Brand Love

February 6, 2025

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What is brand love, and how can a brand achieve it?

Brand love is more than just consumer preference; brand love is when a brand makes an invaluable difference in a customer's life, and without the product or service, a consumer would feel a tremendous loss. Ad Age defines brand love as "based on who you are and what you stand for as a company." This is not something that can be communicated or achieved quickly, but needs to be part of a longer strategy.

As Ad Age wrote in a recent article, "Allocate a portion of your budget (even if it's a small percentage), to your branding. Make sure that you're constantly reinforcing why you're better or different than the competition and that the messaging reinforces the brand strategy. The intangible and emotional connection that we subconsciously make comes at the time of consideration and purchase, so continuously investing in your brand story has eventual payoffs."

Leading with empathy is another key approach, as noted by Phaedon. In an ANA piece, Phaedon wrote that "leading with empathy starts with garnering insights from your data to determine what your customers are going through and finding where you can help and provide a meaningful experience. Understand that at every step of their journey, consumers may have less to spend, and when they choose to spend it with you, it's the responsibility of your brand to reciprocate with an experience worthy of that investment."

In addition, making a difference in key communities and areas of interests can help brands connect with consumers more authentically. For instance, Subaru partnered with the ASPCA and established October 22nd as national Make a Dog's Day. This was created to help dogs in shelters get adopted.

As noted in an ANA event recap, Subaru "made the face of the program its "Underdogs," seven canines suffering from physical handicaps and other barriers to adoption. Professional photos of the Underdogs were posted on the National Geographic Instagram feed on the appointed day, while Subaru also advertised on Amazon and its own website to encourage donations to the ASPCA. Perhaps most significantly, Subaru brought its own donations to the ASPCA to a cool $33 million. The initiative powerfully appealed to animal lovers, inspiring 76,000 uses of the hashtag created for the event, half of which included mentions of Subaru. In addition, the project generated a whopping 99 million Twitter impressions."

The following resources provide trends, best practices, and examples.

Best Practices

Four Ways to Create Brand Love. Ad Age, January 2025.
When people fall in love, they do so because of getting to know their partner's values, character, and personality. The same holds for creating brand love. If you want to build a lasting, authentic and emotional relationship with your consumer, it must be based on who you are and what you stand for as a brand. In the world of quarterly reporting, data analytics and KPIs, many brands have lost sight of their purpose and have abandoned the top of the marketing funnel. It is still extremely important to build awareness and consideration before conversion. With Valentine's Day approaching, it is a good time to remember how to make consumers fall in love with you again and again.
Top CMOs Act on the Five Principles of Brand Love. Forbes, May 2024.
The concept of brand love is as intricate as a human relationship. Just like love between individuals, brand love is dynamic, evolving and deeply emotional. Much like the journey from infatuation to a lasting commitment, consumers engage with brands through a large spectrum of experiences through increasing and decreasing interest, communication and advocacy.

However, unlike human relationships, consumers aren't bound by the laws of loyalty. They can easily shift their affections based on various factors, including the allure of indirect competitors. These alternatives may not offer the same products or services, but they'll usually cater to similar need states. For example, consumers have one Saturday night out a week with choices that range from entertainment venues like Top Golf to Chicken 'n Pickle. This means brands must not only focus on direct competitors but also better understand the broader landscape of influencing consumer choices. To gain some deeper insights into the idea of brand love and consumer loyalty, Forbes discussed the topic of how brands can stay relevant with IAAPA CEO, Jakob Wahl, during the IAAPA Latam Conference in Medellin, Colombia.
How to Foster Brand Love During Economic Uncertainty. ANA, July 2024.
When looking at companies who have succeeded through economic hard times in the past, a shared key thread is a deep understanding of their consumers. During unsure times, there is fear and increased scrutiny around spending, so knowing how to show up for your consumers and meet them where they are is table stakes. The brands that are intentional in their efforts and keep their customers at the core of all they do have a real opportunity to truly connect on a human level. So how can brands accomplish this? Here are a few best practices to consider as we all weather this storm together.
Harnessing Brand Love for Sustained Growth and Success. Collage Group, June 2024.
Marketers are continuously seeking ways to strengthen brand affinity, drive purchase intent, and ultimately, foster lasting connections with consumers. In this pursuit, the value of consumer insights cannot be overstated. Specifically, insights into brand love hold an immense potential for marketers looking to elevate their brand strategies to new heights. Brand Love is a catalyst for growth.

