Fueling the passion: The role online brand experiences play in developing harmonious or obsessive brand passion

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The internet environment brings many challenges to brands through its intangibility, uncertainty, and information complexity. Inspiring consumers’ brand passion is the key to brand success in the internet environment. OBJECTIVE: Based on the dualistic division of harmonious or obsessive brand passion, this study explores the relationship between online brand experiences and brand passion. This study also examines the mediating effect of customer psychological ownership and the moderating effect of gender in this relationship. METHODS: In this study, we used a quantitative analysis approach to test how online brand experience affects brand passion and Mplus 8.0 was used for the structural equation model. RESULTS: The results indicate that (1) online sensory experiences and online affective experiences have a significant effect on both harmonious brand passion and obsessive brand passion; online intellectual experiences and online behavioral experiences positively affect harmonious brand passion; (2) customer psychological ownership mediates the relationship between different online brand experiences and harmonious brand passion; (3)Gender moderates the relationship between online affective experience, online intellectual experience and harmonious brand passion such that the relationship is stronger for women than men. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this paper provide some suggestions for marketers to enhance their marketing strategies in an internet environment.