Brand love and brand addiction and their effects on consumers' negative behaviors

Purpose This study aims to investigate the relationship between brand love and brand addiction and their effects on consumers' negative behaviors with respect to excessive spending, trash-talking and the feeling of anxiety. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 352 young fashion brand consumers responded to a structured questionnaire. The resulting data were analyzed with structural equation modeling in MPlus. Findings While brand love and brand addiction are related concepts, their effects on negative consumer behaviors differ. In the presence of brand addiction as a mediator of brand love, brand addiction has a significant effect on the three negative behaviors, and the authors observe a suppression effect of brand love on the outcome variables, with total effects (direct and indirect) being insignificant. Research limitations/implications The main limitation of this study was its single-country cross-sectional convenience sample. Practical implications While brand addiction could aid brands by leading consumers to spend excessively on them and trash-talk rival brands, it may also lead to increased consumer anxiety. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to empirically assess the relationship between brand love and brand addiction and their effects on three distinctive negative consumer behaviors. This shows that brand love is an important antecedent of brand addiction.