•Online consumer engagement is a socio-technical phenomenon involving consumer actions with digital technologies in an engagement ecosystem.•The ecosystem consists of technology (platforms, haptics ...and devices) and non-technology actors (brands, consumers and brand communities).•Technologies do not mediate engagement but generate new kinds of practices including uncovering, appropriating, and cultivating.
This paper develops a technology-centric perspective on consumer engagement in the digital ecosystem. Focusing on engagement with brands on social media-based brand communities, the study argues that consumer engagement is a socio-technical phenomenon that emerges from consumer action with digital technology. The action and the technology are co-constitutive of engagement practice and subject to continuous and mutually recursive change. The empirical findings explore how consumers engage in the digital ecosystem through actions with physical devices, digital haptics, and platforms. The findings highlight how the digital materiality of the engagement ecosystem generates new kinds of engagement practices including uncovering, appropriating, and cultivating. The study advances current thinking on engagement by offering a holistic view of engagement practice that encompasses multiple technologies and rejects technological mediation. This paper offers original theoretical insights into the status of digital technologies in consumer engagement, setting new directions for the future research on engagement.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This paper combines insights from marketing and information systems research to arrive at an integrative model of online brand experience. In this model emotional aspects of brand relationship ...supplement the dimension of technology acceptance to arrive at a more complete understanding of consumer experience with an online brand. The empirical tests involve structural equation modeling and primary data from a survey of 456 users of online search engines. The results demonstrate that trust and perceived usefulness positively affect online brand experience. Positive experiences result in satisfaction and behavioral intentions that in turn lead to the formation of online brand relationship. Interestingly, brand reputation emerges as an important antecedent of trust and perceived ease of use of an online brand.
► Combines insights from marketing and information systems research. ► Develops and test a model of online brand experience (OBE). ► Uses primary data from a survey of 456 users of online search engines. ► Results show that trust and perceived usefulness positively affect OBE. ► Brand reputation emerges as key antecedent of trust and perceived ease of use.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Purpose
– This paper aims to delineate the meaning, conceptual boundaries and dimensions of consumer engagement within the context of online brand communities both in term of the engagement with the ...brand and the other members of the online brand communities. It also explores the relationships of consumer engagement with other concepts, suggesting antecedents of engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
– Data are collected through semi-structured interviews with 21 international online brand community members, covering a variety of brand categories and social media platforms.
Findings
– This paper suggests that individuals are engaging in online communities in social network platforms both with other individuals and with brands. The study also identifies three key engagement dimensions (cognition, affect and behaviours). Their meaning and sub-dimensions are investigated. The paper further suggests key drivers, one outcome and objects of consumer engagement in online brand communities. These findings are integrated in a conceptual framework.
Research limitations/implications
– Further research should aim at comparing consumer engagement on different social media and across brand categories, as this study takes a holistic approach and does not focus on any particular category of brands or social media. Consumers’ views should also be evaluated against and compared with marketing managers’ understanding of consumer engagement.
Originality/value
– This paper contributes to the fast-growing and fragmented consumer engagement literature by refining the understanding of its dimensions and situating it in a network of conceptual relationships. It focusses on online brand communities in rich social media contexts to tap into the core social and interactive characteristics of engagement.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the performance of Aaker’s dominant conceptualization of consumer-based brand equity (brand awareness, brand associations, perceived quality and ...brand loyalty) in a multi-national and multi-sector European context and highlights important lessons vis-à-vis the measurement of brand assets across countries.
Design/methodology/approach
– Cross-category data was collected through a survey over a period of two months from a representative sample of consumers in three European countries (n=1,829), the UK (n=605), Germany (n=600) and Greece (n=624).
Findings
– The findings suggest that Aaker’s dimensions of consumer-based brand equity cannot be clearly separated. More specifically the dimensions of brand awareness, brand associations and brand loyalty could not be always clearly discriminated in all national contexts.
Originality/value
– The paper contributes to the limited amount of cross-national research on brand equity by assessing the most widely used conceptualization of consumer-based brand equity. Contrary to previous research, this study has used data from real consumers who evaluated a range of brands across product categories (including goods, services and internet).
Purpose
– This paper aims to examine whether the strength of positive brand relationship can either mediate between trust, satisfaction, attitude towards the brand and loyalty or moderate the link ...between these variables. Existing research has established that trust, satisfaction and the attitude towards the brand contribute to the development of brand loyalty. However, recently, there is a growing stream of research indicating that the brands are not only facilitating transaction but companies can also use them to develop and maintain links with their customers. The exploration of the role of brands in the development of bonds with the customers is still very limited.
