Individual & Group Discrepancy On Fashion Brand Attachment

In marketing context, consumers could develop strong emotional attachment to brands that they love. Researches on brand attachment are the special discussion for this phenomenon in consumer behavior field. Attachment theory in psychology has solid foundation, which provides us insights into brand attachment. In order to deploy this research smoothly, this paper firstly reviews related literature about interpersonal attachment and brand attachment. After this process, this paper has shaped a clear framework about current researches. Furthermore, this paper locks research theme on individual and group discrepancy of fashion brand attachment. There are two basic dimensions while discussing individual attachment discrepancy in psychology: attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. If these two dimensions are dichotomized as low and high in the degree respectively, then four combinations or attachment styles will be formed: secure(low anxiety and low avoidance), avoidant(low anxiety and high avoidance), anxious(high anxiety and low avoidance) and fearful(high anxiety and high avoidance). Individual discrepancy of emotional attachment to fashion brands is based on four different attachment styles specified in psychology, while group discrepancy is based on two different samples from senior high school and college students respectively.This research conducted two empirical investigations by using samples of students in senior high school and in college, in which data was gathered by questionnaires and then analyzed by statistical software SPSS 19.0. According to data-analyzed results, for senior high school students, interpersonal attachment discrepancy could be largely reflected on attachment to fashion brands; for college students, above logic can’t establish. Specifically, senior high school students who don’t tend to avoid close relationship with others(low attachment avoidance) are more likely to express their attachment to fashion brands, while attachment anxiety has no significant influence on brand attachment. Avoidant senior high school students aren’t inclined to develop emotional attachment to brands with respect to numbers as well as degree, while anxious individuals are just opposite. Both Secure and preoccupied senior high school students report relatively high degree of brand attachment, but they are different in the following way: preoccupied individuals report low degree of brand attachment in a large rate, while secure style individuals rarely report in such a way. Compared to senior high school students, attachment style has no significant impact on college students’ attachment to brands. For both senior high school and college students, individuals with different attachment styles fail to show significant attachment discrepancy on the choice of “sincerity” and “excitement” fashion brand personality but unanimously show attachment preference for “sincerity” fashion brand personality quantitatively.According to research results, this paper gives corresponding marketing suggestions. To be specific, plausible trying as well as endeavoring orientations for companies to promote consumer’s attachment to fashion brands.