Brand love has garnered increasing interest among practitioners and scholars, but little is known about how marketing actions drive brand love, and whether and how brand love transmutes to firm profitability. Using longitudinal brand love data collected from more than 20,000 customers of 152 corporate brands and financial data of firms who own these brands during 2006–2017, the authors examine the antecedents and financial impacts of building brand love. The results show that advertising investments help firms build brand love with diminishing returns after reaching an optimal point, whereas R&D investments positively contribute to brand love. The analyses further show that although brand love does not affect firm profitability and market value in the short term, it increases firm profitability and market value in the long term. More important, the results indicate that the positive effect of brand love on firm performance is stronger for hedonic brands, for firms in product categories that matter greatly to consumers, and those operating in highly competitive markets. Overall, the findings have important implications for marketing theory and provide actionable insights for managers into how to build and manage brand love.

品牌热爱引起了从业者和学者越来越多的兴趣，但人们对营销行为如何推动品牌热爱，以及品牌热爱是否以及如何转化为企业盈利能力知之甚少。作者使用从 152 个企业品牌的 20,000 多个客户收集的纵向品牌爱数据和拥有这些品牌的公司在 2006-2017 年的财务数据，研究了建立品牌爱的前因和财务影响。结果表明，广告投资帮助企业建立品牌爱，在达到最佳点后收益递减，而研发投资对品牌爱有积极贡献。分析进一步表明，虽然品牌热爱在短期内不会影响企业的盈利能力和市场价值，但从长远来看，它会增加企业的盈利能力和市场价值。更重要，结果表明，对于享乐品牌、对消费者非常重要的产品类别的公司以及在竞争激烈的市场中运营的公司，品牌热爱对公司绩效的积极影响更强。总体而言，这些发现对营销理论具有重要意义，并为管理者提供了有关如何建立和管理品牌爱的可操作见解。