Credibility, audacity and joy: Brand personalities that connect users to social media

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to evaluate the influence brand personality has on customer loyalty in the context of social networks as brands. We conducted a survey of 268 social networks users in Brazil and analyzed data through Structural Equation Modeling. As a result, brand personality dimensions Credibility, Audacity and Joy were found to be predictors of loyalty, the main aspect governing customer relationship perception. Credibility is the main predictor of customer loyalty, shedding light on network trustworthiness, user privacy and personal information safety, while Audacity indicates the power of innovation, and Joy points out the relevance of social networks' entertainment atmospheres. Together, these dimensions are strategic aspects to be considered in the development of relationships with users in the digital world. Our finding contributes to the body of knowledge interested in relationship marketing and its relation with strategy and sustainable competitive advantage. We also investigated social networks as brands, a topic of major impact in the development of a literature on the digital world. Lastly, the results serve as a source of information about social network user behavior, helping companies enhance their communication strategies and achieve customer loyalty.

Take a Ride on Credibility: The Role of Brand Personality in Users’ Loyalty to Virtual Brands in the Sharing Economy

“…Therefore, it is plausible to say that ridesharing consumers see these brands as modern and up-todate, valuing innovative products and services. This finding is in line with the results for consumers' perception about the innovativeness of social media brands, being audacity a critical driver of brand loyalty in the digital context (Demo et al, 2018).…”

“…E-brand personality is a crucial element for virtual brands to succeed in online relationship building (Ong, Nguyen, & Syed Alwi, 2017). Similarly, Demo et al (2018) confirmed that brand personality plays an essential role in the way users relate to social media platforms, keeping long-term relationships with social media that show to be reliable, innovative, and friendly. However, the literature lacks an understanding of the role of brand personality on virtual brands.…”

“…Along with audacity, the credibility dimension is also paramount in ridesharing users' perception, as they see the virtual brands as reliable, consistent, and respectable. In the online scenario, credibility is the main factor for user preference and retention since this personality dimension sheds light on connection trustworthiness, privacy, and personal information safety (Demo et al, 2018).…”

“…As proposed in the systematic review performed by Scussel and Demo (2016), the scale validated by Muniz and Marchetti (2012) has set a new path for the development of studies about this construct in the Brazilian context, since brand personality is a variable that must respect the cultural scenario in which it is explored. The scale has been proved to be a helpful instrument, enabling studies about the personality of brands in the food and beverage sector (Delmondez et al, 2017;Moreno, Demo, & Watanabe, 2020), social media (Demo et al, 2018) and luxury brands (Scussel & Demo, 2019). Considering the reliable psychometric indices from Muniz and Marchetti's (2012) scale, this will be the research instrument used in the present study to measure brand personality.…”

“…Research signalizes the need to explore the role of the attribute of the brands in this context (Kumar et al, 2018;Lutz & Newlands, 2018). In this scenario, a brand personality emerges as a first step into the development of long-term relationships between brands and consumers (Brito, 2010;Fournier, 1998) and an essential driver of loyalty, a central construct of CRM (Demo, Silva, Watanabe, & Scussel, 2018). The concept of brand personality encompasses consumer perception of brands the same way they characterize a person (Aaker, 1997).…”