The use of (non)exotic leathers by (non)favourite luxury brands: An attachment theory perspective

Camila Lee Park and Mauro Fracarolli Nunes

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2025, vol. 84, issue C

Abstract: The study explores the relationship between consumers’ emotional attachment and their apparent tendency to ignore or minimise negative conduct from their favourite companies. Contextualised in the luxury industry, we examine how the place occupied by a brand in the psychic and emotional balance of individuals should be conditional on their perceptions. Through two scenario-based experiments with 336 participants, these questions are addressed in different aspects of corporate reputation, with the constructs of corporate image and trust serving as dependent variables. The consideration of the luxury brand attachment construct complements the analyses. Results suggest that consumers are significantly more likely to forgive the misconduct of their favourite companies, penalising those with which they have a low emotional attachment. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the psychological dynamics between consumers and brands, favouring the application of attachment theory to marketing literature.

Keywords: Luxury industry; Attachment theory; Scenario-based experiment; Corporate image; Trust (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698925000281
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joreco:v:84:y:2025:i:c:s0969698925000281

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104249

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services is currently edited by Harry Timmermans

More articles in Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().