Brand Community: Drivers and Outcomes

Groups of users and admirers of a brand who engage jointly in group actions to accomplish collective goals and/or to express mutual sentiments and commitments are known as brand communities. Lately, brand communities have been a heavily researched topic in marketing science. While the positive consequences of brand communities are well documented in the literature, little is known about how brand communities can be facilitated and how consumer-brand relationships can be fostered. This research empirically assesses the relevance of offline (i.e., events) and online marketing management tools (i.e., Web sites with online bulletin boards and online expert chats) to strengthen brand communities by facilitating shared customer experiences and multi-way interactions. Additionally, the importance of consumer-brand identification as a consequence of such relationship-building activities is investigated, and the outcomes of a consumer's identification with a brand are analyzed. Important management implications can be derived. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.