Investigating the concept of brand addiction and its impact on life happiness and self-esteem

Abstract

Consumer-brand relationships are important in our daily lives to build experiences, boost positive feelings and focus on different relationship dimensions (Fournier, 1998). These consumer-brand relationships may grow in intensity to attain certain levels of addiction (Fournier, 1998). Brand addiction is defined as a consumers psychological state that relates to a self-brand relationship (Corbett & Connors, 1999). Research show that certain individuals are much more entailed and skilled at using high-tech products than others (Bruner & Kumar, 2007). Therefore, some high-tech users are considered as consumers who are addicted to technology (Park, 2005). Technology addiction is one type of non-drug-related addiction that can be describe as regular and obsessive technology-related behavior ("Technology Addiction: Creating a healthy balance", 2017). In this study, we examine which form of consumer-brand relationships whether it is brand trust, love, loyalty, liking, attachment, and passion or a combination of forms leads to addiction to high-tech brands and how this brand addiction impacts life happiness and self-esteem. We conducted our research through a quantitative study by using an online questionnaire and gathering 360 responses, which identifies our sample size. Finally, we give recommendations to high-tech managers and brand ambassadors on how to deal with brand addiction and we highlight the importance of creating real value to customers in order to attract and sustain customers and gain their trust.