis just one thingthatI am determinedabout!I don't wantto be like my Mom!. If thereis one thingI do, just ONEthing,I will save my kids fromfeeling the same way I do whenthey reach40. The concerns of this caring woman (Thompson 1996) create serious conflicts. Karen is torn between doing something for herself and sacrificing herself for her kids. Both goals are of central importance, yet the two are incommensurate.Karen also finds herself torn between a desire for change and a longing for stability. She is at once excited by the potential for growth and overwhelmed by the prospect. At times she finds herself desperate for the returnof order and predictabilitythat can help assuage what she often experiences as an "out-of-control life" (Thompson et al. 1990). Sometimes I just want to STOP! All this goings on, it's gettingto be, it's overwhelming.I am alwaysjust going. Eachday I just get throughit and look for the next day to come. I just keep going. Everything is going on but nothing Wherever am I going to find a man, where'?I never thought that I would be the one left alone after the divorce. Never. I am turning 40, and there aren't that many available meni that age in general left anymore, let alone good ones, and God forbid they live in this small town. Wherever am I going to find a man? One of the few areas of life satisfaction that Karen culTentlyenjoys concerns her presentation of self in relation to others in her age cohort. While those around her experience the sense of bodily decline that accompanies approach of the 40-year mark, Karen has managed to maintain a youthful appearance.She adheres closely to a regular exercise routine ("I run three miles every day at 5:30. no matterwhat) and a highly scripted personal care regimen, and strongly believes that these activities have slowed the deleterious effects of time. People always tell me that I do not look my age. I mean, I work hard not to, so that's good. I did just go to my reunioni, you know, and I swear . . . you know, everybody there is the same age and I did feel younger than almost every womanl in that place. I really did! I mean, I was just looking at everybody and how they changed. It's good to know that I haven't been getting up everyday at 5 A.M. and taking care of myself for nothinc. is reallyhappening.You know? Karen recognizes that this turmoil must be managed. To help her cope with this period of unsettling change, Karen seizes the familiarity of routines, the structure of organized schedules, and the predictability of welllearned habits. These allow her to manage risks and unnecessary sources of uncertainty in an already overcomplicated life. I prettywell stick with the same thingsweek afterweek, I mean, in my life. That's sort of how my life is.... routine.Everyweek is sortof the same thing.I am pretty structured.You know, this gets done at this time and that type of thing.It's the only way to survive.Routine,umm, just kind of keeps my mind off of things. It helps me managemore.I just feel thatI have to be, just to manage things,I just have to have a calendar,you know? I findthatif you like something,thenyou stickto it. That's I like, I might how I am. If I findsomethingin a restaurant go backand get thatover andover againinsteadof trying somethingelse thatmightsoundgood.That'sjust how my life seems to be. Karen struggles through daily life armed with her routines, taking what she describes as the "alcoholics oneday-at-a-time approach to living." She is caught in the whirlwind of a hectic schedule, a condition that often leaves her lamenting the passage of time ("I can't believe it is August already and another summer is over"). For Karen, time is a resource that grows scarcer with each passing day. It slowly diminishes her vitality and closes chapters of opportunities with its passing, leaving her in a somewhat melancholy state questioning how it will all end. Karetn's BrcanidRelationiship Portfolio. Clear connec- tions between the identity themes uncovered above and the pattern of Karen's brand behaviors can be made, albeit in different ways and at different levels of personal significance than observed in the case of Jean. Of the three women interviewed, Karen expresses the lowest levels of emotional attachment to brands in general and the fewest total brand commitments overall. Most of Karen's brand behaviors are understood within the context of her day-to-day life and the current concerns driving it a context that on close inspection imbues greater significance to these apparently casual and sporadic behaviors than is typically granted. Several emotionally vested brand relationships transcend this pattern, however, by delivering squarely on Karen's transition-related life projects and bolstering the self-side of me-verssus-them valuation equation commanding attention at this time. The bulk of Karen's