Abstract:

Nowadays, consumers expect that brands could not only satisfy their functional needs, but also bring emotional and spiritual experiences. Thus, how to garner brand well-being, which means consumers access well-being from using and consuming a brand, has been a challenge for both theory and practice. In fact, whether a brand can create well-being could be shaped by positive interactions between a brand and its consumers. Thus, we postulate that service ritual, which is a prevalence brand-consumer interaction in practice, could create and enhance a brand’s ability to deliver well-being for consumers. Drawing from the interaction ritual chain theory, service rituals refer to a fixed sequence of behaviors that involve symbolic icons and meaningfulness, whereas brands include a series of identifying, integrating, and signaling symbols, indicating the optimal service ritual could form a well-being chain which connects a brand and its consumers. Based on this rationale, the current research draws on interaction ritual chain theory, proposes the new concept of brand well-being, defines and confirms core elements of service rituals, investigates the relationship between service ritual and brand well-being, and further examines the moderating roles of value co-creation orientation of a company and self-brand congruency. In general, the current research offers novel insights on brands and branding theories, well-being and positive psychology literature, and service management theories, while providing implications for companies how to build and manage their brands.

Key words: brand well-being, service ritual, interaction ritual chain, value co-creation orientation, brand-self congruency