شناسایی برند مصرف کننده، جامعه برند و وفاداری برند On the relationship between consumer-brand identification, brand community, and brand loyalty

1. Introduction Social media represents a new challenge for brands and consumer researchers since it presents a new form of the consumer-brand relationship (Davis et al., 2014; Fournier and Avery, 2011; Laroche et al., 2013). An increasing number of companies are investing time and money into designing strategies and managing brand communities on social media to gain consumers’ attention and interact with them (de Vries et al., 2012; Munnukka et al., 2015). These communities constitute new marketing research tools, since marketers can harvest reliable information about who consumers are and gain insights on various aspects of their everyday lives including lifestyles, needs, desires and consumption expectations (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2002; Brogi, 2014; Enginkaya and Hakan, 2014; Harris and Dennis, 2011). They can also act as relational marketing instruments, facilitating communication with consumers on a one-to-one basis (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2002; de Vries et al., 2012; Harris and Dennis, 2011). In recent years, many scholars and practitioners have been exploring this field of research concerning the new challenges brands are facing (Davis et al., 2014; Fournier and Avery, 2011). A major question is how the interactions within the brand community on social media translate into a relationship with the brand. Studies published thus far have focused on the relationship between the brand community dynamics (practices and relationships within the community) and customer loyalty (Brodie et al., 2013; Habibi et al., 2014a; Hollebeek et al., 2014; Labrecque, 2014; Laroche et al., 2013, 2012; Park and Kim, 2014). As seminal works, these studies explored highly dynamic brand communities, choosing high involvement brands (e.g., Harley Davison, Apple, Starbucks) or products (e.g., cars, motorcycles, computers or cameras). Today, all sorts of brands from all product categories interact with consumers on social media, even convenience goods (Habibi et al., 2014a). Moreover, different types of consumers are increasingly available to these interactions (Baldus et al., 2015). Can one expect those same results in brand communities of low-involvement products? The mass-market is highly competitive, many products are designed for the same purpose and are undifferentiated from consumers’ perspectives. Brands working in this market have until now, not had, a direct communication channel with consumers. Social media offers them the opportunity to listen to and talk with consumers. For marketers, being inside ‘people’s media’ (Fournier and Avery, 2011) will provide access to consumers and consumer data and promote brand awareness (Spaulding, 2010). Another important issue, which has not been found in previous studies, is the role of the brand in social media. No studies have explored the importance of the brand itself in this context. Researchers have been focused on community dynamics in predicting customer loyalty. This paper overcomes this research gap in the scientific literature by explicitly considering brand identity and consumer-brand identification in fostering brand loyalty. Even the mass-market involves different types of brands in consumers’ minds. Hence, it is expected that brands that are able to promote adequate identification with consumers may expect better results from their exposure on social media.