brandbehaviors make a statement that there are indeed more importantthings than consumer products occupying her thoughts. Karenexpresses general difficulty in recounting stories related to her brands and colors her entire consumer experience with levels of low involvement. I don't really know what all I buy. I am thinking about it, and it seems I don't buy many brands. . . . Especially during the school year, our life is so busy that I come home and make very simple meals. I don't spend a lot of time at the store. I don't really remember when all I started using that (brand). I guess it just really didn't, it just really does not matter to me that much. 354 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH A lot of these things are just here because I never tried anything else and I just use that brand out of habit. It works. It gets me through. Clearly, the objective features of Karen's current circumstance act as forces against the thoughtful formation, deepening, and active maintenance of individual brand bonds. Single-mother status has sensitized Karento issues of finance never experienced before. Now more attentive to sales, considerate of coupons, and willing to stockpile bargains, Karen has broadened her brand consideration sets to maximize chances of saving money. To meet increasingly overwhelming demands on her time, Karen adopts a satisficing approachto brand choice, a "settling for this brand or that," a form of strategic inertia on her part. Karen has adapted the structureof her brand beliefs to support her now common multibrand purchasing behaviors: although she used to think that differences between brands were meaningful, she is now prone to believe that all national contenders in a product category are basically alike. Detergent seems to be one thing that, I am not very good, hardly ever use coupons, but usually with detergents, sometimes dishwashing liquid, I will use coupons. I have maybe five brands of detergent that I pick between. That way if there is something I like, if there was a great deal on Cheer, then I can go ahead and pick that. With five brands you like, something's always going to be on sale. I used to always buy Tide. To get the kid dirt out. But now I'll use Tide, Cheer, Surf. Whatever is on sale. The big brands are all alike. Again a likely function of her "day-at-a-time" life situation, Karen's temporal perspective on brands has become narrowly focused on the present. In-store promotions, store flyers, and end-of-aisle displays now affect Karen's brand choice behaviors dramatically. Many of the brandsto which Karen was once "loyal" have moved from being "friends of commitment" to something better considered "friends of convenience." There aren't many brands, I am sitting here now thinking, that I will absolutely not leave the store without, that I would not switch to some other brand. I think maybe, I guess, I probably used to have more favorite brands than I seem to now. I never really thought of that before. It wasn't conscious or anything, you know, like I said "I do not care about such and such brand anymore" or anything like that. It just seems to have sort of happened now that I am thinking about it and noticing it. I just buy what's on sale or what I have the coupon for. Whatever is convenient. I am just not going to go out of my way to get one brand over another. It's just not worth the trouble. Even exceptions to this rule of passive brand detachment are at times misleading. On close inspection, many of Karen's claimed loyalties are in actuality avoidances from certain brands rather than attractions to others. Some stated preferences reflect the inherited choices of family members rather than felt insistence on her part. The majority of Karen's claimed loyalties seem more accurately classified as habits than as deeply held convictions. These habits are far from mindless, however. They are "pait of a tool chest of strategies for survival during critical life passages" (Olsen 1995, p. 274). They help Karen cope with the currentconcerns that dominate her day. Karen's habits attain deep meaning by delivering on needs for structure,predictability,and routine that only stable brand relationships can provide. I always buy Comet. . . . I hate Ajax. . . . At work I use Gateway.I don't reallycare thatit is a Gateway,but we only hadthe choicebetweenan Appleandthe Gateway and I am definitely not an Apple person. . . . I buy Suc- cess Rice. SuccessRice is the only one in the kindof rice thatI want.Readyin five minutes.The otherstaketwentyfive. MopandGlo?Thatwas my ex-husbandJim.I neverreally did like that. . . . Palmolive? That was Jim. . . . The Dove started with him. . . . Mayonnaise? I just bought the brand Jim told me. . . . Cereals? I just buy what is demandedof me. Karen's stories also reveal several "loyalties" that would escape detection