Table Of ContentBrand Communities for Fast Moving
Consumer Goods
Sandra Meister
Brand Communities
for Fast Moving
Consumer Goods
An Empirical Study of Members‘
Behavior and the Economic Relevance
for the Marketer
Foreword by Prof. Dr. Claudia Fantapié Altobelli
RESEARCH
Sandra Meister
Hamburg, Germany Bernhard Schmidt
Voestalpine Langenhagen, Deutschland
Linz, Österreich
Dissertation Helmut Schmidt University,
University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg, 2012
ISBN 978-3-8349-4054-4 ISBN 978-3-8349-4055-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-4055-1
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
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Foreword
It is no longer possible to imagine the world of communication without social
media. The triumph of Web 2.0 in all economic and social areas has meant
that more and more companies are turning to social media for their
corporate communications. The success of virtual platforms such as
YouTube and Flickr shows that many users no longer see the internet as just
a passive information medium, but are actively involved in content creation.
This book addresses an active area of social media research: brand
communities for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs). A brand community
usually refers to a group of internet users who support a particular product or
brand online, exchange experiences or compile test reports. Although
several studies have already been published on the effectiveness of brand
communities for high-involvement goods, there is no corresponding research
for FMCGs. It is therefore not very clear whether the use of brand
communities by branded goods manufacturers leads to success for the
brands and, if so, under what conditions. The focus of this book is therefore
both contemporary and innovative in every respect.
Operators of online communities usually only collect sociodemographic,
product-related and category-related data from their members, while basic
purchasing characteristics, particularly aspects of customer retention, remain
unknown. By conducting a quantitative research with representative data
from four German FMCG communities, this research takes up this lack of
knowledge. First the author investigates whether brand-community members
have a particular behavioral profile that differs from that of non-members.
She then goes on to assess whether these behavioral characteristics have
any effect on the success of the brands and whether customer retention is
greater among members than among non-members. The behavioral
variables she investigates are emotional attachment to brands (brand
involvement and brand loyalty), social identity (self-presentation through
brand-community membership and innovativeness) and social interactions
V
(sociability, opinion leadership, market maven, opinion seeker). Customer
retention is assessed as a dependent variable in terms of purchase
intention, tolerance of price increase and intention to recommend.
This research is important because it is the first to provide comprehensive
results on the success of FMCG brand communities. Studying the behavioral
profiles of members and non-members also generates important information
for branded goods manufacturers. The research results may initially frustrate
businesses: The success of brand communities for FMCG may in many
cases be lower than assumed. Brand communities have not succeeded in
attracting multipliers (mavens and opinion leaders). Another important
finding is that membership in a community is not connected with higher
levels of brand bond or customer retention. Rather, membership of a brand
community seems to be connected with a distinct thematic interest—such as
cooking—and not with the brand as such.
The results are worth noting in any case and are highly practical for brand
manufacturers. The wide-ranging theoretical insights and practical data
make this a report worth reading as well as the starting-point for further
discussion. I hope the book will be widely distributed among scholars and
practitioners.
Prof. Dr. Claudia Fantapié Altobelli
VI
Preface
Social Media is one of the buzz-words in modern marketing. Brand
communities, as part of this phenomenon, play a more and more important
role in this context as communication tool, not only for high-involvement, but
also for fast moving consumer good (FMCG) brands. But so far, there is only
little knowledge about the effect as well as the consumers involved in FMCG
brand communities. One of the key questions, what kind of consumers take
part in these brand-managed communities, cannot be answered. Can they
be characterized by specific behavioral attributes? Are these attributes
drivers of their willingness to buy or recommend the respective brand? Do
community members behave differently compared with non-members?
Objective of this work was to examine these questions and deliver
implications for the use of brand communities in FMCG marketing.
This document was accepted as doctoral thesis by the Department of
Economics- and Social Science of Helmut-Schmidt-University, University of
the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg, Germany in November 2011.
The successful completion of this work was only possible thanks to the great
support of many people. First of all, I am very grateful for the generous help
of my doctoral adviser, Professor Dr. Claudia Fantapié Altobelli, who
accepted me as an external doctoral candidate. She always had an open ear
and provides me with support and useful food for thoughts.
