Consumer-brand engagement. Delving into the managerial perspectives

The paper belongs to the nascent academic literature on consumer-brand engagement (CBE). The aim is to deepen the managerial perspectives towards CBE by considering two key players’ categories within the marketing communication network: advertisers (‘clicks-and-mortar’ and ‘pure play’ enterprises) and agencies (traditional and digital). Following an exploratory inductive and qualitative approach, we have drawn upon 44 in-depth interviews with European marketing and communication experts (consultants and managers). The findings show similarities and specificities in the managerial perspectives towards CBE depending on the players’ category. Previous research on CBE mainly focused on the analysis of the consumer’s point of view. Focusing on advertisers and agencies, our study provides the first academic contribution to the understanding of the managerial point of view. Academic and managerial implications are presented along with future research directions.