Online Brand Communities: Using the Social Web for Branding and Marketing

256 Pages·2016·2.45 MB·English

by  Francisco J. Martínez-López

Progress in IS
Francisco J. Martínez-López
Rafael Anaya-Sánchez
Rocio Aguilar-Illescas
Sebastián Molinillo
Online Brand
Communities
Using the Social Web for Branding and
Marketing
Progress in IS
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10440
(cid:1)
Francisco J. Mart´ınez-Lopez •
Rafael Anaya-Sa´nchez • Rocio Aguilar-Illescas •
Sebastia´n Molinillo
Online Brand Communities
Using the Social Web for Branding and
Marketing
FranciscoJ.Mart´ınez-L(cid:1)opez RafaelAnaya-Sa´nchez
Dept.BusinessAdministration Dept.Economics&
UniversityofGranada BusinessAdministration
Granada,Spain UniversityofMalaga
Malaga,Spain
MarketingGroup
OpenUniversityofCatalonia
Barcelona,Spain
RocioAguilar-Illescas Sebastia´nMolinillo
Dept.Economics& Dept.Economics&
BusinessAdministration BusinessAdministration
UniversityofMalaga UniversityofMalaga
Malaga,Spain Malaga,Spain
ISSN2196-8705 ISSN2196-8713 (electronic)
ProgressinIS
ISBN978-3-319-24824-0 ISBN978-3-319-24826-4 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-24826-4
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2015958092
SpringerChamHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
©SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2016
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Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 EvolutionoftheWeb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 EvolutionofInformationandCommunicationTechnologies. . . 5
2.2 EvolutionoftheWeb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.1 Web1.0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2.2 Web2.0:TheStartoftheSocialWeb. . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2.3 SemanticWeb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2.4 Web3.0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2.5 Web4.0andtheFutureoftheInternet. . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3 FoundationsandStructureoftheSocialWeb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1 RationingoftheSocialWeb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.2 WhyIstheSocialWebUsed?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.3 ToolsandApplicationsoftheSocialWeb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.3.1 VirtualCommunities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.3.2 VirtualSocialNetworks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.3.3 Blogs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.3.4 MicroblogsorNanoblogging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.3.5 Wikis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.3.6 OtherSocialApplications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.4 VisualMapoftheSocialWeb’sToolsandApplications. . . . . . 37
3.5 SocialCommerce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.5.1 WhatIsSocialCommerce?AConceptualization. . . . . 39
3.5.2 SocialCommercevs.e-Commerce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4 UtilityoftheSocialWebforBusiness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2 InterestoftheSocialWebtoCompanies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
v
vi Contents
4.3 HowtoMeasureaCompany’sActionsontheSocialWeb. . . . 50
4.3.1 Overview.. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. 50
4.3.2 HowtoCalculatetheReturnonInvestment
intheSocialMedia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.4 RisksoftheSocialWebforCompanies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.5 ManagerialChangesMotivatedbytheSocialWeb. . . . . . . . . . 60
4.6 SomeDataontheCompanies’UseoftheSocialWeb. . . . . . . 61
5 EvolutionoftheMarketingMind-SetandtheValue-Creation
Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.1 Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.1.1 EvolutionofBusiness-to-ConsumerCommunication. . . 65
5.1.2 ANewConsumerProfile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.2 MarketingMindsetEvolution:FromMarketing1.0to
Marketing3.0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.2.1 Marketing1.0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.2.2 Marketing2.0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.2.3 Marketing3.0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.3 KeystoUnderstandingtheValue-CreationProcess
intheContextoftheSocialWeb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.3.1 Value-Creation:AnOverview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.3.2 Value-CreationontheSocialWeb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.4 NewWaysofConnectingwithConsumersonthe
SocialWeb. . . . .. . . . .. . . . . .. . . . .. . . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . 77
5.4.1 CrowdsourcingMarketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.4.2 ElectronicWordofMouth(eWOM). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.4.3 Gamification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.4.4 InboundMarketing. . .. . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . .. . . . .. 83
5.4.5 SocialCRM(CustomerRelationshipManagement). . . 84
6 BrandandSocialWeb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.1 Branding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.1.1 TraditionalBranding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.1.2 BrandEquity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
6.2 EvolutionofBrandingTowardsIntegratingtheSocialWeb. . . 92
6.2.1 ProductParadigm. .. . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. 93
6.2.2 ProjectiveParadigm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
6.2.3 AdaptiveParadigm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6.2.4 RelationalParadigm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6.2.5 CommunityBrandManagementParadigm. . . . . . . . . 97
7 ConceptualApproachtoCommunity,VirtualCommunity
andOnlineBrandCommunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
7.1 Community. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
7.2 OnlineCommunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
7.3 BrandCommunitiesandOnlineBrandCommunities. . . . . . . . 114
Contents vii
7.3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
7.3.2 Conceptualizationof(Virtual)BrandCommunities. . . 115
7.3.3 AsyntheticOverviewoftheResearchinBrand
Communities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
7.4 OfflineVs.OnlineCommunities:ABriefComparison. . . . . . . 122
8 TypesofVirtualCommunitiesandVirtualBrandCommunities. . . 125
8.1 ClassificationofVirtualCommunities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
8.1.1 FirstApproachestoClassifyingVirtual
Communities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
8.1.2 ClassificationBasedonWhoSponsorstheCommunity:
