CUSTOMER-BRAND RELATIONSHIPS IN THE CONTEXT OF DIGITAL BRANDS

This qualitative study investigates customer-brand relationships between customers and digital brands. This study aims to describe different digital brand relationship types, and their manifestations among young adult customers. The data collection was conducted in 2021 by interviewing fourteen Finnish adults aged 22-31 years. The findings categorize the customer-brand relationships into four relationship types, according to the relationship strength from weak to strong. Brand liking lacks emotions and is characterized by low commitment towards a digital brand. Brand attachment includes having a slight barrier of digital brand replacement, and emotions towards the brand are weak. Brand loving denotes that a beloved digital brand is favored in the long term, but the brand is not considered irreplaceable. Brand addiction occurs when a customer has an irreplaceable, intimate, and dependent relationship with the digital brand. All the found relationship types need further investigation in future research.