earticle

영어

Brand community refers to social groups combining by those who use the same brand products. On the one hand, brand with its own community could effectively assemble consumers together and enhance their brand loyalty. On the other hand, as the emergence of network communication platform, online communities come into being which are similar to real communities. However, there are also some brand-themed ones, among those numerous online communities, which have both online and brand community characteristics. The structure of brand community is a 3-element map composed of ‘consumer-brand-consumer’ (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001). However, as the existence of network communication platforms, those online interactive activities among different brand communities will have an influence not only on both the relationship between consumers and also the relationship between consumers and brands. This paper takes the online automobile brand community as the example, importing ‘interactivity’, the concept of sociology, into online brand community study. It follows the logical way as ‘How does interactivity embody among the online communities → How about its deepening process? → What the results of interactivity will be?’, that is, ‘formation of the relationship (Interaction)- deepening of the relationship (Community commitment)-result of the relationship(brand loyalty)’, makes systematic study through the method of combining theory and case analysis together, and puts forward the marketing strategic direction for online brand communities. The results are as follow: online interaction within the brand community can point out that the components of social interaction are mutuality and reciprocity; while the components of individual interaction are response and enjoyment. This study expected to find the starting point for enhancement of brand and community relationships, i.e. the four constituents of interactions. As it is impossible to establish relationships without interactions, it is highly important both theoretically and practically to identify the constituents of the interactions within a brand community. In this study, commitment of online brand community is considered as a medium factor of brand loyalty and oppositional brand loyalty. With the deepening process of the relationship, it will have an influence on brand loyalty ultimately. It shows the necessity to regard brand as the differentiated competitive advantages of an enterprise and convey to enterprise that plan to establish brand management strategies that brand community is an important brand management tool. In particular, the further division of identification into community identification and brand identification shows that the identification- based brand strategy needs differentiation. First of all, the results of this study will help companies to understand profoundly the value of online brand community and strengthen their conviction on operating online communities; secondly, it will help the community managers more deeply understand different effects that interaction impacted on the purchasing behaviors of online brand community. It also provides the new channel and management foundation for the companies engaging in attracting and maintaining loyal customers, and in order to offers business strategy and suggestions for community mangers or companies to promote the interaction between members of their communities, which will eventually contribute to shaping of brand image.

한국어

본 연구는 기업의 마케팅 및 브랜드 관리의 주요 수단으로 대두되고 있는 온라인 브랜드 커뮤니티 내에서 어떠한 상호작용을 통해 관계가 몰입되어 브랜드 충성도에 영향을 미치는지를 밝히고, 이를 통해 중국 온라인 환경에서 상호작용성의 전략적 브랜드 관리 활용방안에 관한 시사점을 제공하고자 하였다. 중국 대표적인 자동차 전문 웹사이트인 愛卡汽車論壇(http://club.xcar.com.cn/)의 브랜드별 자동차 커뮤니티 회원을 대상으로 총 250부를, 구조방정식 모델을 기반으로 한 AMOS 20을 이용하여 실증 분석하였다. 연구 결과, 상호작용 구성요인은 상호연대감, 상호호혜성, 반응성, 즐거움으로 도출되었다. 이러한 상호작용성들이 커뮤니티 몰입에 미치는 영향을 확인하였고, 동시에 커뮤니티에서 나타나는 몰입현상이 해당 브랜드 충성도와 경쟁브랜드의 대항적 충성도로 전이될 수 있다는 것을 실증하였다. 즉, 온라인 브랜드 커뮤니티를 통한 다양한 충성도 제고의 선순환 과정을 검증한 것이다. 이를 통해 중국 온라인 환경에서 상호작용성의 전략적 브랜드 관리 활용방안에 관한 시사점을 제공하고자 한다. 강력한 브랜드 커뮤니티를 개발하고 구축하는 것은 고객과의 관계 마케팅을 실현하는 중요한 수단이 될 수 있음을 인식하여야 하고, 프로슈머적 성향이 강한 네티즌의 영향력을 전략적으로 잘 활용해야 한다. 또한, 한국기업들은 지속적으로 인터넷상의 구전을 모니터링 하여야 한다