Brand love represents the emotional connection between consumer and brand that goes beyond mere satisfaction or preference, signifying a deeper connection that drives repeat purchases behavior, loyalty, and, at its strongest form, advocacy. By tapping into Brand love, marketers gain invaluable insights into consumer sentiment, purchase drivers, and behaviors, enabling them to develop strategies that resonate with consumers in a profound, authentic way. In this article, discover why Brand love is the key to driving brand growth and why marketers should prioritize it. Understand how leveraging Brand love can elevate your marketing strategies, create meaningful consumer connections, and boost your competitive edge.
The Heart of the Matter: Driving Brand Love. Greenbook, September 2023.
In a world that is obsessed with artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, where do good old branding fundamentals sit? Are we paying enough attention to brand love? It's a simple topic that is seasonally overused in presentations but often less understood in the marketing world. Most marketeers today run brand tracks and measure the statement "is a brand I love"... but the question they must ask themselves is, how many are really trying to make the brand the most lovable brand? That's what marketing should focus on... beyond AI and methodologies.
Bring Back The 'Love Brands.' Forbes, August 2023.
"Love brands" are like the holy grail for every marketing director. In the early 2000s, brand love was everywhere. Academics compared the relationships of customers to brands to family. There was talk of terms like "obsession," "passion" or "intimacy" and conversations around marketing campaigns ended with totally infatuated brand lovers getting the logo of their favorite brand as a tattoo. But after the hype, the term "love brand" disappeared from the buzzword bingo of marketing departments.

This article advocates for a renaissance of the love-brand approach because, in times of blind focus on reach, conversion rates or endless expansion, companies should take a serious look at their own brand, especially with a view toward customer lifetime value. But what makes love brands so special? They represent the highest level of connection between brands and customers. Unlike reach or awareness, you can't buy this status as a brand. It is the sum of all continuous marketing and branding activities. Think about Apple, Nutella, Harley Davidson or, most recently, Barbie, why do we feel so connected to these brands? And, from a business perspective, what are the benefits of being a love brand?

Building Brand Love in Tough Times. ANA, December 2022.
As people face a creaky economy and spend more on housing, transportation, and other essentials, marketers need to sharpen their focus on so-called "brand love." "Put simply, aligning with customer values, delivering emotional experiences, and acting on beliefs is now expected of brands," says Maggie Lower, CMO at Hootsuite. "As brands strive to build brand love, they must look within and home in on the values that are most compatible with their customers' lifestyle, while staying authentic to their core mission and purpose," says Lower, whose company contributed to the report "Talkwalker 2022 Love Brands," a ranking of brands based on 2.6 billion online conversations.

Examples

Doritos Reintroduced Itself. ANA, January 2025.
Doritos was on a mission to re-launch the Doritos Dinamita brand as a unique subline due to increasing consumer demand for intense-flavored snacks. While brand love was strong, awareness and penetration remained low, which is why Doritos treated the relaunch of Dinamita as a new product launch with all new branding, packaging, and flavors.