I further want to thank Professor Dr. Mark Heitmann of the Hamburg
University, who spontaneously took over the role of the second corrector.
I am very grateful for the participation of Dr. Oetker and STABILO
International, as well as of the Sozioland Online Panel in the empirical part
of this thesis. This support made it possible to investigate the brand-
community phenomenon on such a broad basis.
VII
Many thanks also to all my friends, especially to my former colleague
Torsten Danker, providing me with helpful suggestions, as well as technical
and mental support.
Without the support of my family, this study would never be possible. Thanks
to my husband Michael, who encouraged me to start this project and allowed
me to concentrate on this work. A very deep thank to Karin Reinholz and
Ingrid Rudolph for their mental support and tireless work as babysitters.
This book is dedicated to Merle and Millie.
Sandra Meister
VIII
Brief Contents
1 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………….1
2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND DEFINITION OF THE MAIN TERMS…..8
3 FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY………………………………………..112
4 EMPIRICAL STUDY……………………………………………………...172
5 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………….258
APPENDIX B…………………………………………………………….……... 269
REFERENCES………………………………………………………………….271
APPENDIX A and B can be accessed as additional material
(OnlinePlus) on www.springer-gabler.de, author’s name: Meister, ISBN
978-3-8349-4054-4.
IX
Contents
LIST OF FIGURES XVII
LIST OF TABLES XIX
ABBREVIATIONS XXIII
1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Scope and Problem Description 1
1.2 Objective of the Study and Delimitation of the Research Object 2
1.3 Structure of the Paper 5
2 THEORETICAL FUNDATIONS AND LITERATURE REVIEW 8
2.1 Brand Communities 8
2.1.1 The Brand 8
2.1.1.1 Definition of the Term Brand 8
2.1.1.2 A Brand Owner and Consumer Perspective
on the Brand 11
2.1.1.3 Classification of Brands 17
2.1.2 The Community 21
2.1.2.1 Definition of the Term Community 21
2.1.2.2 Classification of Communities 23
2.1.3 Brand Communities 27
2.1.3.1 Brand Communities—Definitions 27
2.2.3.2 Brand Communities as Part of Social Media 36
2.1.3.3 Categorization of Brand Communities 39
2.1.3.3.1 Initiator 40
2.1.3.3.2 Driver / Leader 41
2.1.3.3.3 Access 43
2.1.3.3.4 Online vs. Offline 44
2.1.3.3.5 Host 45
XI
2.2 State of Research on Brand Communities 45
2.2.1 Empirical Research on Brand Communities 45
2.2.1.1 Motivation to Participate and Community Bond 46
2.2.1.2 Impact on Brand Preference and Economic
Determinants 51
2.2.1.3 Value Creation: Innovation and Consumer Insight 55
2.2.2 Overview of the Existing Brand-community Research 57
2.3 Consumer Behavior from a Brand-Community Perspective 69
2.3.1 Key Aspects of Consumer Behavior from a
Brand-Community Perspective 69
2.3.2 Determinants of Consumer Behavior Relevant for Brand
Communities 73
2.3.2.1 Psychological and Emotional Determinants 73
2.3.2.2 Social Determinants 79
2.3.3 Main Theories on Consumer Behavior Relevant for Brand
Communities 83
2.3.3.1 Social Learning Theory 84
2.3.3.2 Social Identity Theory 89
2.3.3.3 Theory of Cognitive Dissonance 93
2.3.3.4 Self-perception Theory 96
2.4 Customer Retention as Marketing Objective for Brand Communities 100
2.4.1 Definition of Customer Retention 101
2.4.2 Determinants of Customer Retention 104
2.5 Delimitation of the Research Object and Additional Need
for Research 108
3 FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY 112
3.1 Conceptualization of the Research Framework 112
3.1.1 Emotional Relationship to Brand and Company 113
3.1.2 Social Identity through Brand-community Membership 115
3.1.3 Social Interaction and Moral Responsibility 117
XII
