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. 2022 Nov 10:16:984647.
doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.984647. eCollection 2022.

Neural mechanisms of brand love relationship dynamics: Is the development of brand love relationships the same as that of interpersonal romantic love relationships?

Shinya Watanuki  1
Affiliations

Neural mechanisms of brand love relationship dynamics: Is the development of brand love relationships the same as that of interpersonal romantic love relationships?

Shinya Watanuki. Front Neurosci. .

Abstract

Brand love is a relationship between brands and consumers. Managing the relationship is an important issue for marketing strategy since it changes according to temporal flow. Brand love theories, including their dynamics, have been developed based on interpersonal romantic love theories. Although many brand love studies have provided useful findings, the neural mechanism of brand love remains unclear. Especially, its dynamics have not been considered from a neuroscience perspective. The present study addressed the commonalities and differentiations of activated brain regions between brand love and interpersonal romantic love relationships using a quantitative neuroimaging meta-analytic approach, from the view of brain connectivity. Regarding the mental processes of each love relationship related to these activated brain regions, decoding analysis was conducted using the NeuroQuery platform to prevent reverse inference. The results revealed that different neural mechanisms and mental processes were distinctively involved in the dynamics of each love relationship, although the anterior insula overlapped across all stages and the reinforcement learning system was driven between both love relationships in the early stage. Remarkably, regarding the distinctive mental processes, although prosocial aspects were involved in the mental processes of interpersonal romantic love relationships across all stages, they were not involved in the mental processes of brand love relationships. Conclusively, although common brain regions and mental processes between both love relationships were observed, neural mechanisms and mental processes in brand love relationship dynamics might be innately different from those in the interpersonal romantic love relationship dynamics. As this finding indicates essential distinctiveness between both these relationships, theories concerning interpersonal romantic love should be applied cautiously when investigating brand love relationship dynamics.

Keywords: brand equity; brand relationship management; consumer neuroscience; consumer psychology; neuromarketing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Brand love trajectories as defined by Langner et al. (2016) were modified and reorganized by the present author. Reprinted with permission from Springer Nature (License 5423700948437).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Generalized brand love relationship dynamics based on inverse U-shape model.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Steps of the analysis. ALE, activated likelihood estimation; ROI, region of interest; PRISMA, preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses; MACM, meta-analytical connectivity modeling; API, application programming interface.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
PRISMA flow diagram (brand love relationships).
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
PRISMA flow diagram (interpersonal romantic love relationships).
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Region of interest. (A) Brand love relationships; (A1) early stage; (A2) migration stage; (A3) stable stage. (B) Interpersonal romantic love relationships; (B1) early stage; (B2) migration stage; (B3) stable stage. All crosshairs = (0,0,0).
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
Results of the MACM. (A) Brand love relationships; (A1) early stage, crosshair = (0, −34, −6); (A2) migration stage, crosshair = (4, −64, −16); (A3) stable stage, crosshair = (28, −40, 2); (B) interpersonal romantic love relationships; (B1) early stage, crosshair = (10, −60, ���14), (B2) migration stage, crosshair = (6, −62, −8); (B3) stable stage, crosshair = (6, −62, −8). MACM, meta-analytical connectivity modeling; BA, brodmann area; ACG, anterior cingulate gyrus; Amy, amygdala; CG, cingulate gyrus; CdH, caudate head; DMPFC, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex; FfG, fusiform gyrus; IFG, inferior frontal gyrus; Ins, insula; LGP, lateral globus pallidum; MB, midbrain; MFG, medial frontal gyrus; MGP, medial globus pallidum; MPFC, medial prefrontal cortex; PCG, posterior cingulate gyrus; PHG, parahippocampal gyrus; PreCG, precentral gyrus; Prec, precuneus; Put, putamen; RN, red nucleus; SFG, superior frontal gyrus; Th, thalamus; VMPFC, ventral medial prefrontal cortex.
FIGURE 8
FIGURE 8
Results of the conjunction and subtraction analysis. (A) Results of the conjunction analysis; (A1) 3D view of overlapping brain regions in the early stage, crosshair = (44, −20, −9); (A2) 3D view of overlapping brain regions in the migration stage, crosshair = (2,17, −5); (A3) 3D view of overlapping brain regions in the stable stage, crosshair = (27,4, −4); (B) results of the subtraction analysis (Brand love > Interpersonal romantic love); (B1) 3D view of the distinctive brain regions activated in the early stage brand love relationships, crosshair = (−7, −39, −14); (B2) 3D view of the distinctive brain regions activated in the migration stage of brand love relationships, crosshair = (1, −47, −20); (B3) 3D view of the distinctive brain regions activated in the stable stage of brand love relationships, crosshair = (−1, −54,10); (C) results of the subtraction analysis (Brand love < Interpersonal romantic love); (C1) 3D view of the early stage of interpersonal romantic love relationships, crosshair = (27, −10, −13); (C2) 3D view of the migration stage of interpersonal romantic love relationships, crosshair = (11, −54, −8); (C3) 3D view of the stable stage of interpersonal romantic love relationships, crosshair = (37, −45, −13). BA, brodmann area; ACG, anterior cingulate gyrus; Amy, amygdala; CG, cingulate gyrus; CdB, caudate body; CdH, caudate head; DMPFC, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex; FfG, fusiform gyrus; Hip, hippocampus; IFG, inferior frontal gyrus; Ins, insula; LGP, lateral globus pallidum; MB, midbrain; MmB, Mammillary Body; MFG, medial frontal gyrus; MPFC, medial prefrontal cortex; PCG, posterior cingulate gyrus; PHG, parahippocampal gyrus; PreCG, precentral gyrus; Prec, precuneus; Put, putamen; RN, red nucleus; SFG, superior frontal gyrus; SN, Substania Nigra; Th, thalamus; VAN, ventral anterior nucleus; VMPFC, ventral medial prefrontal cortex.
FIGURE 9
FIGURE 9
Brain networks and mental processing at each love relationship stage. DMN; default mode network.
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