From Crushes to Carts: How Relationships Influence Consumer Behavior
By: Emma Sanchez
Introduction
Have you noticed that Sour Patch Kids have become more popular recently? Or that it has been conveniently placed next to Swedish Fish in a variety of stores? Well, this isn’t a coincidence, and it is one of the many ways brands target our identities, as these brands were the two candies featured in the show The Summer I Turned Pretty. With each candy representing an ideal romantic partner: Conrad as Sour Patch Kids and Jeremiah as Swedish Fish, the impulses to buy these sweets reflect a deep connection between love, emotions, and consumer behavior in marketing. It supports how studies in consumer psychology show how love doesn’t just affect our personal relationships but also the relationships we have with what we buy and how we relate to the brands that market to us.
Prosocial Behavior
When we experience emotions such as love, it doesn’t just make us more compassionate but also influences how we make decisions as consumers. In a 2015 study published in the Journal of Marketing Research, Cavanaugh, Bettman, and Luce explored how specific positive emotions, such as love, pride, and hope, affect our consumption habits. Their findings revealed that while experiencing these emotions, consumers are more likely to engage in prosocial behavior. This means being more likely to participate in making donations or supporting a cause. Love, in the context of facilitating prosocial behavior, turns our consumption habits into connection and a way to engage with others.
Variety in Unrelated Purchases
Other research reveals that love doesn’t always mean generosity and that it can promote variety-seeking behaviors. In Romantic Crushes Promote Variety-Seeking Behavior, Huang and Dong (2019) found that unreciprocated romantic feelings can cause consumers to seek variety in unrelated purchases. This is because when feelings such as love aren’t returned, the need for novelty surfaces elsewhere. This might be through new brands, styles, or experiences, as engaging with these things may fulfill the lack of romantic feelings that would be reciprocated by a relationship. Emotional tension, the authors suggest, fuels our need for exploration in both relationships and consumer choices.
Joint Decisions
Beyond emotions felt individually, relationship dynamics play an important role in influencing what we choose to purchase as consumers. Simpson, Griskevicius, and Rothman (2012) argue that choices are often relational, shaped by attachment, dependence, and social power (meaning the influence one partner holds over the other’s decisions). When partners engage in consumerism, they might need to make joint decisions, like paying for rent and groceries, and therefore may be reliant on the needs of their partner. Even when making individual purchases, our consumption habits can reflect what we might need in a relationship, such as buying slippers for emotional comfort or a planner to feel more in control.
Brands as Intentional Agents
Because of the intersection between relationships and marketing, brands have recognized these parallels and have begun to reshape their identities into relationship partners. Susan Fournier and Claudio Alvarez (2012) describe this phenomenon through the concept of “brands as intentional agents,” showing that consumers relate to brands using the same psychological frameworks they use in personal relationships. Brands can be anthropomorphized and given characteristics such as warm and competent so that consumers have an easier time perceiving them in ways that mirror romantic bonds. With the improvement of modern marketing, a favorite brand can now offer the same emotional stability and affirmation as a human, which is why emotional branding has become so effective.
Social Media "Idealized Self"
This emotional state between consumers and brands has predominantly been seen through social media marketing. Huan Chen’s (2017) study on college-aged Instagram users reveals that young consumers see social media as a space to perform their identity through marketing interactions. For example, consumers may use platforms like Instagram to curate an idealized self, often blending romantic imagery with consumer symbols, such as brand logos. This also explains why trends exist and showcases why brands, such as Birkenstock or Stanley, have become popular. Likes, reposts, and brand collaborations become new languages of affection and belonging. For many young adults, these connections between brands and how they, as consumers, present themselves online act as vision boards, and can show how they want to be perceived by others.
Overall
Combining these influences together, it’s clear to see that these studies reveal that our romantic lives and consumer behaviors are deeply linked. The feeling of love can motivate generosity and curiosity, shape our identity, and even help us build trust between us as individual consumers and brands. Marketing has learned how to be romantic because consumers allow themselves to be romanced. Ultimately, these patterns remind us that in the modern marketplace, emotion is not separate from consumption, but at the very heart of it.
References
Chen, H. (2017). College-aged young consumers’ perceptions of social media marketing: The story of Instagram. Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising , 39 (1), 22–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/10641734.2017.1372321
Cavanaugh, L.A., Bettman, J. R., & Luce, M. F. (2015). Feeling Love and Doing More for Distant Others: Specific Positive Emotions Differentially Affect Prosocial Consumption. Journal of Marketing Research , 52 (5), 657–673. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43832392
Fournier, S., & Alvarez, C. (2012). Brands as relationship partners: Warmth, competence, and in-between. Journal of Consumer Psychology , 22 (2), 177–185. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45046553
Huang, X. (Irene), & Dong, P. (2019). Romantic Crushes Promote Variety-Seeking Behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology , 29 (2), 226–242. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26618316 Simpson, J. A.,
Griskevicius, V., & Rothman, A. J. (2012). Consumer decisions in relationships. Journal of Consumer Psychology , 22 (3), 304–314. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26578163