The Righteous Brand : Consumer Brand Relationships in a Polarized World

Bringing order to the chaos of modern brand marketing, the second edition of Brand Love Is Not Enough combines an intuitive model of how consumers relate to brands, with an up-to-the-moment analysis of how brands are both victims and players in today’s raging culture wars.

Brand management now has to reach beyond traditional marketing objectives in order to encompass identity politics and corporate purpose. But with no grounding or guidance, marketers are swinging wildly from virtue signaling to “woke-washing”; and in the process, brands are being damaged and careers brought to an abrupt end. Uniquely, this book offers not only updated case studies and content relating to Max Blackston’s respected Consumer Brand Relationships model, but goes on to show how an extension of the Brand Relationship concept—to include the ethical, moral, and political values of brands as well as their brand images—provides the tools for managing brands in this new environment. This new set of Brands’ Moral Relationships allows a brand to embody the values of diverse groups of consumers, even strongly contrasting ones, and avoid becoming marooned in an identity-defined positioning.

This book, besides being essential reading for practitioners, students, and researchers in marketing, advertising, and market research, provides fascinating insights for anyone who takes an interest in the brands they choose—or choose not—to buy.