Social Media, Brand Community, User generated comments and Brand Loyalty: Study of Indian Youth

Abstract

The emergence of online social networks influences people in various ways and moreover, the effect is predicted to be high on the young adolescents wherein we find that target group who is more exposed themselves to the online social media. It is believed that the social networks such as online brand communities influence the purchase intentions and in turn enhances brand trust and loyalty. Taking the perspective of the brand community building plus the brand trust and loyalty literatures, our goal is to show how brand communities based on social media influence elements of the customer centric model (i.e., the relationships among focal customer and brand, product, company, and other customers) and brand loyalty. A survey-based empirical study with 441 respondents was conducted. The results of structural equation modeling show that brand communities on social media have positive effects on customer/product, customer/brand, customer/company and customer/other customer relationships, which in turn have positive impact on brand trust and trust has positive impact on brand loyalty. The finding also demonstrates the fully mediating role of brand trust in converting the enhanced relationships in brand community and loyalty. I. Introduction Since the internet and other media have been adopted and integrated into the daily lives of an increasing number of young adolescents in most of the countries, scholars and commentators are debating the impact of these new media on the activities, social relationships, and worldviews of the younger generations. Controversies about whether technology shapes values, attitudes, and patterns of social behavior are not new. In the recent past, the rapid expansion of television stimulated similar discussions of its cultural and social effects. media provide a virtual network place where people can enjoy expressing their opinions, exchange opinions, disseminate and control messages anywhere anytime. Marketers are now able to reach consumers and interact with them using social media. Previous studies have found that consumers tend to trust more user- generated messages, such as peer recommendations or consumer reviews, on social media than messages from traditional mass media. Consumers comments about a product on social media produce a negative or positive brand buzz and the virtual messages affect consumer purchasing decisions. How seriously should marketers think about social media effects in marketing practices? Social media is no longer a trend for marketers: It is a reality (Williamson, 2010). media is an inevitable channel for customer support (Jacobs, 2009). Even though social media has been recognized as the most potentially powerful medium, there is lack of understanding in terms of why people use social media and how they perceive marketing messages on social media.