Credibility, audacity and joy: Brand personalities that connect users to social media.
| Autor | Demo, Gisela |
| Cargo | Report |
Introduction
Over the years, the way people communicate with each other has changed. Social networks were widely adopted as social interaction platforms, a practice that created a new reality for businesses, that may use these networks to promote their products, acknowledge their public and develop a closer relationship with clients. Social networks transformed the way people interact globally. This digital environment can be described as a complex context still lacking deeper investigation, given the novel character of this content in scientific literature (Kleineberg & Boguna, 2016).
In this context, the use of social networks as tools in customer relationship development has become a frequent phenomenon in companies, bringing them closer to their clients (Qualman, 2010). This tool creates customer value through advertising, public relations, content creation, sales, customer service and user support, besides the opportunity of collecting information that will enable the development of new offers (Culnan, Mchuch, & Zubilla, 2010). Companies benefit from this in terms of user targeting, viral marketing, cost reduction, profitability, user satisfaction and customer retention.
Because of this scenario, competition among social networks demands new differentiation strategies, in order to conquer customer preference and loyalty. In this context, the scientific production relating social network and marketing strategy has been valuable for marketing research companies, organizations, and brands in different market segments (Mostafa, 2013), showing that social networks are a useful platform for firms/brands and user interaction despite how no attention being given to social networks as brands, and how they relate to their customers: the users. Additionally, competition between social networks engenders a literature gap, and its relevance lies in the fact that these companies constitute building blocks in innovation development and in the transformations lived by consumer societies (Kleineberg & Boguna, 2016). Specifically, technological advances create new customer profiles, demanding companies learn how to sensitize them (Kimura, Basso, & Martin, 2008).
Thus, the comprehension of customer dynamic with reference to new technologies is paramount to marketing research. Each social network is recognized by a particular characteristic that makes them stand out among the others, although this has not been enough to avoid competition in the sector, considering that it is a segment that allows the entry of competitors at all times and in which technologies can be easily copied (Pacanhan, Chiusoli, & Stahl, 2007). Moreover, for Kleineberg and Boguna (2016), a brand only exists in digital context if it is able to attract and keep user attention.
So, it is plausible to say that each social network is a different brand competing in a pool of innovation, and for this reason, we decided to investigate social networks as brands under relationship marketing theory, particularly in terms of the aspects that make users loyal to these brands. Gronroos (2009) and Sheth and Parvatiyar (2002) corroborate by presenting relationship marketing as a strategic approach placing the customer first and changing the marketing role from manipulating customers to making a real commitment to them. The authors emphasize the retention of profitable customers, multiple markets and an approach regarding multifunctional marketing, where customer loyalty plays an important role as a relevant indicator of well-built relationship marketing.
Although the body of knowledge on relationship marketing covers several relevant aspects that tell us the way brands and customers relate, loyalty is a building block in this literature (Agariya & Singh, 2011; Berry, 1995; Ndubisi, 2007; Oliver, 1999). Oliver (1999, p. 33) stated that satisfaction was not the "king" anymore, and researchers should investigate other mechanisms that guide customer loyalty. Considering our research context, we wonder: what makes users loyal to social networks?
As proposed by Fournier (1998, p. 343), loyalty is "a long-term, committed and affect-laden partnership", and brand personality is a construct that can help bring together brands and customers, given the characteristics of the brand seen as positive by customers in a long-term relationship. In other words, brand personality enables customers to legitimate a brand as a partner. This construct represents a set of human characteristics associated with a brand, being a measure of the emotional bond that brands and customers have (Aaker, 1997).
Brand personality is a construct that assumes a symbolic function (Keller & Lehman, 2006), which can be used in examining brand relationships (Fournier, 1998; Hankinson & Cowking, 1993). In addition, customers frequently use brands that are part of people's lives as a way to deliver a message about themselves to others (Jeronimo, Ramos, & Ferreira, 2018).
