دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی در ارتباط بین شناسایی برند مصرف کننده، جامعه برند و وفاداری برند - الزویر 2018

ABSTRACT

Recent studies have highlighted the importance of social media brand communities to brand loyalty. This paper aims to stress the role of the brand in that relationship, suggesting a conceptual model in mass-market products in which consumers’ engagement in social media brand communities, brand identity, and consumer-brand identification are related to brand outcomes, such as trust and loyalty. A qualitative analysis was conducted, through in-depth interviews with experts and focus group discussions with consumers, so as to evaluate their experience with brands on social media. The findings indicated that in mass-markets, consumers engaged in social media brand communities may develop positive attitudes towards the brand, such as trust and loyalty, and that consumer-brand identification may have a fundamental role in transforming consumer-brand community interactions into consumer-brand relationships.

5. Discussion

The objective of the present study was to develop a set of propositions grounded in the literature review about brand benefits and practitioners’ experiences of managing brands on social media. Given that the objective of the study was to support the conceptual framework in the mass market, an area little explored by previous academic research, practical evidence was necessary to complement existing scientific literature (Davis et al., 2000).

Understanding consumers’ engagement in a brand community on social media for low-involvement products is a major issue in the social media context, considering the extent of this market. Information gathered in focus group discussions showed that even for these kinds of products, consumers interact with brands because they like the products, think highly of the brand and its products and have feelings of community connection, revealing social and hedonic motives (Park and Kim, 2014). Consumers also revealed expected utilitarian motives, such as information needs and material rewards (Davis et al., 2014).

Practitioners need to know if the return on the investment firms are making on social media is worth the effort and risk of exposure. Studies demonstrate the relationship between consumers’ participation in a brand community and brand trust and loyalty, although authors measured participation using different perspectives, such as a sense of community markers (Fueller et al., 2011; Laroche et al., 2012), community interactivity (Habibi et al., 2014a; Labrecque, 2014; Laroche et al., 2013), community usage motivations (Pöyry et al., 2013), or benefits received from participation (Park and Kim, 2014). The information gathered from in-depth interviews and focus group discussions showed some evidence of this relationship even in mass markets, revealing the formation of different components of brand loyalty identified in the literature, such as affective and cognitive (He et al., 2012). However, from these discussions, a strong evidence of a direct relationship did not emerge. According to practitioners, in mass markets instrumental factors, such as price and promotions, have a crucial influence on consumers’ decisions.