tailieunhanh - Brand relationships: Unilateral or bilateral

Research results point out shortcomings of the current approach to brand relationship and hope that social bond may lead to various outcomes of the relationships such as commitment, share of goals and values and self expression that surpass the simple brand loyalty. | 30 | Phạm Đức Kỳ Brand Relationships: Unilateral or Bilateral? Brand Relationships: Unilateral or Bilateral? PHẠM ĐỨC KỲ* ABSTRACT Although the brand-customer relationship (BCR) is a special form in the theory of relationship marketing, there is only a few of researches that discriminate various brand-consumer relationships. This paper aims at classifying BCRs according to two basic approaches: (1) the unilateral relationship creating an emotional bond; and (2) the truly bilateral relationship in which a social bond is formed through a proactive interaction between two relationship partners based on transactional and social interactions. Research results point out shortcomings of the current approach to brand relationship and hope that social bond may lead to various outcomes of the relationships such as commitment, share of goals and values and self expression that surpass the simple brand loyalty. Keywords: Brand relationship, unilateral relationship, bilateral relationship, transaction- interaction, social interaction, emotional bond, social bond 1. INTRODUCTION There are numerous definitions of relationship in different fields of study, such as psychology (eg Motorn & Douglas, 1981), sociology (eg Blumstein & Kollock 1988) and marketing research (eg Fournier, 1998; and MacInnis et al, 2009). Partner in relationship may be objects, human beings or brand names. Particularly, reseaches show that relationships evolve cyclically and exist in different forms (eg Fournier, MacInnis et al, 2009; Berscheid, 1996). As a result, no common definition is accepted in general theories of relationships. Studying the BCR based on theory of relationship marketing has interested more and more researchers and brand managers because of benefits it brings to enterprises, customers and civic organizations engaging in development of such relationships. In Vietnam, however, this issue is still new and discussed by only a few articles on scientific journals. 2. OBJECTIVES OF THE .