Abstract:
In a competitive cell phone industry where consumers have a wide variety of cell phone brands to choose
from, it is imperative for marketers to foster brand loyalty in order to establish enduring consumer-brand
relationships. Nurturing brand romance has been suggested to marketers to cultivate emotional attachments
between consumers and brands so as to increase brand loyalty. This study focussed on determining the
extent to which the three underlying dimensions of brand romance, namely pleasure, arousal and
dominance predict brand loyalty among cell phone users in the North West province. In total 371
respondents participated in the study. Results indicate that with respect to brand romance, respondents’
current cell phone brands generate brand pleasure and brand arousal, but that these brands are not
dominant in their minds. Although respondents participating in the study did not exhibit strong levels of
brand loyalty towards their current cell phone brands, the three underlying dimensions of brand romance are
statistically significant predictors of brand loyalty.
