Research pertaining to the consumer-brand relationship paradigm abound since the 1990's aiming at understanding relationships' development, proposing typologies and measuring their dimensions (attachment, trust, engagement, loyalty). In parallel, supporters of experiential marketing draw the attention on the central role of experiences with brands, mechanisms of appropriation and co-creation of sense. The present research combines these two paradigms investigating a major experience with the brand, the first encounter. Adopting an interpretive perspective, 14 qualitative interviews were conducted and interpreted following structural analysis' principles. A scheme emerges, logically articulating consumer's identity dynamic embedded in his consumption, the way he encounters new brands and the resulting type of relationships.
