Investigating Connectedness to Brand Users: How Important Is Social Interaction?

While brand-related groups have become a major topic in the marketing literature, the psychological aspects of this phenomenon have yet to be thoroughly explored. In this manuscript, the theoretical groundwork is laid for a construct central to group-minded brand consumption: connectedness to brand users. A framework of connectedness to brand users, a perception of being linked to the users of a brand, is presented and demonstrated to be of importance to firms’ branding efforts. Results indicate that the brand-oriented social interaction frequently referred to in the marketing literature may not play as vital a role in consumers’ psychological connections to brand users as previously suggested. Discussion of the results is offered, as are limitations and directions for future research.