Brand love and oppositional hate: the roles of identity, authenticity, and uniqueness

Purpose The purpose of this study is to extend the consumer-brand relationship literature by examining how brand identification gives rise to both brand love (for a focal brand) and oppositional brand hate (for a rival brand) and how these emotions jointly affect loyalty. The authors further investigate how brand authenticity and consumers’ need for uniqueness moderate these relationships. Design/methodology/approach Using an online survey of 445 US smartphone users, participants identified their preferred smartphone brand and a salient rival brand. Structural equation modeling was used to test a dual-pathway model linking brand identification to loyalty via emotional responses, with moderation by authenticity and uniqueness. Findings Results demonstrate that brand identification positively predicts both brand love and oppositional brand hate. However, while brand love strongly predicts increased loyalty, brand hate unexpectedly exhibits a negative association with purchase intentions. Brand authenticity moderates the identification–hate link, such that when identification is low, greater authenticity amplifies brand hate toward the rival. Need for uniqueness moderates the identification–love relationship: among low identifiers, brand love increases with uniqueness, but at high levels of identification, love remains stable regardless of uniqueness. Research limitations/implications The study uses cross-sectional data. A future study should collect data on actual buying behavior rather than purchase intentions. Practical implications Firms may benefit by focusing on ways to emphasize how the brand enhances an individual’s uniqueness. By doing so, consumers may increase their level of brand love. Social implications Numerous brands have a rivalry where the brands intentionally bad mouth the competition which may create brand hate for the rival brand. Increasing brand hate may backfire as consumers may turn away from the product category all together. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to model brand love and oppositional brand hate as simultaneous emotional pathways within an identification-based framework. It contributes novel insight by showing that brand hate may backfire under certain conditions, challenging assumptions that hate for a rival brand enhances loyalty. The results offer context-sensitive implications for branding strategies in rivalry-intensive markets.