Personal Branding and Brand Loyalty, Social Network Users Brand Identification: Polish-French Model

Abstract

Social network brand sites are increasingly attracting the attention of scientists and managers intrigued by their potential application for brand value creation. The aim of this research, based on a multinational sample, is to fill the gap in understanding how users choose among social networking sites as an act of brand identification. The authors of the paper point to the fact that creating a personal brand is becoming more and more important to today's social media users and may be significant from the point of view of commercial brand value creation in social networks. The study presents a Customer Social Network Brand Identification Model (CsnBI) created for Polish and French populations, analysed with the use of a structural equal modelling method. Research sample based on 346 sample cases was gathered across Poland and France among Facebook users from May to June 2016. The presented model reveals that personal branding is a planned effect of social network users’ identification with a brand and that personal branding is stronger than the brand loyalty effect of the CsnBI. These findings lead to interesting practical implications. Namely, social network users’ identification with the brand does not have to lead to strong loyalty understood as purchasing a product on regular basis. As opposed to real-life participants, social network users do not need to own branded products to use their image. Thus, from a practical point of view, in order to build the capital of a commercial value on Facebook it is necessary to issue content which focuses on the users and their self-presentation, and not on the brand. A commercial brand, therefore, in order to be effective, ought not to be the subject of the content presented on its own fan page, and ought not to be the centre of its attention. Our study helps understand mechanisms of brand value creation through social media in a better and more complete way.