Do brands have feelings too?

Emotions, and more specifically the construct of emotional intelligence, appear with increasing regularity across a diversity of literature pertaining to human personality issues. Marketing literature provides us with a body of evidence illustrating an accepted link between established human personality theories and suggested brand personality dimensions. As consumers are seen to purchase brands that reflect their own self image as characterised by human personality characteristics, and as emotional intelligence is increasingly utilised as human personality dimension, it would seem opportune to explore potential links between emotional intelligence and brand personality. By examining the current theories of brand personality and how it is constructed, and by highlighting the potential for inclusion of an EI dimension, there is opportunity to expand on the current theoretical frameworks of brand personality. As the literature indicates a shift in focus in brand personality research towards facilitating a greater understanding of relationships between consumers and brands, the importance of recognising the emotional components of brands is evident both on a broad level and for specific products and services. Hence the inclusion of Emotional Intelligence based competencies in future research can further develop and support marketers in their efforts to facilitate the consumer brand relationship.