under a temporally bounded microscope. These appear as sporadic and relatively shortlived monogamous cycles (Sherry 1987) rotating within a given use occasion. Individual brand episodes end abruptly with the onset of satiation and are quickly replaced by anotherbrand cycle that is embraced for a time before it, too, is subsequently discarded. The Lender's bagel stage, for example, is replaced by the Eggo waffle stage, which is followed by the Kix or Cheerios phase, and again the Lender's bagel stage, and so on. Candy brands cycle the same way as Snickers alternate with Sourballs and Tootsie Pops within the treat occasion ("I love those. I used to eat them when I was a kid. I hide them in my desk and sneak them during work." ). A parallel between Karen's current life situation and her tendencies to discard and rotate among brands can be made. Both are attemptsto seek new stimulation,to "start over." In the face of this apparent disruption, however, the cycling of brand "sets" in resurgent and multibrand loyalties allows Karen to maintain some sense of connection to the past and continuity into the future. Embedded in the familiar, these brand behavior patterns add a sense of stability and predictability to an otherwise turbulent life. Despite a propensity for emotionally inexpressive and cyclical brand involvements, five brands in Karen's portfolio emerge as affect-laden, committed partnerships. Karen's transition-relatedlife tasks of self-(re)definition and ego enhancement provide the threads uniting these strong brand relationships. It is interesting to note that each of these relationshipshas been structuredby detailed ritual processes. As with her habits, the rituals involving Karen's loyal brands provide a needed sense of stability amid change and chaos. These rituals also provide continual affirmation of the meaning of the brand to the point where each partneris viewed as unique versus competing 355 CONSUMERS AND THEIR BRANDS alternatives. Through reinforcing rituals, Karen's brand beliefs have deepened into. feelings of obsessive dependency that serve to maintain her brand relationships over time and at high levels of affective intensity. Perhaps the strongest of Karen's relationships is with the Mary Kay brand. Karen believes the various Mary Kay products in her daily regimen are centrally responsible for her youthful appearance and openly admits a dependency on the brand as a result. Occasional slips in brandperformanceare tolerated, and an otherwise inflexible and stretched schedule is willfully modified to prevent the "unimaginable experience" of withdrawal from the brand. I use MaryKay everything.Makeup,lipstick,moisturizer, toner. I think Mary Kay is responsible for how my skin looks now. I do, I really do. I do not think that my skin would be this, so young today if I had used any other brand. I mean, I do see it. I really can tell the difference. . . .My feelings for Mary Kay have increased too. Over time, I think maybe I have come to appreciate the product more. I feel that I just really, like I have really come to depend on it more. And, I, uh, just as I have aged, like, I depend on it more and need it more. I can't live without it now. . . Well you run out of items at different times. That happened to me once and it was awful. An unimaginable experience! I did not know where to go and I had to wait so long before I got the products I needed. It was my own fault. Now I mnakesure that I know a representative, and I build into my schedule in advance the time it takes for themto orderwhatyou wantand get it to you andall. I even buy two sometimesso thatI don'trunout. I'll even make a special trip to the representative's house to get what I need. Whatever it takes. The worst is if they pull one of yourfavoritecolorsfromthe line. They did thatto me with the lipstick. My favorite, absolute favorite shade. I went to buy it and they said it was discontinued. I remember feeling, "how could they do that to me?" Karen expresses similar feelings for Dove soap, another product that occupies a central place in her daily skin care ritual. As with Mary Kay, Dove is seen as instrum-ientalin the retention of Karen's youthful appearance. Dove also helps Karen negotiate her struggle for an inner versus other-defined self. Since Dove is a brand that others in her household reject, Karen's brand loyalty offers a rare opportunityto exert a sense of independence. This signaling of independent concerns is a crucial step in Karen' s inner-self development task. I started using Dove when I married Jim. I probably used Dial before that because that was what my mother used. But, I started using Dove and I really liked it. I wouldn't use Dial anymore. Dove is just really good for my skin. It is the, you know, one-quartercleansing cream. I can really tell the difference in how it makes my skin feel. I