Consumer-Brand Engagement: Toward a Comprehensive Theoretical Framework

Consumer-brand engagement (CBE) is a recent concept in the marketing literature expanding the domain of relationship marketing. CBE has been seen by both academics and practitioners as a fundamental driver of the consumer decision-making process. Our study was aimed at drafting a first ecological foundation of the CBE construct. Our research aims were: (1) to identify the constitutive dimensions of CBE and how they relate with one another (i.e. social interactions; emotional and cognitive clues; brand-related behaviors) from a twofold consumers’ and practitioners’ perspective; (2) to detect the evolutionary phases of the CBE process. Our findings reveal that, to become “engaging” a brand should be carrier of a meaningful psychological bond thanks to the synergistic interlacement of four experiential dimensions: hedonic, existential, eudaimonic and interpersonal. These four experiential dimensions are crucial to allow for the building of a “covenant” between consumers and their brands that triggers a CBE bond. The nature and the emotional essence of this covenant seems to evolve with the time passing by and the increase in the touch-points between consumers and brands. More specifically, the CBE experience seems to develop in three subsequent phases, marked by the progressive synergistic intensification of the four experiential dimensions.