What (really) drives consumer love for traditional luxury brands? The joint effects of brand qualities on brand love

This study explores the links between the drivers of love towards traditional luxury brands and the key outcomes of these. In more detail, we use the stimulus – organism – response (S-O-R) as an overarching framework to theorise and empirically test relationships between brand uniqueness, hedonism, brand prestige and symbolism (stimuli); brand love (organism); and purchase intention, positive word-of-mouth, and attitudinal brand loyalty (response). We also evaluate the mediating role of brand prestige, brand symbolism and brand love. The results of Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) conducted on survey data from Australian consumers indicate that only hedonism drives brand prestige and symbolism. Brand prestige and symbolism then jointly shape brand love for traditional luxury, ultimately impacting all response variables. Besides advancing existing research on luxury brand love, the results also contribute to practice, illustrating the strategies managers of traditional luxury brands can use to obtain a competitive edge.