How deep is your love? The brand love-loyalty matrix in consumer-brand relationships

• Brand love is more important than brand loyalty in driving masstige brand equity. • Consumers develop brand love without having purchased a brand. • A masstige brand betrayal results in decreased brand love and brand equity. • The developed brand love-loyalty matrix identifies four masstige consumer segments. Brand love is an often ignored, yet important dimension in consumer-brand relationships. Especially consumer-brand relationships with masstige brands that are hedonic and symbolic in nature. Using an experimental design ( n = 465), this study investigated the interplay between brand love and brand loyalty, and its impact on brand equity. Contrary to current literature, the findings indicate that consumers can develop brand love without being loyal to a brand and can exhibit high brand love without purchasing from the brand. Brand love had a greater impact on brand equity than brand loyalty, and both brand love and brand equity diminished when consumers experienced brand betrayal. The brand love-loyalty matrix shows the interplay between these constructs for masstige brand relationships and can be used to increase market share. Finally, a decision tree is provided to guide the growth decisions of luxury brands who want to embark on a masstige strategy.