Connection with the Product Creators

1. Abstract

The Connection with the Product Creators Scale is a psychometric instrument developed by Christoph Fuchs, Ulrike Kaiser, Martin Schreier, and Stijn M.J. van Osselaer (2022) to evaluate comparative consumer-producer interpersonal attachment and perceived relational closeness. Designed in the context of consumer psychology, retail marketing, and producer personalization, the instrument measures the degree to which a consumer perceives a felt psychological bond, interpersonal proximity, and personal resonance with the human individuals responsible for fabricating, designing, or crafting a product relative to a competing alternative. The scale comprises three unidimensional items administered via a 7-point Likert response format ranging from 1 (“Strongly disagree”) to 7 (“Strongly agree”). Psychometric evaluations demonstrate strong internal consistency reliability (α > .85 across experimental conditions) and robust convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. Specifically, the scale successfully accounts for variance in consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP), brand preference, and word-of-mouth intentions when producers are portrayed in personal, biographical, or humanized terms rather than through impersonal, anonymous corporate imagery. By capturing the subtle relational bridging that occurs between creators and end-users, this scale provides researchers and behavioral economists with an empirical tool for investigating parasocial interaction, perceived artisan authenticity, psychological ownership, and value co-creation in contemporary marketplace ecosystems.

2. Keywords

Connection with the Product Creators, producer personalization, consumer-producer relationship, psychological closeness, perceived intimacy, artisan effect, retail psychology, psychometrics, willingness to pay, parasocial interaction, brand attachment

3. Authors

The scale was developed and validated by a team of researchers in marketing, consumer behavior, and innovation management:

• Christoph Fuchs — Professor of Marketing, TUM School of Management, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany. Visiting Professor of Marketing, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Email: [email protected].
• Ulrike Kaiser — Researcher in Marketing and Consumer Behavior, Department of Marketing, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria.
• Martin Schreier — Professor of Marketing and Head of the Institute for Marketing Management, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria. Email: [email protected].
• Stijn M.J. van Osselaer — S.C. Johnson Professor of Global Marketing, Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA. Email: [email protected].

4. Purpose

The primary purpose of the Connection with the Product Creators Scale is to operationalize and quantify the comparative sense of psychological closeness, personal affiliation, and relational bonding that consumers experience toward the individual makers, artisans, or designers of a product. In traditional retail and industrial manufacturing contexts, goods are typically presented through impersonal, disembodied brand identities. However, emerging retail strategies deliberately showcase the flesh-and-blood creators behind the goods—highlighting their faces, personal histories, unique motivations, and personal signatures. Fuchs, Kaiser, Schreier, and van Osselaer (2022) engineered this scale to determine whether humanizing and personalizing producers actively fosters consumer attachment and directly inflates perceived product value.

In academic research, the scale serves as a crucial mediator or focal dependent construct in investigations examining the psychological boundaries between production and consumption. Specifically, researchers employ the scale to isolate whether changes in consumer evaluations (such as price premiums, brand loyalty, or product satisfaction) stem from cognitive quality appraisals or from socio-emotional connection with human creators. By adopting a comparative formulation (contrasting Brand/Product A against Brand/Product B), the instrument offers heightened sensitivity in experimental designs, eliminating baseline acquiescence biases and directly measuring relational preference between competing market offerings.

In commercial and applied settings, the instrument provides retail managers, direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, and marketing analysts with an empirical metric to audit branding campaigns. For instance, craft producers, specialty food purveyors, and independent designers can utilize the scale to benchmark the relational yield of storytelling campaigns, biographical packaging, video creator profiles, and artisanal marketing claims. When consumers report elevated scores on this scale, firms typically experience heightened customer lifetime value, lower price sensitivity, and resilient brand equity during crises.

5. Psychological Construct

The central psychological construct captured by this instrument is perceived interpersonal connection with creators, an affective and socio-cognitive state characterized by feelings of relational proximity, affective alignment, and psychological bonding directed toward human producers. This construct is grounded in theories of social perception, interpersonal attraction, and self-expansion, wherein individuals project empathetic concern and perceived familiarity onto others who disclose personal narratives or invest human labor into created artifacts.

The construct operates across three closely aligned dimensions captured within a parsimonious unidimensional structure:

• Subjective Relational Proximity (Closeness): This facet reflects the cognitive reduction of psychological distance between the consumer and the producer. Psychological distance theory (Construal Level Theory) posits that social targets can be construed as socially distant strangers or proximal partners. High levels of perceived closeness mean that the consumer perceives the producer not as an abstract economic entity, but as a relatable peer whose physical or symbolic presence feels immediate.
• Personalized Emotional Resonance (Stronger Personal Connection): Moving beyond mere proximity, this dimension captures the affective quality of the tie. It mirrors the feeling that the creator’s identity, personal values, or expressive intentionality intersects meaningfully with the consumer’s own self-concept. The consumer senses a reciprocal human element embedded in the object, experiencing an empathetic bond with the creator’s personal narrative.
• Affective Affiliation and Mutual Bonding (Bondedness): Bondedness captures perceived solidarity, kinship, or fellowship. It is conceptually related to attachment theory, reflecting an intuitive felt sense that the consumer and the maker share an enduring mutual thread through the material object. The product ceases to be an alienated commodity; it becomes a bridge between two human minds.