use it everyday morniingand night when I do mnymakeup and I can definitely tell the difference. Jim still used the Dial because he thought the Dove was too, I dunno, he did not like how it felt. But I wouldn't use anything else. That was a pain: one sink, two soaps. But I did it anyway and listened to him complain about it all the time. Other realignments in Karen's brandportfolio send this same message of independence. As Karen abruptlysevers many of her inherited brand ties, she lays claim to her own desires in the face of others' preferences. In this small way, Karen is winning a contest that has typically seen losses on her side in the past. Well, we were using the Hellman'sbecausethat was the brandJim wanted.He hatedthe MiracleWhip. It seems peopleusuallylike one andhatetheother.Anyway,I didn't care much but now that I am alone we're back with the MiracleWhip.No moreHellman's. Karen also embraces Reebok, the brandof running shoe she dons each morning at 5:30 A.M. Running has acquired a very special meaning in Karen's life. It symbolizes the first conscious step taken away from marriage. It represents the beginning of a new definition of self. It is a tangible markerof a past, youthful self. Throughrepeated, ritualized use occasions, Karenhas transferredthe powerful meanings of runningto the Reebok brand(McCracken 1993). Reebok is a symbol of Karen's vitality, her independence, and her overall self-efficacy. I startedrunningagainwhenumm,rightafterI decidedto leave Jim.I used to runin college whenI was trainingfor I was quitegood at distancerunning. tennistournaments. So, I picked it back up. I run alone mostly. It's hardto convince my fiiends to get up that early and do it every I wearReebokruLnning day. But I do.... shoes.Me and my Reeboks.They arebeatup by now. Wantto see them? Like a favoritepairof jeans, you know?You go through so MLIlch together. Another brand entwined in the morning running ritual is Gatorade. Symbolizing accomplishment and self-adequacy and marking a celebration of her "time alone," Gatorade is another product that makes Karen feel good about herself. In exchange for these ego benefits, the brand is rewarded with strong feelings of attachmentand commitment. Unlike the beliefs of parity that generally characterize her brands, Karen rejects the very thought of adding another sports beverage to her portfolio despite the potential cost savings at hand. Gatoradedefinitelystartedwith the kids. I know I was neverinto thatstuff myself before.But the kids wouldget sick and the doctorwould say, "Give them this and this and this, and Gatorade."I tried it myself one time and eventuallyadopteda taste for it. Now I drinkit all the time.I have it everymorningafterI come in frommy run. I drinkit afterI clean the house.I alwayshave a glass of it in my lhand.That's me. I am very loyal to Gatorade.I would say thatI am very loyal to that.I know they have otherbrandsof thatnow, I see couponsall the time, but I have never even picked up a bottle of them. Never even triedthem.BecauseI like Gatoradea lot. I reallydo. A final example of deeply felt loyalty is found in Karen's relationshipwith Coca-Cola Classic. Unlike the more privately consumed products mentioned above, Karen mentions Coke Classic as a brandthat others readily associate with her. One could argue that Karen's brand com- JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH 356 mitment is driven more by the perceptions others hold of her as a non-Diet Coke consumer that by her own tastes and preferences for Coke Classic. In effect, Karenremains loyal to the brand because to switch from it would be an admission thather much respected body image was finally in need of repair. I think that I am one of the last people that still drinks Coke. EveryoneI know wants a Diet Coke all the time. It's alwaysdiet something.EveryoneknowsI drinkregular Coke.If they wereto see me witha Diet Coke,theywould be . . . surprised. Because I sort of make a statement when I don't drinkDiet that I don't do what everybody else does, thatI don't reallycare aboutthe extracalories that much, that I can afford it. Sorta like, "so there!" When I get a weight problem,then I'll have to switch. I hope thatneverhappens. Case III: Vicki Vicki's Life Story. Vicki, 23 years old, is in her second and final year of studying for her masters' degree. Having left the shelter of her family not too long ago, Vicki is in the process of making the transition from dependent child to independent, self-sustaining adult (Marcia 1980). It is a somewhat controlled transition, however, as Vicki attends college only hours from home and remains "half-in and half-out" of each of her divergent worlds. Vicki enjoys spheres of autonomy and privacy within the confines of her own apartment,yet relies on parentaladvice when making importantlife decisions. She actively