I am excited about the forthcoming publication of my book on Consumer Brand Relationships, “Brand Love is not Enough,” and would like to share some thoughts about it.

About 30 years ago, in a paper written for an ESOMAR seminar in Athens, I coined the term Consumer Brand Relationships. It was intended to describe that complex of associations and ideas about brands – that we generally called brand image – plus something else, something that is different and separate from brand image, and which at the time was not explicitly recognized in brand marketing, brand positioning or the evaluation of brands.

The missing element was a construct which I later termed the “brand’s attitude” – what the brand “thinks,” as opposed to what the consumer thinks. The brand’s attitude is a personal projection, made by the consumer, of what the brand is intending, wanting or thinking; and it is independent of what the consumer thinks about the brand, its brand image.

Relationships between the consumer and the brand are the net result of a “dialogue” between these two constructs; you cannot define a brand relationship without factoring in the brand’s attitude, as well as the brand’s image. In subsequent years, I have successfully worked with and refined this model of CBR in developing brand advertising and in the broader sphere of marketing; I have also developed a research methodology to work with it. In the last 5 years, with my business partner Ed Lebar, former Managing Director of Young & Rubicam’s BrandAsset Valuator (BAV), I have successfully scaled up and developed a set of Universal Consumer Brand Relationships metrics, which apply across product categories. Using these UCBR’s on large databases of brands, I have modeled their contribution to the formation and maintenance of brands’ consumer franchises and to the value of branded businesses, as reflected in their stock price.

All this and much more is documented in full in “Brand Love is not Enough”. Although the book explains the theory on which my CBR model is based and demonstrates its validity, it is essentially a record of case histories about specific brands – more than 35 of them! I believe that it is a book that you will enjoy reading; with its distinctive and informed point of view, it will enhance your own experience and stimulate new ideas about brands; it also represents a unique source book for people who are learning to think about brands, and should find its place in your company or college library.

For anyone who purchases “Brand Love is not Enough”, I will be happy to provide a complimentary consultation either via email or 45-minute phone or video call. Please send me an email at this address for more information.