I suspect that if most people are asked to articulate their relationship to a brand, it's more likely to be somewhere between "stranger bumped into on bus" and "mate from pub". A very, very small minority will be "like a child/parent/spouse". For banks & telcos it may be "S&M dungeon".

To quote at least one song: "Love's a two-way street"

If a marketing manager wants love (whatever that is) for their ickle baby, what do they do to encourage love in consumers? To make themselves love-able? Do they love their consumers or are they heartless lotharios who want to generate adoration in their victims but give nothing back in return?

BTW the Greeks had lots of different words (agape, eros, philia) for different kinds of love. They were smart like that. They may even have had a word for Julian's relationship to his shoes.

The other word I object to, for similar reasons is ‘cool’.

These words when used often and not defined are strong signs of bullshit.

However, I think some people have pretty strong feelings towards brands. Thinks about car fanatics! I have a mate who thinks about Holdens probably 23 hours of the day.

You are right 'love' with a person will always be stronger than with a brand.

However what a brand is and what love is, are murky terms.

One of my favourite academic journal articles of all time, is Susan Fournier – Consumers and their brands. It talks about how people have relationships with brands which are similar to real life relationships. It is a long article 30pages but is a great read.
http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&lr=&cluster=5708726964470197835

“Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection.[1] The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure (“I loved that meal”) to intense interpersonal attraction (“I love my girlfriend”).”

I was coming from the point of view of not thinking that your brand is as important as the real love in consumers lives (ie. interpersonal attraction). That is, your consumers don’t wake up every morning and think of you, worry about you, lay down their lives for you. Your relationship with them is not that important!

On a side note, it also makes me wonder whether the generic pleasure definitions of the word love came about through marketing???

Cause I think I love my Nike Air Max’s

It is hard debate, to say that you have a relationship with any brand, because at the end of the day they are just the thoughts in your heads. Brands do not really exist, like humans. I guess brands are kind of like God,

Does that mean that people dont really love their god?