maintainsties to her home base while making concerted efforts to separate herself from her family, reduce her dependency on their support and authority, and develop a new life of her own. A conflict between dependence and independence, and between self versus other results from these simultaneous connections. Umm,well, my parentstheytakecareof my carandhealth insurance,but I work part-timeto pay the rent and get spendingmoney.I do it on my own. I like my hometown.I keep my same hairdresserthere, and my doctor and dentist is there.Tons of my friends fromhigh school are still there.I go back and visit a lot. I thinkI mighteven go backthereandlive withmy parents for a while when I graduateto save moneybeforeI start my career.I wouldlike my own place eventually. Vicki's experience is not unlike that of other collegeaged students living away from home who anticipateentry into the independent world of adulthood (Cantor and Langston 1989; Waterman,Geary, and Waterman 1974). This is a phase of serious self-concept negotiation. It is a time for exploring possible roles and identities and for making provisional commitments to some working definition of self. Vicki's career-self project is a particularly salient work-in-progress at this time. I do not know whetherI shoulddo the non-thesisoption here with this mastersand be done with it. I always assumedI would do a thesis and be a researcher.I always thought I wanted to be a professor. But, that just does not seem to be working out. I don't even have a thesis idea, hello! I dunno, I haven't decided. But I have been going to a career counselor. I was working in their office parttime and I thought "HEY! I should do this myself! Duh!" So, I took those tests about what I am good at and they have been working with me to identify my strengths or whatever and what careers would work for my personality and they say I should work with people. Do counseling intervention. So I am thinking maybe I should move home and see if I can get a job like that. I'm thinking about it. I got that big, The Chronicle of Higher Ed, and I'm checking that out. The task of settling roles and identities related to the concept of family is also salient at this time. Vicki's days are largely organized around the activities of attracting a boyfriend and cultivating a meaningful relationship toward the goal of marTiage. A pivotal meaning structure Vicki applies to her concept of self-as-partner centers on notions of femininity and sexuality. It is a femininity with undertones of wholesomeness. It is time I had a boyfriend. A serious boyfriend, not just a boyfriend. I'm getting to that age. I was going out with this guy for four years. Four years! I still go see him sometimes. He is coming here for a football game this fall. Yeah, I am openly looking, I go out with my girlfriends every Thursday and Friday night cruising the bars or whatever. I am dating this "younger man" but I am not sure he is the one for me. Deep down I hope my old boyfriend comes back. I really think he's the one. Maybe. I know I am not beautiful in the stereotypical beauty definition of things. But I am very, I wanna say, wholesome, pure, whatever, but I mean, to me, that is what's important. My hair, my scents, my clothes. Everything is very feminine and wholesome. Guys like that. Relationship activity is high during this period of concentrated identity work (Stueve and Gerson 1977). New friendships that capitalize on emerging interests are sought, and those that no longer fit evolved self-conceptions are discarded (Cantor and Langston 1989). Friendships help anchor the self in activities and beliefs considered critical to self-expression. Vicki takes her interpersonal commitments very seriously in light of their value-pronouncement capabilities. I have tons of friends. High school friends. Friends from when we lived in New Jersey, from my hometown, from here. From the program. From work. From aerobics class. Friends from all phases of my life. They're like a photo album of my life. If you are my close friend, you are my friend forever. I do not commit myself lightly. Being true to my friends and always being there for them is very important to me. In summary, Vicki's transitional life task is to explore the possibilities of the adult world, arTive at an initial definition of the self as adult, and fashion a world consistent with the external and internal dimensions of that definition. Within the goal-based personality structure, CONSUMERS AND THEIR BRANDS 357 Vicki's dominant projects concern provisional identity construction (Little 1989) anidthe testing of a variety of possible selves (Markus and Nurius 1986)o The negotiation of tensions between individuation versus separation and stability versus chanigeis integral to this experience. Vicki's B;c,iid Relationslhip Portfolio. It is interesting to take