Competing dynamics of brand love and addiction: implications for consumer behavior

Purpose This study aims to examine the relationships between brand love and brand addiction on consumers’ adverse behaviors: impulsive buying, compulsive buying, social comparison and narcissism. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected from 350 young Chinese fashion brand consumers using a structured questionnaire and analyzed through structural equation modeling using MPlus. Two main models were tested: one with brand addiction (Model 1a) or brand love (Model 1b) as the independent variable; the second, a mediation model (Model 2) explored brand addiction as a mediator. Findings The findings indicate that brand addiction and brand love have a distinct impact on adverse behaviors. Brand addiction is positively associated with compulsive buying, impulsive buying, social comparison and narcissism. On the contrary, brand love is not significantly associated with compulsive or impulsive buying. Originality/value Research on the repercussions of brand love is scarce. The current study bridges this gap by identifying the positive influence of brand love on social comparison and narcissism. Interestingly, it finds that brand love does not lead to compulsive or impulsive buying. In addition, our exploration of brand addiction’s impact on impulsive buying, compulsive buying, social comparison and narcissism unveils unexpected outcomes, contrasting recent optimistic perspectives and emphasizing the critical need for a nuanced understanding of these consumer–brand relationships from theoretical and managerial perspectives.