Affect of Consumer Nationalism on Consumer Brand Relationships

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to explore the affect of consumer nationalism in consumer brand relationships.

Methodology: This research is based on depth interviews of twenty one respondents. The respondents were drawn from
brand loyalists, functional brand consumers and those who were critical about the brand offering. Depth interviews were
subjected to thematic analysis.

Findings: This study contributes to understanding of what drives consumer nationalism and how it affects consumer
brand relationship. All respondents showed positive affect to home grown brands and product quality mediated the
strength of consumer brand relationship. The brand loyalists and moderate respondents had positive affect of nationalism
moderating product quality which in turn mediated consumer brand relationship. Consumer nationalism did not affect
consumer brand relationship positively for respondents who were critical of the product quality of the brand.
Implications: This study contributes to understanding of what drives consumer nationalism and how it affects consumer
brand relationship. Brands using consumer nationalism in their managerial actions tend to strengthen consumer brand
relationship. For some brands, their endorsers and promoters are intertwined with the image of the brand journey. For
such brands that are intercepted by an endorser who is also the cofounder with nationalistic tendencies, consumer
nationalism tends to strongly influence the consumer brand relationship across cognitive, affect, cognitive and action
stages. Brands with altruism and shared value in their business model tend to benefit from consumer nationalism
affecting consumer brand relationships.

Originality/Value: This study contributes to understanding of what drives consumer nationalism and how it affects
consumer brand relationship. This fulfils the gap in literature to link consumer nationalism with consumer brand
relationships for national brands.