this patternof change and apparentconfusion and lay it against Vicki's brand relationship portfolio. Of the three women interviewed, Vicki was not only the most involved with brands in general but also the most emotionally loyal to specific brands in particular.The type of person that Vicki is and the particularstage in which she finds herself appear highly conducive to brand relationship iinitiationactivities and the formation of close relationship ties. Vicki's brand behaviors are primarily reflective of the degree aniddepth to which she readily links brands with concepts of self. To Vicki, products and brands compose an efficient meaning-based communication system. And, Vicki is an active consumer of these symbols and signs. "God," she confesses, "I am every marketer's dream!" A child weanied on mass communication and MTV, Vicki is a master of advertising slogans and brand imagery. She is especially adept at constructingy and announcing identities through brand symbols ancdbelieves that others rely on this communication system as well. Vicki relayed several instances in which -friends willingly and spontaneously used brands to classify who and what she is all about (Holt 1995). In this sernse, maniy of the brands to which Vicki professes loyalty serve as realized extensions of her sense of sellf (Belk 1988). I went through a stage once where I used Ivory everything. Ivory soap. Ivory shampoo. Ivory conditioner. I was the biggest Ivory girl that could have possibly been walking! But, it was just, you know, something that I wanted to, somethinigthat, somnethincg about that that I internalized or whatever. . . . I think I was like in ninth grade. I was like 14 or 15. But the thinlgis, my whole life people have been telling me, "'Youlook like an Ivory girl.' That imiakesyou feel special! 1 kind of took it as a compliment, I meani, 'cause they always had real clean, pretty. freslh-lookilng people. you know, not beautiful, but wholesome and pure. Who wouldn't wanitto be thought of as queen-naturaland wholesome? I mean, I heard that for years from all differenit people. I still do. Everyone knows what brand of toothpaste I use. Just in discussing it, I mean, among frienics or whatever, people know that Vicki uses Crest. That is just a given . . . I asked my girlfriend what brands slhewould associate with me, you know, 'cause we are doing this study'?And she said without hesitation, ''Oh, Soft 'n Dry, definitely!'' Because there is a Soft 'n Dry incidenitthat we shared together. I saw my best friencdrecently and we were talking about it. The night before my speech for the Junior high vice-president position. I slept over her house the night before ancd left my Soft 'n Dry there so I didn't have it at school. Did I freak! She brought it to school for me in a brown paper bag. I had to have it. I tihoughtI woulcl die without it. I was like a living commercial: nervous is why you need Soft 'n Dry. My sister says the same thing. She says Soft 'n Dry smells like me. That my closets, my things all have that smell, the "Vicki smell." Unlike Jean, whose loyalties tend to converge upon a self as defined withini the mother/wife role, Vicki at once incorporates a variety of brands in support of the multiple dimensions of self she is actively conisidering and maintaining (Gergen 1991; Markus and Nurius 1986). Me, I have perflumes,that I have, like, different labels for them for when I want to wear them. They say different things about me. You know, like, I wear Opium, it is my nighttime seductive scent. And, my friendly everyday Vicki scent is Intimate Musk. And, I love Giorgio. It is one of the few scenits that I wear and people come up to me and say, "You smell good!" and when I tell them what I am wearing, they are like, "It doesn't smell that way on me!" That is my all around "get noticed" scent. Look in my shower here. Look! Seven bottles of shampoo and six conditioners and I use them all! And in here (the closet); this whole box is full of trial sizes that I pull from. Why? Because each one is different. It depenids on my mood and what kind of a personiI want to be. Like right now I can tell you used Aveda Elixir. I can smell the tree bark. I smell Aveda a mile away. Trying to be earthy and responsible are you? Many of the brands with which Vicki develops close relationships-perfumes, makeup, lingerie-have an image of femininity that directly supports her self-as-partner identity quest. Vicki has decided that scents and florals reflect her desired image of wholesomeness and is driven to brands that convey these meanings. Vicki admits she is often more loyal to the floral/scent subtheme than to the individual products and brands chosen to reflect that theme. I am loyal in every sense of the word to Opium-scented. Oh, I also have Opium-scented candles. Potpourri.Drawer liners. Opium-scented