Brand community identification matters: a dual value-creation routes framework

Abstract

Purpose A brand community consists of relationships between a brand and consumers; community members’ identification with the brand community is a central characteristic of the community. This study aims to provide a comprehensive conceptual framework to investigate how and why such identification-based relationships yield firm- and member-level benefits to participants in the brand community. Design/methodology/approach This cross-sectional study analyzes data collected through a questionnaire survey of members from the brand community of VW-Golf Club members in Taiwan. The researchers attended the annual meeting of club members and handed out questionnaires directly to the members. The degree centrality of each member was calculated using UCINET 6 for Windows, a social network analysis software application. This study adopts the partial least squares program to evaluate the measurement properties and structural relationships specified in the research model. Findings The findings suggest that when customers’ identification with a brand community becomes salient, they strengthen their emotional attachment to the brand and improve their centrality in the network. Consequently, emotional attachment can serve as a guiding principle in decision-making and thus strengthen brand equity and assessment of brand extensions. Central members will also gain greater benefits, including collaborative opportunities and influence, through their advantageous position in the network. Originality/value This study makes four main contributions to the brand community literature. First, this is the first empirical study to simultaneously examine the relationships among community identification (customer to community), emotional attachment to the brand (customer to brand) and network centrality (customer to customer). Second, the empirical framework depicts dual value-creation routes that explain how identification-based relationships can yield firm- and member-level benefits. With respect to firm-level benefits, this is the first empirical study to examine the brand equity and assessment of brand extension in the brand community research. Third, this study applies the rarely adopted UCINET 6 software to scrutinize the network data from the brand community. Finally, this paper examines three actions that organizations can leverage to enhance consumer identification with a brand community.

Understanding customer brand engagement in user-initiated online brand communities: antecedents and consequences

“…Wirtz et al (2013) argue that brand identification facilitates consumers' integration within the OBC. Empirical findings also pinpoint brand identification as an antecedent of consumers' willingness to participate in a social brand community (Chang et al, 2019). For example, in the context of car communities, Algesheimer et al (2005) posit that customers' previous relationships with a car brand exert an influential role to the identification and engagement with the community.…”

Company versus consumer performance: does brand community identification foster brand loyalty and the consumer’s personal brand?

“…Considering the online context, a recent study found that consumer identification with a brand is stronger when consumers perceive it as more prestigious and more humanlike (Tuškej and Podnar 2018). The same study also showed a positive impact of consumer identification with a brand on their engagement with the brand, while a very recent study found that when customers' identification with a brand community becomes salient, they strengthen their emotional attachment to the brand and improve their centrality in the network (Chang et al 2020). In addition to company/brand performances, community identification can provide benefits for consumers in terms of a stronger personal brand.…”

“…This contributes to the brand relationship and brand community management literature in an important way. Despite the three central relationships that influence consumer behaviour in brand communities, namely customer-to-brand, customer-to-customer and customer-to-the community (Chang et al 2020), most of the studies have focused on the former with a lack of attention on the customer-to-customer relationship (Luo et al 2016).…”

Beyond lurking and posting: segmenting the members of a brand community on the basis of engagement, attitudes and identification

“…Previous research has noted that identification is one of the key antecedents for brand community engagement (Chang et al , 2019; Chen et al , 2018; Khan and Khattak, 2017; Mousavi et al , 2017). Identification occurs when one perceives a sense of “oneness or belongingness to a group, where an individual defines him or herself in terms of the group of which he or she is a member” (Demiray and Burnaz, 2019).…”