Many marketers believe that the facilitation of brand communities is both cost effective and powerful. Harley-Davidson's HOG (Harley Owners Group) is perhaps the prototypical example of a brand community. This brand community is actively nurtured by the company. In particular, when customers buy a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, they are courted by the firm to join the local HOG chapter, attend its meetings, and participate in various events. These HOG chapters are usually managed by and meet at local dealerships, and they receive funding from Harley-Davidson. Here, it is developed and estimated a conceptual model of how different aspects of customers' relationships with the brand community influence their intentions and behaviors. It is described how identification with the brand community leads to positive consequences, such as greater community engagement, and negative consequences, such as normative community pressure and (ultimately) reactance. It is examined the moderating effects of customers' brand knowledge and the brand community's size. The hypotheses are tested by estimating a structural equation model with survey data from a sample of European car club members. In recruiting participants for the study, it was identified and targeted all German-speaking car clubs located in Germany and the German-speaking regions of Switzerland and Austria. There were a total of 282 such clubs. 2440 car club members were contacted. The analysis is based on 529 respondents. The most represented car brands in the sample are Ford, n=137, Volkswagen, n=88, Mercedes, n=53, Opel, n=52, and BMW, n=41. The other brands with fewer respondents are Porsche, Smart, Audi, Mini, Volvo, Renault, and Citroen. It is concluded that brand communities offer a fresh, effective, and viral approach to building brands in the present-day, unresponsive marketing environment. Marketers may do well to take advantage of the opportunities that brand communities present.


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    Title :

    The social influence of brand community: Evidence from European car clubs


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Journal of Marketing ; 69 , 3 ; 19-34


    Publication date :

    2005


    Size :

    16 Seiten, 3 Bilder, 4 Tabellen, 43 Quellen




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English




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