soap. I am rememberinigall this stuff now! I guess you could say that I am loyal to the smell. I am in a big floral kick right nlow. Everything is flowers. I mean, foral sheets, floral comforter, floral bras from Victoria's Secret, floral-scented shampoo anid conditioner. Like the Aromatics Mint and Rosemary shampoo that my friend gave me because she didn't like it. See, she knew that about me too. Anyway, you name it! Hair spray. Everything! That is just my, that is what motivates me nlow. All these new shampoos that have the floral extracts and stuff ? I am eating that stuff up sideways! I don't know if it is this "surge in femininity" cominigout or what. If you want to take this floral metaphor further,I mean, at this point in my life, I feel very, I mean, I'm trying, I'm hoping one day to attract maybe a date or a boyfriend, and I am a lot inore delicate anidvulnerable nlow. And, it's just this big flower kick, it fits solmiehow. Reflecting her reliance on the communicative power of brands, Vicki admits being disturbed when she cannot find a brand that completely delivers lher desires. She will JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH 358 engage a search that may take years to ensure that the "perfect" brand partner is identified. sense, Vicki's loyalty to the brand can be interpretedas loyalty to the self. In high school, I had friends that wore some scent. One of my friends, Mimi, she had this image that she always wanted to project, you know, and she always used the same perfumes over and over again. I mean everyday, she just smelled the same, she was just the same. And it was just consistent. You could count on her for that. And, I dunno, I knew I didn't have a smell. I didn't have anything! After a lot of thinking and looking around,I decided that I wanted to wear Musk. That just clicked. So, for Christmas, we went looking for my musk scent, me and my Mom. So we went and we tried on so many. We went back so many times, different times of the day, different days. And the ones that were the nicest were the Intimate Musk by Revlon and the Jordache Love Musk, and I remember that year for Christmas, they bought me a bottle of each. And so I had these two musks to go back and forth from over the next year or so. And, eventually, Intimate Musk became the absolute favorite and I have gotten that every year since. I guess it is like, maybe I should not bring this up, but it is kind of like religion. Shoot, I will go to any kind of church service, but it's not going to make me change my beliefs in any way. I don't want to say that I am closedminded, but I do stick to what I believe in. And that pretty much is something that always guides me. It is like sticking up for what you believe in. In high school, when we had to put a quote under our picture? I don't know if I can rememberthe exact words but, it was like., "in high school, I have leamed to stand up for what I believe in and to not let the opinions of others influence my own." And, I always stick to that. I don't know if loyal is the word, but I do stick to my guns. I am not looking at this solely in terms of consistency, it is more like having a backbone. If you don't have things you believe in, you are going to be wishy-washy, you know? Vicki's experiments with potential brand partners resemble a series of trial courtships. Having survived a stringentinitial screening, Vicki' s brandsare grantedtemporary loyalty status during a provisional in-home trial period. Candidates are promoted to "brands of commitment" after ample time has passed in which they are proven or disproved as worthy image partners. As with Jean, brandsthat survive testing often acquire an elaborate performance mythology that personalizes brand meaning and insulates the brand versus competition. Again, these mythic meanings are reinforced and solidified through ritualistic use occasions. If I just buy something once, I am not going to feel loyalty to it. I believe these things have to prove themselves to me. I have to use it for awhile before I am sure it's the right brand and I make the final commitment. I knew from experience that Crest was most effective for, you know, the enzymes in my mouth. I mean, being the tooth freak that I am, I know that everybody's saliva is different and the way that it combines with toothpaste to combat cavities is different, and the Crest is just right for me and the type of saliva I have. Furtherdeepening the felt experience of Vicki's strong brand relationships is her centrally held personal belief in faithfulness. Vicki aspires to be true to herself in everything she does and to remain committed to the doctrines she openly professes to others. In Vicki's value system, brand commitment is an obligation of the person who receives consistently delivered product quality. Her own oft-used description of the two-sided