From Social to Swipes: How Tinder Drives Buzz with Creator Marketing. ANA, January 2025.
A new relationship starts every three seconds, thanks to Tinder. Learn how the brand has innovated to ride the waves of culture through social and influencers. Stephanie Danzi, the brand's SVP of Marketing, and Evan Horowitz, co-founder and CEO of Movers+Shakers, the brand's social media and culture agency of record, shared the strategies that led to wins like a Montana Boyz partnership where one video alone received 4.8 million views and a gifted purse that led to an unpaid video with 1.6 million views. Learn how partnering with creators can drive brand love (pun intended) and sales. View the full presentation by clicking here.
Dunkin' at TwitchCon. ANA, July 2024.
Launching a new product in a crowded category is anything but easy. Prior to the national launch of their new drink — Sparkd' Energy — Dunkin' made a splash at TwitchCon, the preeminent convention for gamers and livestreamers. Learn how Dunkin' showed up in an authentic way that resonated with the gaming community, while building brand love and hype for Sparkd' Energy. View the full presentation by clicking here.
Beyond Features and Benefits: How Subaru Uses Content to Create Brand Love. ANA, April 2022.
In 2007, Subaru lagged well behind its competitors. It held a market share in the U.S. auto industry of only 1 percent: Out of 17 million cars sold in the U.S. each year, it sold a mere 175,000. Perhaps just as troubling, two-thirds of Americans weren't aware of the brand or didn't know enough to have an opinion about it. The situation was so dire that Subaru faced the prospect of potentially not being able to make it in the U.S.

As Subaru tells it, this was a time when there were scant efforts on the part of automotive companies to meaningfully differentiate themselves. Companies favored push marketing based on rational arguments, trying to logically convince consumers to buy. In 2008, however, Subaru made a conscious decision to separate itself from the rest of the industry with content that would appeal to the heart.
Conveying Your Brand Values Using Storytelling. ANA, September 2021.
What does it take for a brand to form strong connections with an audience? Adam Palmer from GoDaddy's brand team discussed how to build ownable messaging that translates into brand love and affinity, along with some of the challenges B2B and B2C businesses have in developing content.
Digital Transformation with Food Brands. ANA, September 2020.
Focus Brands discussed how companies across retail and food services collaborate from an initial idea through to digital execution to garner continuous brand love, trust, and excitement.

Webinars and Podcast

The Essential Drivers of Building Brand Love and Loyalty. ANA, May 2024.
In this webinar, uncover the secrets behind creating strong, emotional connections that turn customers into brand champions. Lydia Michael explored how successful brands leverage emotional engagement through humanization, personalization, and trust, alongside key rational elements like relevance and innovation. With the power of multicultural brand examples demonstrating the impact of emotional engagement on loyalty and the bottom line, learn about integrating crucial "Brand Love Drivers" and "The Eight Brand Love Stages" model for a strategic approach to brand loyalty and advocacy.

Building Brand Love Through Legal Action. ANA, June 2024.
When Deutsch LA and their partners at Taco Bell discovered "Taco Tuesday" was trademarked by another taco chain, so that they (and only they) were able to promote that glorious day, they felt an absolute injustice had been perpetrated against every taco lover in America (which is pretty much everyone in America). The trademark hindered other businesses, including small ones, from promoting Taco Tuesday. As the leading taco brand, Taco Bell felt it their duty to act on behalf of everyone's right to say, and celebrate, Taco Tuesday however, and more importantly WHEREVER, they wanted.

So, they filed a legal petition to challenge this gatekeeping trademark — and turned this legal action into a cultural movement by leveraging the legal filing as creative, activating lawfluencers to simplify legal jargon for consumers, and galvanized supporters by enlisting Taco Tuesday's biggest fan: none other than LeBron James. In this webinar, Deutsch LA's Executive Vice President, Managing Director Josh Jefferis and Taco Bell's Legal Director Anna Aberman shared how they partnered to free the "Taco Tuesday" trademark for all who love tacos.

Brand Love: The Heart of the Matter. ANA, February 2023.
Love is a many splendored thing, right? But what about brand love? Does such a thing exist? Shouldn't high quality and consistent service be good enough for consumers? Aaron Ahuvia, a professor of marketing at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and author of the recently published The Things We Love: How Our Passions Connect Us and Make Us Who We Are, joined host Matthew Schwartz to discuss the contours of brand love and how companies should think about it when it comes to getting their message out and growing their audiences.

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