Managing consumer-brand relationships in the attention economy

In summer 2000, Saatchi & Saatchi's worldwide CEO Kevin Roberts introduced the Lovemarks concept to the business and advertising world, and which still is a concept employed by the agency, though in different forms (www.lovemarks.com). In May 2001, 35 representatives from selected Saatchi & Saatchi offices around the world met in Auckland to work on launching the concept both externally and internally. In summer 2001, Saatchi & Saatchi Copenhagen (under the leadership of the strategic planning director, S. Beckmann) started to refine and expand the concept's rationale as well as implementing it. Considerable effort was spend on the theoretical foundation and on developing a quantitative measurement instrument, which allows positioning a given brand in relation to the ultimate goal of being a "lovemark" for its target group. This presentation explains the lovemark concept, how it is grounded in consumption theory and brand management, and how consumers' brand attitudes in terms of relationship relevant parameters are assessed. A last section presents the results from several cases focusing on the insights gained when conducting the "Lovemarks brand diagnosis" tool. Critical issues for further research are also addressed.