Elsevier

Journal of Business Research

Volume 99, June 2019, Pages 422-429
Journal of Business Research

Influence of integration on interactivity in social media luxury brand communities

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.10.001Get rights and content

Abstract

Luxury brand marketers have recently turned their attention to customer-driven social media communities devoted to their brands. The key concepts of integration and interactivity provide the theoretical foundation to investigate social media luxury brand communities (LBCs). Data were collected from 252 luxury brand Facebook fan page members in South Korea. The study examines the effects of: (1) LBC integration on interaction as a process; (2) interaction as a process on perceived interactivity of LBCs; and (3) integration and interactivity on attitudes, brand loyalty, and purchase intentions. The findings confirm: positive effects of LBC integration on interaction as a process and positive effects of interaction as a process on perceived interactivity of LBCs. The results also confirm the effects of interactivity on brand attitude, brand loyalty, and purchase intentions. It is the first to offer a theoretical framework to analyze social media LBCs using the key concepts of integration and interactivity.

Introduction

Luxury fashion brand marketers and advertisers have recently turned their attention to luxury consumers in social media communities devoted to their brands (Ko & Megehee, 2012). Consumers are drawn to luxury brands for more than just the acquisition of materialistic or superficial possessions. They may also be drawn by perceptions of profound value, exceptional craftsmanship, and identification with a particular country (Keller, 2009, Miller and Mills, 2012, Phau and Prendergast, 2000). Luxury consumption is therefore multidimensional and embraces financial (e.g., exclusivity), functional (e.g., product excellence), individual (e.g., personal enjoyment), and social value (e.g., prestige and status) components (Hennigs et al., 2013, Miller and Mills, 2012). As a result, luxury brand managers recognize that complex and psychological motivations drive consumers to purchase their items.

The consumer perception that a product is luxurious depends on subjective consumer experiences, individual needs, and product categories (Ko, 2011). Currently, luxury brand images have expanded to include brand heritage, quality, artistic value, and customer relationships (Kim & Ko, 2012). In an effort to communicate these images more effectively with customers, luxury fashion brands, in particular, are expanding their use of social media communities (Kim & Ko, 2012).

Since Cartier established the first online luxury brand community on MySpace (Goldie, 2005), other luxury brands such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Prada, have created many online and social media communities devoted to their brands. If luxury brand managers want to successfully manage their brand communities in the face of an ever-changing social media environment, they need to understand how to effectively communicate deeper values around their luxury brands through their brand communities (Chi, 2012, Fujita et al., 2017, Jung and Kim, 2016, Lewis et al., 2017, Porter and Dontsu, 2008).

In general, brand communities are specialized, non-geographically bound, and based on a social relationship among the brand users (Muniz & O'Guinn, 2001) who share both particular and common devotion to the brand. Social brand communities, where members have a relationship in the social media context, can create trustworthy experiences for customers, inspire interactivity, improve brand attitudes, augment brand loyalty, and increase purchase behaviors (Chelladurai, 2016, Gu and Kim, 2016, Kim et al., 2015, Kim and Leng, 2017, Porter and Dontsu, 2008, Sabah, 2017, Yu et al., 2017).

This study uses the key concepts of integration and interactivity to provide a theoretical foundation to investigate luxury brand communities (LBCs) on social media. The study examines: (1) the effects of LBC integration on interaction as a process; (2) the effects of interaction as a process on perceived interactivity of LBCs; and (3) the effects of integration and interactivity on attitudes, brand loyalty, and purchase intentions. It also discusses the implications for luxury brand management academia as well as practitioners.

Section snippets

Theoretical framework of luxury brand communities

To enhance their brands, create customer relationships, and increase sales, luxury brands need to develop more unique brand identities, and through those, offer exclusive brand relationships. Luxury brand communities are inherently oriented toward acquiring new and refined experiences (Freire, 2014), and boosting brand relationships (Hagtvedt & Patrick, 2009).

Since most luxury brands try to appeal to customers through their symbolic and emotional aspects, brands that create positive

Methods

The study investigates key questions about associations among integration, interactivity, attitude, purchase intention, and brand loyalty by surveying 252 members of social media LBCs in South Korea. The participant pool included 120 men (47.6%) and 132 women (52.4%) from 20 to 49 years old (mean = 32.2 years). Specifically, this survey recruited members of luxury brand Facebook fan pages. Before completing the entire survey, participants were asked whether they were LBC members, specifically of a

Results

In terms of validity and reliability (see Table 2): the measurement model had an acceptable overall goodness-of-fit (Chi-square = 1176.776, DF = 647, p < 0.001, Chi-square/DF = 1.819, RMR = 0.045, CFI = 0.904, RMSEA = 0.057). The reliability coefficients of the integration measures (product, brand, company, and other owners) were 0.815, 0.779, 0.719, and 0.800, respectively. The reliability coefficient of all five interactions as a process was 0.816. The reliability coefficient of all 10 perceived

Discussion

This study makes three key contributions that have implications for academics and practitioners. First, the study offers a theoretical framework to analyze social media LBCs using the key concepts of integration and interactivity. Second, the findings confirm a relationship between the key concepts: positive effects of LBC integration on interaction as a process and positive effects of interaction as a process on perceived interactivity of LBCs in the social media context. Finally, the study

References (80)

  • H. Hagtvedt et al.