These arguments showed us a possible relation between relationship marketing and brand personality, given that brand identification may open an opportunity of a closer relationship between brand and consumer. There have been efforts at understanding social networks as a marketing tool in organizations (Carneiro, Simoes, & Felipe, 2013; Soares & Monteiro, 2015; Thackeray, Neiger, & Keller, 2012), but little attention has been dedicated to the study of social networks as brands looking for competitive advantages.
Considering the complexity of digital environment competition, it is imperative to understand how relationship marketing and brand personality relate in the context of social networks, and for this, we propose to investigate brand personality as a driver of customer loyalty. Thereafter, our main purpose is to evaluate the influence of brand personality on customer loyalty in the context of social networks.
Brand Personality
From the moment that brands started to be considered a competitive advantage source, literature has concentrated efforts on identifying brand-related aspects that create brand preference (Biel, 1993; Brito, 2010; Gardner & Levi, 1955; Hogstrom, Gustafsso, & Tronvoll, 2015; Scussel & Demo, 2016; Sirgy, 1982). Among these efforts, there is the concept of brand personality, a set of characteristics that define a brand in the same way as perceiving someone's personality (Aaker, 1997).
Brand personality represents the set of human characteristics customers perceive in a brand, in a similar way they would describe someone's personality (Batra, Lehmann, & Singh, 1993). Although brand personality has its roots in psychology and it engenders a useful metaphor to describe customers' perceptions towards a brand (Caprara, Barbaranelli, & Guido, 1998), brand personality is a construct belonging to a market perspective, with the aim of understanding the impact of brand personality on consumer behavior (Azoulay & Kapferer, 2003; Scussel & Demo, 2016).
The relevance of this construct in marketing research has been proven. Studies suggest the relation between brand personality and consumer self-concept (Jeronimo et al., 2018); the use of brands for customers to express their beliefs and personalities (Diamantopoulos, Smith, & Grime, 2005; Park & John, 2012); and the influence of brand personality on product and services preference (Swaminathan, Stilley, & Ahluwalia, 2009). Brand personality was found to be a component of competitive strategy formulation (Malar, Nyffenegger, Krohmer, & Hoyer, 2012), an element used in brand positioning (D. H. Kim & Sung, 2013) and a relevant construct used by advertising in consumer persuasion (Park & John, 2012). Our paper will be based on the second perspective.
It was Jennifer Aaker, in the end of the 1990's, who changed the research tradition on brand personality (Azoulay & Kapferer, 2003). In her work, Aaker (1997) conceptualized brand personality in the context of marketing literature, operationalizing the construct through a measurement scale of brand personality, an instrument that has guided the latest findings in this content (Scussel & Demo, 2016). Aaker (1997) identified five brand personality dimensions in the North American context, namely, Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication, and Ruggedness. Although the scale is a reliable and valid instrument, Aaker (1997) advises the need of scale validation when using the scale in different social and cultural contexts.
Several studies in different cultural contexts confirmed Aaker's (1997) scale as a reliable instrument to measure brand personality (Bosnjak, Bochman, & Hufschmidt, 2007; Milas & Mlacic, 2007; Muniz & Marchetti, 2012). In Brazil, Muniz and Marchetti (2012), revealed five brand personality dimensions for Brazilian customers, validating a brand personality scale: Credibility, Joy, Audacity, Sophistication, and Sensitivity. Although brand personality is a topic of great interest in international scientific production, there is a lack of studies in this context in Brazil (Scussel & Demo, 2016).
In this sense, these authors consider the scale from Muniz and Marchetti (2012) a building block in brand personality research in the Brazilian context, enabling relational studies with other marketing constructs, such as customer loyalty. Delmondez, Demo and Scussel (2017) have confirmed there is a relation between brand personality and customer relationship perception in the food and beverage sector, revealing important aspects of consumer behavior. Their findings reinforce that customer loyalty is a subject of major importance in relationship marketing studies, and they took the first step into investigating brand personality as a driver of customer loyalty.
Considering the necessity of understanding consumer behavior in the digital environment context and the absence of investigations on user and brand relationships, we contribute by associating brand personality and customer loyalty in using social networks as...
Para continuar a ler
PEÇA SUA AVALIAÇÃOCOPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
