Rocio Aguilar-Illescas

Consumer engagement in an online brand community

Abstract This research aims to explain members’ online brand community (OBC) engagement and participation based on their relationships with other members and with the community sponsor. It proposes a conceptual model integrating variables that have been studied in previous research on brand trust, OBC identification, and satisfaction, and others that have received little or no research attention, including the OBC sponsor’s opportunism, sponsor’s control, and OBC experience, with OBC engagement playing a key role. The conceptual model has been tested by applying structural equation modelling to a database of 628 consumers belonging to over 260 different online brand communities OBC from diverse economic sectors: for example, brands involving sports (Adidas and Nike), fashion (Mango, Stradivarius and Zara) and technology (Apple, Samsung and Sony). In general, the authors conclude the importance of engagement in explaining a member’s involvement in a community, and the important role played by antecedents such as online brand community experience and trust, not only directly but also indirectly via identification with the community. The results confirm the influence of engagement upon a member’s participation in a community. Our study supports this direction of the relationship over the reverse – participation engagement – as suggested by other previous works. With regard to the antecedents of trust in the online brand community, it has been concluded that using the community for mainly commercial purposes has a negative effect.

Value Creation in Virtual Brand Communities

The evolution of the Social Web has opened up a world of opportunities for brands as well as for the consumers themselves. Virtual brand communities, which are increasingly used as tools for value creation by users and organizations alike, are a perfect example of this type of opportunity.

Types of Virtual Communities and Virtual Brand Communities

Virtual communities have evolved considerably since they began. They have gone from being news groups and chat rooms to communities of people with strong bonds, diverse media for maintaining contact, and even with power in their sectors of interest. Virtual communities help their members overcome the sensation of isolation and allow them to maintain social activities.

Factors Influencing Members’ Engagement with Virtual Brand Communities

The survival of a virtual brand community relies on its ability to attract potential members and convert them into active members of the community. Therefore, it is necessary to delve deep into the main factors that have been taken into account throughout the literature in order to explain the process of recruiting and retaining individuals of specific social groups, like virtual brand communities.

Consumers’ Motivations to Participate in Virtual Brand Communities

The reasons that bring people to relate to other similar individuals, brands or organizations through communities are highly varied, depending on the type of person, what they hope to accomplish and the type of brand. In general, motives like seeking information, communication, establishing relationships and constructing an identity show up in most studies, but other more hedonistic characteristics, like leisure or reputation also lead to participation. When trying to identify and explain people’s motives for participation, various theories emerge, mainly from the fields of psychology and sociology, which offer their own view on this research question.

Foundations and Structure of the Social Web

The Social Web is postulated to be a new space in which people can interact, search for information, communicate, entertain themselves, plan their actions, make purchases and learn. In this way, the philosophy underlying this version of the Internet has brought about a changed the role of the users, who have become an active part of the content that they consume, forcing companies to adapt to this situation, which is defined by the adjective “social.”

Utility of the Social Web for Business

The Social Web is a phenomenon that has invigorated society. The ways in which people relate and communicate with each other have changed, in turn causing changes to communications and interactions between businesses, their clients and their environments. This forces organizations to understand the phenomena caused by the emergence and pervasion of social media use in order to exploit the advantages that social media can offer and to keep up to date on the tools society is employing to connect and socialize.

Evolution of the Web

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have brought about a considerable change in the way that people relate to and communicate with one another. Companies, as an active part of society, are not excluded from this situation; they must adapt their uses to appropriately establish and maintain relationships in this setting. In this sense, the Internet figures as the most widespread and important ICTs, as it serves as the base for other ICTs and plays a key role in the generation and distribution of information. Over the last two decades, its expansion has generated a cascade of social, cultural and economic changes, causing a change in business models, in manufacturing processes and in systems of distribution for products, information and content.

Conceptual Approach to Community, Virtual Community and Online Brand Community

Human beings, due to their unique characteristics as a species, need relationships with other individuals. This explains the interactions between people and the tendency to live in groups. All human beings belong to one or more communities, although this happens involuntarily. By simply having a family or residing in a city, one belongs to these communities. In other cases, the individual chooses which community he belongs to, seeking groups of people with values or styles similar to his own. Among these communities, we count brand communities, which revolve around one or more brands.

Evolution of the Marketing Mind-Set and the Value-Creation Process

Consolidation of social applications is changing communication between brands and their consumers. Organizations are losing their once complete control over their messages and processes of value-creation to consumers, who are becoming active participants and co-creators of value in the relationship. This requires a new focus for companies, which will have different nuances, depending on the type of electronic marketing they are using.