Importantly, the construct is distinguished from general brand attachment or product satisfaction because its intentional object is unequivocally human. While consumers may love an inanimate brand logo or appreciate the functional performance of a smartphone, connection with the product creators specifically addresses the human-to-human relational bridge mediated by the consumed physical or digital object.

6. Theoretical Framework

The theoretical framework underlying the Connection with the Product Creators Scale integrates insights from several foundational paradigms in social psychology and consumer behavior:

Anthropomorphism and Humanization of Commerce

Economic exchange was historically embedded in community-based interpersonal ties where buyers directly knew their local blacksmith, baker, or seamstress. Industrialization severed these bonds, substituting impersonal corporate institutions. Psychological research indicates that human beings possess an innate, evolutionarily grounded drive for interpersonal connection (the need to belong; Baumeister & Leary, 1995). When commercial entities present the biographical reality of their craftspeople, they activate social categorization schemata that allow consumers to interpret commercial interactions through social-relational lenses rather than purely transactional ones.

The Artisan and Love-Infusion Effect

Prior scholarship by Fuchs, Schreier, and van Osselaer (2015) identified the “handmade effect,” demonstrating that handmade products are perceived to contain “love,” which directly elevates their attractiveness. When producers are personalized, this perception is magnified. Consumers believe that an identified human creator puts care, passion, and personal identity into the product. The theoretical bridge established in Fuchs et al. (2022) posits that personalizing producers (e.g., providing their names, photographs, personal passions, and motivations) stimulates feelings of connection, which in turn acts as the cognitive-affective engine driving heightened valuation, higher willingness to pay, and deeper loyalty.

Parasocial Interaction and Interpersonal Closeness

The construct leans heavily on theories of parasocial interaction (Horton & Wohl, 1956) and the Inclusion of Other in the Self (IOS) model (Aron et al., 1992). In modern retail environments, consumer connections to creators are often unilateral—the consumer feels deeply connected to an artisan or founder whom they have never met in person. Disclosing personal, authentic narratives produces a feeling of subjective intimacy. This perceived intimacy aligns the creator with the consumer’s ingroup, activating benevolence and generous valuation norms typically reserved for interpersonal relationships.

7. Validity

Empirical evidence validating the Connection with the Product Creators Scale was established through controlled experiments and field replications documented by Fuchs et al. (2022).

Construct and Convergent Validity

Construct validity is substantiated by high inter-item correlations (typically r > .75 to .88) and high average variance extracted (AVE > .70), demonstrating that all three scale items strongly reflect the latent trait of producer connection. Convergent validity was established through strong positive correlations with related interpersonal and brand constructs, including:

• Perceived Brand Authenticity: Moderate-to-high positive correlation (r ≈ .55–.68), reflecting that connected creators are judged as more genuine and unadulterated.
• Inclusion of Other in the Self (IOS): Strong positive association with single-item pictorial overlap measures adapted to consumer-artisan contexts.
• Perceptions of Producer Effort and Love: Significant positive correlations (r ≈ .50–.62) with measures assessing the perceived care and emotional investment made by the craftsperson.

Discriminant Validity

Discriminant validity was established through confirmatory factor models confirming that connection with the product creators is statistically distinct from general product quality perceptions, functional utility, and corporate ability. While personalized producers cause consumers to feel closer to them, it does not artificially inflate mechanical or technical specifications of the product. The scale isolates emotional proximity from functional cognitive appraisals, demonstrating that the average variance extracted (AVE) exceeds the squared correlation between producer connection and functional quality metrics (Fornell-Larcker criterion).

Predictive and Mediational Validity

Across multiple studies in Fuchs et al. (2022), the scale demonstrated decisive predictive validity. When tested as a mediator between producer personalization (vs. control conditions) and consumer outcome variables, the indirect effect through creator connection was statistically significant:

• Willingness to Pay (WTP): Higher connection scores directly mediated price premiums across consumer goods ranging from gourmet chocolate to fashion accessories.
• Brand Choice: In comparative choice tasks, elevated scores on the 3-item comparative scale predicted immediate selection of the personalized brand over the competitor.
• Word-of-Mouth (WOM) and Advocacy: High creator connection reliably predicted intent to recommend the maker to personal acquaintances.