nature of her loyal brand relations as being "tried and true" reflects this quality: "if you try a brand and it is true to you in consistently delivering quality, you must reciprocate by being true to it through consistent purchase." By being faithful to her brands, Vicki's own personal standards are not compromised, and her core self remains intact. In this I'm a little biased. If you use a product, you should believe in it . . . I mean, in a way I, guess that maybe it is not necessarily being loyal to the product that is at issue, but being loyal to myself by consistently buying it. You're true to what you believe in. Amid all this talk of commitment, it is somewhat startling to note the switching behaviors that coexist with Vicki' s claimed loyalties. Consistent with her current selfexploration theme, Vicki likes to "keep her finger on the pulse of what is going on in the market." She stays abreast of new product introductions by reading published information and conducting extensive "product experiments." Her ample trial size collections of shampoos and other personal care products illustrate this tendency. Yet, Vicki proclaims a desire for "stability within (her) variety." She swears loyalty to the brands she holds most central, even when caught occasionally "fooling around." I keep up with all the new stuff, and I will always try it. But there are the tried and true things that I will always keep. On the whole I am pretty consistent. Even if I use another one every once in a while, it's okay. You have to have your little flings, right? To see what's out there? More surprising, then, is to observe the readiness with which Vicki can terminate a long-standing, seemingly committed brand relationship. Looking across the pattern of her brand relationships over time, many of Vicki's loyalties acquire a transient quality, reflecting more a character of infatuation than one of true love and commitment. This dynamism is in part a function of her own volatile sense of self. As she experiments with life and evolves her self-definition toward an accepted conclusion, so does her brand portfolio change in response. At this stage in my life, there is a definite floral identification there, and I don't know what that is going to fall into next. . . . The Ivory Girl is me now, but will I always be that? I don't know. Other changes in Vicki's portfolio are a result of increased experience with the consumer role. As Vicki be- CONSUMERS AND THEIR BRANDS comes an independent thinker with her own views about the marketplace,she slowly sheds the relationships inherited from her mother (Moore-Shay and Lutz 1988) and redefines her loyalties in response. Other portfolio shifts are environmentally imposed, their consequences experienced as personal betrayals of the brand. This is the firstbox of tea bags thatI have ever boughton my own.Thatwas a dilemma!I boughtTetley.Thosewere the kindthatmy motherhad sent me originallythatI had just finished.That was the little bit of info that I had. I was stumped.Next time maybeI will buy somethingelse, you know,branchout on my own here. When we moved (here), it really botheredme that they didn'tsell B&MBakedBeans.TheyhadFriends,whatever the hell thatis. So I buy those,but I miss B&M.And,Oh! Ice cream!No moreFriendly's!It's like I had to abandon them!I felt reallybad. I go to Friendly'severy time I go back.I love thatplace. In the final analysis, Vicki is loyal, not to a particular brand per se, but to a perpetual succession of able brand communicators.In this sense Vicki is loyal to the process of loyalty itself. Oh,didI tell youI amintothisnew toothpaste?Mentadent? It has sodium bicarbonatebaking soda in two different channelsthat don't come togetheruntil you put them on your brush.Makes your mouth feel like you are at the hygienist.Crest,well, yeah . . . Summary of the Idiographic Analysis The above analysis illustrates how the projects, concerns, and themes that people use to define themselves can be played out in the cultivation of brand relationships and how those relationships, in turn, can affect the cultivation of ...
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In this article, the author offers a framework for effective comprehension of the
relationship that clients form with their favorite brands. The main goal of the article is
developing a theoretical framework from which brand relationship theory is likely to be
cultivated. In addition, the author illustrates the portion of this framework as an approach of
demonstrating the brand–relationship idea’s utility as a whole. Susan Fournier argues that
brands can, and they serve as feasible relationship partners. Besides, the author argues that
relationships on consumer brands are cogent at the level of survived experience. Also, as per
t...


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