Construal Level Theory Approach to Mixed Emotions of Brand Hate and Brand Love

The current conceptual study aims to examine how consumers experience mixed emotions of brand love and brand hate derived from different levels of brand-related sources, and building on construal level theory, explain how these mixed feelings interactively influence activation of different levels of consumer construals, and in turn, overall brand evaluations. Firstly, a brand love-hate mixed emotions matrix is developed to show three different sources of brand hate-love mixed emotions: product, user and corporate. Then, building on construal level theory, there is a discussion of how these mixed emotions may activate distinct construal level mindsets that, in turn, influence brand attitudes.