UsersVs.Companies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
8.1.3 OtherClassifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
8.2 ClassificationsofVirtualBrandCommunities. . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
8.3 Anti-brandCommunities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
8.4 AnIntegrativeClassificationofVirtualBrandCommunities. . . 139
9 Consumers’MotivationstoParticipateinVirtualBrand
Communities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
9.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
9.2 TheoriesRelatedtotheCommunityMembers’Motivations. . . 143
9.2.1 ConsumerCultureTheory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
9.2.2 SocialIdentityTheory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
9.2.3 TheoryofPlannedBehavior(TPB). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
9.2.4 SenseofVirtualCommunityTheory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
9.2.5 UsesandGratificationTheory(UGT). . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
9.2.6 SocialExchangeTheory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
9.2.7 TechnologyAcceptanceModel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
9.2.8 Actor-NetworkTheory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
9.2.9 NetworkTheory. .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . 151
9.2.10 Self-DeterminationTheory(SDT). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
9.2.11 Lead-UserTheory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
9.3 MotivationstoJoinandParticipateinVirtualCommunities. . . 153
9.4 MotivationstoEnterandParticipateinVirtualBrand
Communities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
10 FactorsInfluencingMembers’EngagementwithVirtualBrand
Communities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
10.1 Backdrop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
10.2 EngagementwiththeOnlineBrandCommunity. . . . . . . . . . . . 165
10.2.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
10.2.2 EngagementFoundations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
10.2.3 ConceptualizingEngagement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
10.2.4 AContextualizationofEngagementWithintheSocial
WebandVirtualBrandCommunities. . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
viii Contents
10.2.5 Consumers’IdentificationwithBrandsandVirtual
BrandCommunities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
10.3 Engagement-RelatedOutcomes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
10.3.1 ParticipationintheCommunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
10.3.2 SatisfactionwiththeCommunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
10.3.3 TrustintheCommunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
10.3.4 LoyaltytotheCommunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
10.3.5 CommitmentwiththeCommunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
10.4 OtherFactorsThatInfluenceMembers’Engagement
withaVirtualBrandCommunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
10.4.1 SocialNorms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
10.4.2 UsabilityandAesthetics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
10.4.3 Entertainment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
10.4.4 Quality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
10.4.5 Recommendations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
11 ValueCreationinVirtualBrandCommunities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
11.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
11.2 ImplicationsofValueCreationinVirtualBrandCommunities
forCompanies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
11.2.1 BenefitsofVirtualBrandCommunities
forCompanies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
11.2.2 PotentialProblemsandThreatsofVirtualBrand
CommunitiesforCompanies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
11.3 Consumers’RoleinVirtualBrandCommunities:Prosumer
andValueCo-creation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
11.3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
11.3.2 ValueCo-creationinVirtualBrandCommunities. . . . 201
12 CreatingandDevelopingVirtualBrandCommunities:
SomePracticalGuidelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
12.1 SuccessFactorsforCreatingandDevelopingVirtual
BrandCommunities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
12.2 GeneralConsiderationsfortheCreationandDevelopment
ofVirtualBrandCommunities. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . 210
12.3 OverviewoftheProcessofCreatingaVirtualBrand
Community:KeyStages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Chapter 1
Introduction
Originally, human communities were comprised of people who shared a value
system and interpersonal trust (Wiegandt, 2009). The basic motive for belonging
toacommunityhasevolvedthroughthetwentiethcentury,becomingincreasingly
basedonanindividual’sinterestsandneeds(Wilson,1990),notsolelygeography
or family. This new type of community combines traditional community values
withindividuals’needssuchasself-actualization(VonLoewenfeld,2006).
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) strengthen the role of
interests and needs, decreasing the importance of a person’s location on their
integrationintoaspecificcommunity(Uslaner,2000);theubiquityoftheInternet
greatlyfacilitatestheexpansionofthephenomenonofvirtualcommunities(Plant,
2004).TheevolutionoftheInternetresultedinwebsitesevolvingfrommereplaces
oftransactionstospacesofdialoguewhereuserssharetheirexperiences.Withthe
integration of individuals comes the integration of their thoughts, feelings, state-
ments,andactionsinrelationtobrands(Weber,2007).Thesecommunities,which
tend to be linked to a common topic, problem or task that connects the distinct
users,havetheirowncodesofconduct,bothimplicitandexplicit(Uribe,Rialp,&
Llonch,2010).Furthermore,theyareusuallyspecialized,geographicallydisperse,
and based in dynamic networks that allows users to present their shared values
(Dholakia,Bagozzi,&Pearo,2004).
Thecommunities,supportedbytechnologyplatforms,currentlyattractanample
percentage of the population and generate a high level of trust among their
members. When a common sentiment is shared, the bonds within the virtual
communityarestrengthened(Wiegandt,2009).Someofthecommunities’charac-
teristicsarerelatedwithmembers’continuous,asynchronousorreal-timeandrapid
useofchat,forums,etc.(Sung,Kim,Kwon,&Moon,2010),featuresmadepossible
by the Internet, its global span, etc. (Uribe et al., 2010). However, in the present
day,theInternetadvertisersfindsitselffacingnewchallenges,likeidentifyingthe
©SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2016 1
F.J.Mart´ınez-Lo´pezetal.,OnlineBrandCommunities,ProgressinIS,
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-24826-4_1