Brand Love is in the Heart: Physiological Responding to Advertised Brands

ABSTRACT Advertising executive Kevin Roberts proposed that premium profits lie in strong emotional connections with brands that engender “loyalty beyond reason.” This study uses psychophysiological measures to empirically investigate the basic premises asserted by Roberts (2005): consumers’ connections with brands are rooted in emotion, and that consumers connect with their own idiosyncratic set of brands. Data support this conceptualization of brand love. Individuals’ unique set of more‐loved brands elicited characteristically positive emotional responses. This was not the case for category preferences. The notion of brand love, which varies at an individual level, is compatible with the current trend toward targeted advertising.