Purpose -The purpose of this article is to analyze how social media activities, in specifically the Facebook page of a car manufacturer, and user interactions with these brand related activities affect the perception of brands and ultimately influence consumers purchase decision. Based on an online survey with users of the corporation's Facebook fanpage, and in accordance to hierarchy of effects theory the author's findings show the positive effect of fanpage engagement on consumers' brand awareness, word of mouth (WOM) activities, and purchase intention. The findings further indicate that annoyance with the fanpage due to information overload leads to negative effects on fanpage commitment and to decreased WOM activities. From a theoretical standpoint the results of this study contribute to understanding of the value-enhancing potential of social media campaigns. Design/methodology/approach -To answer the authors' research questions and test their hypotheses, a study was set up in cooperation with the car brand MINI. To test their hypotheses, the authors applied structural equation modeling with AMOS 18. Findings -The article analyzes the influence of brands' social media activities and participants' social media involvement on the purchase decision process of consumers. Their findings demonstrate that engagement with a Facebook fanpage has positive effects on consumers' brand awareness, WOM activities and purchase intention. Results further indicate that annoyance with the fanpage leads to negative effects in respect to the overall commitment to and involvement with the fanpage and WOM. The authors' research shows that social media activities indeed affect the purchase decision-making process. Originality/value -New marketing communication reality presents new challenges and opportunities for companies as purchase decisions are increasingly influenced by social media interactions. People rely more than ever on their social networks when making those decisions. Nevertheless, outcomes of social media activities are still disputed in practice. The effects of social media campaigns on consumers' perception of products and brands as well as the effects on purchase decisions have yet to be better understood. This study therefore investigates how social media activities, in specific the Facebook appearance of a car manufacturer, affect the perception of brands, and ultimately influence the purchase decision process of consumers while considering the risk of creating annoyance. From a theoretical standpoint the results of this study contribute to understanding of the valueenhancing potential of social media campaigns and demonstrate how the perception of brands is influenced through this new communication channel. For brand managers this study is of value, as it shows that social media activities do have a positive influence on brands as they support their management of the purchase process.

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Brand community members have a strong interest in the product and in the brand. They usually have extensive product knowledge and engage in product-related discussions; they support each other in solving problems and generating new product ideas. Therefore, brand communities can be a valuable source of innovation. So far, little is known about the member's ability and willingness to participate in a company's innovation process. How does passion for the brand, affiliation to the brand community, and trust in the brand affect the willingness to engage in a company's innovation process? What is the effect of brand passion on brand knowledge and on domain-specific skills, which are considered important prerequisites for qualified and creative contributions to new product development? What is the effect of personality traits on the willingness and ability to engage in new product development? This research addresses these questions, which are interesting for managers who are thinking about opening up their innovation process and collaborating with brand communities and for academics exploring the opportunities of online communities for new product development and trying to develop promising new forms of open innovation networks. Drawing on brand community literature, relationship theory, creativity theory, and personality traits research, this paper introduces a comprehensive set of antecedents affecting brand community members' willingness to engage in new product development. It is argued that consumer creativity, identification with the brand community, and brand-specific emotions and attitudes (passion and trust) as well as brand knowledge are important determinants of consumers' willingness to share their knowledge with producers. The paper also identifies two personality traits (i.e., extraversion and openness) that have significant influence on brand passion, creativity, and identification with the community. The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 550 members of the Volkswagen Golf GTI car community. Structural equation modeling was used to test the relationship among the constructs. Though a positive disposition toward a brand may be advantageous for consumers that are willing to interact with producers during new product development, our results show that it is consumer interest in innovations and the innovative process that drives them to get involved. Further, brand community members with more knowledge and more innovative skills seem to be more willing to contribute than less qualified community members.

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