Brand Management.

This article focuses on research at the Harvard Business School led by Professor Susan Fournier that suggests brand managers need to understand consumers' buying behavior in a new way. Brands, the research indicates, can act as relationship partners for consumers, often helping them to resolve or address important personal issues. Fournier's research has uncovered seven essential attributes of good brand relationships. Together, they make for what she calls overall brand-relationship quality. They include love and passion, self-concept connection, and interdependence. Fournier's working paper is entitled "The Consumer and the Brand: An Understanding Within the Framework of Personal Relationships." INSET: Brands: Love, Hate, and in Between..