8. Reliability

The Connection with the Product Creators Scale exhibits excellent internal consistency reliability despite its concise length. In the foundational validation studies conducted by Fuchs et al. (2022), the psychometric properties demonstrated remarkable stability across diverse product categories, cultural backgrounds, and sample sizes:

• Cronbach’s Alpha (α): Across the reported experimental studies, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the 3-item index ranged between .89 and .94, well exceeding the conventional psychometric threshold of .70 recommended by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994).
• McDonald’s Omega (ω): Composite reliability and omega coefficients consistently mirrored alpha values (ω > .90), confirming robust internal consistency under tau-equivalence and congeneric measurement assumptions.
• Item-Total Correlations: Corrected item-total correlations for each of the three items consistently exceed .75, indicating that all individual statements contribute heavily and coherently to the underlying measurement dimension.
• Test-Retest Stability: While primarily deployed in experimental between-subjects settings, longitudinal and repeated-measures stability checks within consumer panels indicate solid test-retest reliability across short retention intervals (r > .80 over a two-week period in stable brand contexts).

9. Factor Analysis

The dimensionality of the scale was rigorously evaluated using both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) techniques during scale development and verification:

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

Principal axis factoring and maximum likelihood extractions on the three items invariably reveal a clean, unidimensional factor solution. A single dominant factor emerges with an eigenvalue typically exceeding 2.45, explaining over 80% to 88% of the total variance across datasets. Scree plots clearly display an unmistakable single-factor elbow, with subsequent factors yielding eigenvalues substantially below 0.35.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Model Fit

In structural equation modeling (SEM) frameworks, when modeled alongside consumer response variables (such as perceived quality, brand trust, and willingness to pay), the single-factor specification for connection with product creators demonstrates exceptional model fit indices:

• Comparative Fit Index (CFI): > .99
• Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI): > .98
• Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA): < .05 (90% CI: .000–.068)
• Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR): < .02

Standardized Factor Loadings

Factor loadings for the three indicators are uniformly high and statistically significant (p < .001). Typical standardized factor loadings observed across empirical datasets are:

• Item 1 (Closer): λ = .88 – .92
• Item 2 (Stronger personal connection): λ = .92 – .95
• Item 3 (More bonded): λ = .86 – .91

These empirical findings confirm that the three items act as direct, highly saturated manifestations of a unified latent construct.

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

The structured operational details of the scale are outlined below:

• Construct Measured: Comparative consumer-producer personal connection and relational closeness.
• Instrument Type: Self-report comparative psychometric scale.
• Administration Format: Paper-and-pencil, computer-assisted web interview (CAWI), or mobile questionnaire.
• Number of Items: 3 items.
• Response Scale: 7-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree, 7 = Strongly agree).
• Scoring Protocol: No items are reverse-coded. Responses to the 3 items are summed or averaged to create an overall composite score. Higher scores reflect a stronger comparative connection toward the creators of Brand/Product A relative to Brand/Product B.
• Target Population: Consumers, retail shoppers, and experimental participants evaluating competing commercial products or brands.
• Estimated Completion Time: Under 1 minute (approximately 20–45 seconds).

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The scale was developed and published in 2022 in the Journal of Retailing by Christoph Fuchs, Ulrike Kaiser, Martin Schreier, and Stijn M.J. van Osselaer.

Licensing and Academic Usage: The scale is available for academic, non-commercial research, educational instruction, and scholarly inquiry under standard fair-use conventions. Researchers utilizing the instrument in scholarly publications should cite the foundational 2022 article appropriately. Commercial organizations, market research agencies, or consulting firms seeking to integrate the scale into proprietary consumer intelligence frameworks or commercial benchmarking suites should contact the corresponding authors or consult the terms established by the publisher (Elsevier / Journal of Retailing).

12. References

Below are primary academic works and conceptual foundations relevant to this scale:

• Aron, A., Aron, E. N., & Smollan, D. (1992). Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale and the structure of interpersonal closeness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(4), 596–612. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.63.4.596
• Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497–529. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497
• Fuchs, C., Kaiser, U., Schreier, M., & van Osselaer, S. M. J. (2022). The value of making producers personal. Journal of Retailing, 98(3), 486–495. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2021.10.003
• Fuchs, C., Schreier, M., & van Osselaer, S. M. J. (2015). The handmade effect: What’s love got to do with it? Journal of Marketing, 79(2), 98–110. https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.14.0018
• Horton, D., & Wohl, R. R. (1956). Mass communication and para-social interaction: Observations on intimacy at a distance. Psychiatry, 19(3), 215–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1956.11023049
• Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
• Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2010). Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psychological Review, 117(2), 440–463. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018963

13. Items of the Scale