Research trends on branding in consumer psychology

• Brands are critical in the market, as brands connect firms with customers.
• Considerable research has been devoted to the psychological dimension of brands.
• Recent branding research focuses on brand linguistics, luxury brands, and brand extensions.
• A range of psychological theories has been used to understand brands.
• Due to varying interests of researchers, development of a branch research agenda is recommended.

Brands have received much research attention from consumer psychologists, as brands serve as the embodiment of a firm within the lives of consumers. This work has relied upon a variety of well-established psychological theories (e.g., Big Five human personality dimensions, associative network theory, attachment theory, self-concept) to explore the strong influence that brands can have on consumers. Recent research has focused particular attention on how consumers respond to brand name linguistics, luxury brands, brand extensions, and on the application of psychological theories to brands. Variability in these trends suggests the need for a research agenda to guide brand research by consumer psychologists.