Design/methodology/approach
– Data were collected from 189 women who are using lipstick in Glasgow, Scotland. Respondents were asked to answer a questionnaire keeping in mind their preferred brand.
Findings
– The findings revealed that the strength of the consumer brand relationship is a very strong predictor of brand loyalty. They also suggested that brand relationship does not moderate the relationship between brand trust, satisfaction and brand loyalty, but it mediates the link amongst these constructs.
Research limitations/implications
– One product category was examined. The data were collected from females in a big city with non-probabilistic sampling. Most of the respondents were younger consumers, who may have different behavior compared to older consumers.
Practical implications
– Managers are constantly looking for ways to increase brand loyalty. They need to appreciate the importance of consumer engagement with their brand through positive brand relationships. Therefore, they need to try to develop brand identities and project brand images that will make the brands look as appealing to the consumers as relationship partners.
Originality/value
– This paper supports the view that brands are not only facilitating transactions but can also develop and maintain links with their customers, especially engaged customers, and the exploration of these bonds is still limited. This paper is adding to the literature on brand engagement and brand relationships from a quantitative perspective and is contributing to theory building, as there is no clear theoretical view on whether the brand relationship has a direct effect, i.e. either mediates or moderates the link between these variables.
The creation of identity, in terms of both consumer identity and brand identity, is a core topic in marketing theory. Based on participant ethnography of Yes Edinburgh North & Leith, part of Yes ...Scotland, the national referendum campaign supporting Scottish independence, this paper explores identity co-creation among three entities: the brand, the individual consumer, and the brand community. The findings suggest that the interactions among these entities co-create their identity, primarily through the actions of highly motivated working consumers. This paper identifies the main dialectic relationships and shows how the effects move beyond the dyads to affect the other entities, including the symbols used in the process of co-creation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for brands, individual consumers, and brand communities.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
New challenges in brand management Veloutsou, Cleopatra; Delgado-Ballester, Elena
Spanish Journal of Marketing - ESIC,
12/2018, Volume:
22, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Purpose
This paper aims to help in the development of a better understanding of key brand-related terms and discuss the key challenges and trends in brand management.
Design/methodology/approach
This ...is an editorial based mainly on an extensive and broad literature review on brand management.
Findings
First, this work defines some key brand management terms and presents brand-related issues and concerns that remain unchanged over time. Then it discusses some of the brand management-related matters that are changing since the past few years. Challenges for the management of brands from the side of the companies that have introduced them are then presented. It finally provides a glimpse of the five papers selected for this special issue and then identifies avenues for further research.
Originality/value
This work and the whole special issue together help in the understanding of the dynamic nature of the management of brands over time with implications to the management and the academic engagement with brands.
Propósito
Este artículo tiene como único propósito ayudar en la obtención de una mayor comprensión de conceptos claves relacionados con la marca y presentar los desafíos y tendencias claves en la gestión de ésta.
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
Editorial basado principalmente una extensión y amplía revisión de la literatura relacionada con la gestión de la marca.
Resultados
En primer lugar, este Editorial define algunos conceptos clave de la marca y presenta una serie de cuestiones que han permanecido y permanecen invariables a lo largo del tiempo. Posteriormente, discute otra serie de aspectos y cuestiones que están cambiando en los últimos años para a continuación describir los principales desafíos actualmente existentes para la gestión de la marca desde la perspectiva de las empresas. Este Editorial finaliza con una breve presentación de los cinco artículos seleccionados para este número especial así como una descripción de futuras líneas de investigación.
Originalidad/valor
Este Editorial y en su conjunto todo el número especial dedicado a la marca ayuda a una mayor comprensión de la naturaleza dinámica de la gestión de las marcas a lo largo del tiempo y de sus implicaciones académicas y empresariales.
The success of brand communities as social structures that facilitate the co-creation of brands depends on the nature of their members' participation. Existing research provides limited insights into ...the roles brand community members perform. In response, this study, using role theory as its theoretical foundations, explores the roles members play. Ethnographic data were collected primarily from a brand community where highly involved working consumers interacted both off and online. The analysis reveals that there are categories of roles performed which are necessary for the development and long term prosperity of the community; it also identifies specific roles within each category and elucidates how these structure and manage the community as an entity. The study contributes to knowledge and practice by elucidating the variety and complexity of roles members need to play in order to secure an active and healthy brand community and develops further evidence to support that brand communities are primarily self-managed entities.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
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