    The broad embrace of luxury: Hedonic potential as a driver of brand extendibility

    Journal of Consumer Psychology

    (2009)
  • J. Holland et al.

    Participation in creating site brand loyalty

    Journal of Interactive Marketing

    (2001)
  • A.J. Kim et al.

    Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion brand communities

    Journal of Business Research

    (2012)
  • J. Kim et al.

    Towards a theoretical framework of motivations and interactivity for using IPTV

    Journal of Business Research

    (2013)
  • E. Ko et al.

    Fashion marketing of luxury brands: Recent research issues and contributions

    Journal of Business Research

    (2012)
  • J. Koh et al.

    Knowledge sharing in virtual communities: An e-business perspective

    Expert Systems with Applications

    (2004)
  • S.M.C. Loureiro et al.

    Luxury values and experience as drivers for consumers to recommend and pay more

    Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

    (2014)
  • K.W. Miller et al.

    Contributing clarity by examining brand luxury in the fashion market

    Journal of Business Research

    (2012)
  • P. Nambisan et al.

    Managing customer experiences in online communities

    Journal of Business Research

    (2011)
  • M.E. Zaglia

    Brand communities embedded in social networks

    Journal of Business Research

    (2013)
  • R. Algesheimer et al.

    The social influence of brand communities: Evidence from European car clubs

    Journal of Marketing

    (2005)
  • A.L. Baldinger et al.

    Brand loyalty: The link between attitude and behavior

    Journal of Advertising Research

    (1996)
  • J.M.T. Balmer

    Identity based views of the corporation: Insights from corporate identity, organizational identity, social identity, visual identity, corporate brand identity and corporate image

    European Journal of Marketing

    (2008)
  • R. Batra et al.

    Affective responses mediating acceptance of advertising

    Journal of Consumer Research

    (1986)
  • T.N. Bauer et al.

    Newcomer adjustment during organizational socialization: A meta-analytic review of antecedents, outcomes, and methods

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (2007)
  • R.C. Blattberg et al.

    Interactive marketing: Exploiting the age of addressability

    Sloan Management Review

    (1991)
  • A. Chaudhuri et al.

    The chain of effects from brand trust and brand affect to brand performance: The role of brand loyalty

    Journal of Marketing

    (2001)
  • P. Chelladurai

    Corporate social responsibility and discretionary social initiatives in sport: A position paper

    Journal of Global Sport Management

    (2016)
  • H.H. Chi

    Interactive Digital advertising vs. virtual brand community exploratory study of user motivation and social media marketing responses in Taiwan

    Journal of Global Fashion Marketing

    (2012)
  • H.K. Chi et al.

    The Impact of brand awareness on consumer purchase intention: The mediating effect of perceived quality and brand loyalty

    The Journal of International Management Studies

    (2009)
  • H. Chung et al.

    Effects of perceived interactivity on web site preference and memory: Role of personal motivation

    Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

    (2004)
  • J.R. Coyle et al.

    The effects of progressive levels of interactivity and vividness in web marketing sites

    Journal of Advertising

    (2001)
  • N.A. Freire

    When luxury advertising adds the identitary values of luxury: A semiotic analysis

    Journal of Business Research

    (2014)
  • M. Fujita et al.

    A netnography of a university's social media brand community: Exploring collaborative co-creation tactics

    Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science

    (2017)
  • E. Garbarino et al.

    The different roles of satisfaction, trust, and commitment in customer relationships

    Journal of Marketing

    (1999)
  • S. Ghose et al.

    Interactive functions and their impacts on the appeal of Internet presence sites

    Journal of Advertising Research

    (1998)
  • L. Goldie

    Cartier becomes first luxury brand to set up community on Myspace

    New Media Age

    (2005)
  • D. Grace et al.

    Examining the effects of service brand communications on brand evaluation

    Journal of Product and Brand Management

    (2005)
  • E.L. Grubb et al.

    Consumer self-concept, symbolism, and market behavior: A theoretical approach

    Journal of Marketing

    (1967)
  • S. Gu et al.

    What drives customers to use retailers' Facebook pages? Predicting consumers' motivations and continuance usage intention

    Journal of Global Fashion Marketing

    (2016)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text