Future research

Capitalizing on the up-and-coming trends of emotional branding, academics can conduct research to provide meaningful implications to practitioners. While this study provides insights to emotional branding, rigorous empirical research is necessary to validate and revise the model (Fig. 1), if necessary. We provide several suggestions for future research.

First, demographic differences in consumer behaviors can be incorporated in market trends and emotional branding strategies. Demographic variables, especially gender and generation, are fundamental and easy-to-target variables to marketers and thus have been employed in identifying consumer segments. Therefore, these variables, along with other demographic variables (e.g., income and ethnicity), can be employed in future studies to examine which variable produces variance in marketplace trends and perception toward emotional strategies. This examination will provide additional implications to fashion retailers in attracting their target consumers.

Second, negative aspects of emotional branding could be examined in how they threaten brand image. For example, if brand strategies are perceived as unauthentic or manipulative, they could risk consumer disfavor or boycott. In this sense, examining marketplace trends from both positive and negative perspectives can provide more extensive approaches to branding strategies to warrant long-term success in this rapidly changing, consumer-driven market.

Third, while we have identified successful emotional strategies used by fashion retailers in apparel, skin and beauty products, and home furnishings, additional research is needed to establish the applicability of these practices to intangible services such as restaurants, cafes, and hotels. Although emotional branding strategies of fashion retailers involve promoting and selling both products and services, consumers experience different emotional responses toward intangible services.

Finally, as retail becomes more competitive between traditional brick-and-mortar retailers and non-traditional digital retailers, it would be interesting to compare these two retail formats regarding how consumer trends influence emotional branding strategies and which emotional branding strategies lead to stronger brand loyalty. Although researchers note that digital retailing is growing faster and generates more positive consumer emotions than in the past, empirical research has not been conducted to validate this notion. Therefore, researchers can conduct empirical investigation to extend the emotional branding model to the contexts of various retail formats such as traditional retailers, social media, and omni-channel retailers.