Augmenting brand community identification for inactive users: a uses and gratification perspective

Abstract

Purpose In an era where companies shift a part of their marketing budget to support their social media presence, very little is known about the antecedents and effects of participant identification in a social media community. This paper aims to examine the antecedents of community identification in a Facebook company-managed brand community, for inactive members, using the uses and gratification theory. Brand community identification is also expected to lead to higher levels of brand loyalty for these members. Design/methodology/approach This research reports the results of a quantitative with survey data from 389 members of a variety of different official Facebook pages. Findings The results reveal that inactive members of Facebook pages can be influenced to act in a way that is beneficial for a company. Perceived human and information value of the brand Facebook page lead members to identify with a brand community and identification is a strong predictor of loyalty to the brand. Practical implications This paper provides suggestions to managers on the development of brand community value that can increase brand community identification and loyalty of apparently inactive brand community members. Originality/value By showing that brand community identification and loyalty exist for users with low activity levels, this research challenges the widely accepted idea that only highly active members are valuable in online brand communities. Specifically, it reveals the most important motivations for these members to identify with the community and be loyal to the brand.

Marketing Healthy Diets: The Impact of Health Consciousness on Chinese Consumers’ Food Choices

“…Meanwhile, in the contemporary digital age, building extensive brand fanbases or communities [64] or social networks of healthy food consumers would help connect healthy food users so that they may share experiences [65], which would build consumer-brand identity [66] and increase gratification and satisfaction [67]. Such brand communication is effective in enhancing consumer confidence in the authenticity of healthy products, which is important for consumer product adoption [68].…”

Lurk or De-Lurk?

“…To the author's knowledge, the present research is one of the first studies to investigate the moderating role of type of participation between BCI and OBL. However, this study is an extension of previous research that examined the moderating role of type of participation in OBCs in general (e.g., Bigne et al, 2020;Dessart and Veloutsou, 2021;Dijkmans et al, 2015) and with brand loyalty in OBCs specifically (e.g., Dessert et al, 2015;Haverila et al, 2020;Kumar & Nayak, 2019;Olson, 2018;Shang et al, 2006;Xiabing et al, 2015).…”

“…This theory appears to be true in online settings, such as online brand communities (BOCs) (de Vries & Carlson, 2014). Moreover, brand community success essentially depends on customer loyalty and brand community identification as an item resulting in it (Dessart & Veloutsou, 2021). Facebook, in particular, is one of the most widely used social networking platforms to connect with companies and to build OBCs (Hook et al, 2018).…”

“…Furthermore, there exists a lack of research on online brand communities. The majority of studies are on brand community identification (BCI) and two shapes of loyalty; that is, sustainable brand loyalty (Dessart & Veloutsou, 2021) and oppositional brand loyalty (Dessart et al, 2016) in OBCs as conducted in areas with high levels of participation (active posters). So, one of the primary goals of this research is to determine the moderating role of type of participation between brand community identification and oppositional brand loyalty.…”

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“…Chahal and Rani, 2017), customer engagement behaviours (e.g. Dessart and Veloutsou, 2021; van Doorn et al ., 2010) and customer brand engagement (Hollebeek, 2011). Customer engagement components vary significantly across the focal engagement actors (i.e.…”