Specialized Social Media (SSM) and Luxury Brands: An Abstract

Abstract

Luxury brands are still slow to adopt digitalization and multi-faceted interactions at service encounters (Holmqvist et al., 2020; Tynan et al., 2010). Responding to calls for research on the drivers of consumers’ engagement in the luxury sector, specifically on social media (Bazi et al., 2020), this study investigates the role of motivations as enhancers of customer experience. Indeed, the concept of specialized social media SSM is still scarce in the field of luxury brands research. Holmqvist et al. (2020) emphasize the role of digitalization in enhancing in-store experience as well as exclusive digital platforms by which luxury brands can create a like-minded community. Complementing previous studies about the effects of social media on purchase intention, Bazi et al. (2020) identify six categories for customer engagement’s motivations (perceived content relevancy, brand-customer relationship, hedonic, socio-psychological, brand equity, and technology factors) with luxury brands. Based on these results, our research extends to emerging literature by introducing the SSM and their impact on customers’ experience and purchasing behavior from a perspective of technology-enabled multi-actor interactions (Bolton et al., 2018; Holmqvist et al., 2020). We emphasize the role of digitalization at the pre-visit rather than post-visit as per Holmqvist et al.’s study. Our study’s main goal is to demonstrate the direct impact of motivations related to using SSM (like-minded discussion, social escapism, and information motivation) on consumer experience (engagement on SSM, attitude toward the brand and brand trust). The study also tests the mediating role of consumer experience between SSM motivations and the likelihood to visit a store and purchase intention. In addition, the conceptual model investigates how brand love moderates the process by which motivations related to using SSM affect consumer experience. The PERFUMIST platform is set for the context of our research, which is a SSM with an ever-growing database of almost 50,000 perfumes from over 2000 different brands intended to all users interested in perfumes. The sample is composed of 335 community members. Real engagement data on the platform are integrated to the model as part of customer’s experience. The results highlight the relationship between SSM motivations and consumer’s experience. These effects enhance in-store visits and purchasing intentions.The study advances our understanding of how the SSM realm intersects with previous research on the physical realm (Atwal & Williams, 2009; Dion & Borraz, 2015), and the social realm (Dubois, 2020; Dubois & Ordabayeva, 2016; Kastanakis & Balabanis, 2014) for luxury brands.