Exploring customer loyalty to fashion brands on facebook fan pages

Abstract

This article addresses the subject of building fan loyalty to company Facebook pages. Customer loyalty is a key prerequisite for a company’s success in today’s globalised world. Companies now use Facebook extensively to communicate with existing and potential customers. The aim of this article is to determine whether Facebook can be used to build customer loyalty to fan pages and whether this loyalty has an impact on loyalty to promoted brands. The research focused on the Facebook fan pages of high street fashion brands (e.g. H&M, C&A and Orsay) and their fans. Research of the literature was used to posit a theoretical model of fan loyalty to Facebook fan pages in connection with loyalty to clothing brands. This model was tested with the statistical method known as structural equations modelling (SEM). The research involved 292 respondents over the age of 18 who have liked at least one high street fashion fan page on Facebook. The results confirmed the validity of the proposed model. It was found that loyalty to the fan page is built through trust and satisfaction with the fan page. It was also demonstrated that loyalty to the fan page has a positive impact on loyalty to clothing brands. Both “loyalties” in this model were measured using the second-order method, which includes both behavioural and attitudinal loyalty. It can therefore be said that communication from companies builds a positive relationship with the fan page / clothing brands and also increases the future frequency of page visits and purchases of branded clothes. Hence, Facebook can be deemed an effective tool for building loyalty.