Yes / The current research is concerned with identifying and testing the role of three main predictors: consumer involvement, consumer participation, and self-expressive brand on the customer brand engagement (CBE). The customer brand engagement is treated in the current study as multidimensional constructs comprising three main aspects: cognitive processing (CP), affection (AF), and activation (AC). It was also proposed a direct influence for these three aspects of CBE on consumer-based brand equity (CBBE). Using online surveys, we gathered data from fans/followers of mobile phone service providers, via Facebook fan pages in Jordan. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling. Based on structural equation modelling analyses (SEM), it was supported that CBE aspects were largely predicted by the role of consumer involvement (INV), consumer participation (COP), and self-expressive brand (SEB). However, we find that activation impact one dimension of the CBBE dimensions, namely, brand loyalty. Further, we find that brand awareness/associations affect perceived quality but not brand loyalty. To validate the CBE scale, future studies could investigate the impact of the scale using other social media platforms for different brands. The limited amount of empirical research on CBE was the motivation behind this research. In particular, there is no study that has investigated the main predictors of CBE and its consequences over developing context by proposing and testing the association between the antecedents of CBE with the dimensions of CBE, which in turn affect the dimensions of CBBE.

Corporate brands in today’s business landscape are complex and multifaceted, with employees playing a critical role in the building of those brands. As employee brand commitment forms an important part of building a corporate brand, it would be beneficial to understand the drivers of employee brand commitment in order to better understand the corporate brand. One of the main aspects of employee brand commitment is the personality of the corporate employer brand. This research aims to determine the relationship between corporate brand personality and employee brand commitment. By utilising the Corporate Brand Personality Scale and employee brand commitment measures, a quantitative survey was administered to 250 members of an online research panel. Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the most common elements of the Corporate Brand Personality Scale. Thereafter, regression analysis was performed to determine the role of brand personality in predicting an employee’s commitment to their corporate brand. The results of this study show that factors of corporate brand personality have a significant influence on employee brand commitment. Further discussion into factor analysis shows that progressive and steadfast personality traits have a significantly positive effect on employee brand commitment, whilst supercilious personality traits have a negative effect on employee brand commitment. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Yes / Although there are several marketing implications that have been considered in the context of social media marketing, less attention has been paid to the influence of antecedents of consumer brand engagement (telepresence, social presence and involvement) and their consequences for non-profit organizations. Thus, the main purpose of current research is to examine the influence of telepresence, social presence and involvement on consumer brand engagement (CBE) (second-order), which in turn affects electronic word of mouth and willingness to donate. To test the proposed model, this paper used social media platforms. We employed a Facebook page that presents non-profit organizations (brands) using a sample of non-students. We found that telepresence, social presence and involvement positively impact CBE, which in turn impacts electronic word of mouth and willingness to donate. The findings of our research demonstrate how CBE is formed in this particular context and what outcomes are to be expected, with important implications for both marketing theory and practice.

Building on the stimulus-organism-response model, this paper aims to fill the considerable research gap by developing a deeper understanding of social commerce as a global emerging phenomenon and investigating the effectiveness of social commerce marketing stimuli and its consequences on consumer behavior on Instagram. The study adopts a mixed-methodology approach, including a web-based survey and a focus group interview, to build a deeper understanding of the phenomenon and account for the social aspects of social commerce. Based on a sample of 317 international consumers, the analysis demonstrates that all dimensions of social commerce marketing stimuli have significant effects on online brand engagement on Instagram; which consequently positively influences brand trust and online purchase intention. Moreover, the focus group interview complements the findings and provides potential explanations for the discovered relationships.

Pour se renseigner et pour acheter des produits les consommateurs vont sur les pages de marques sur Facebook. Ces utilisateurs font du bouche à oreille au sein de communautés de marques sur Facebook. L’objectif de cette thèse est de proposer une analyse des déterminants au bouche à oreille au sein des communautés de marques sur Facebook. Les principaux déterminants au bouche à oreille que nous présentons dans le cadre de cette thèse sont l’engagement à la marque, les motivations au partage, et la disposition générale au partage. / EWord of Mouth (eWOM) influences consumers who belong to brand communities on Facebook. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the antecedents for eWOM on brand communities on Facebook. The thesis proposes an analysis of eWOM’s antecedents: brand engagement, identification to brand communities, general tendency to share on Facebook.

Background: In the past decade, Social Media has been an interesting Internet phenomenon. Social Media has increased the ability for Internet users to communicate and interact with one another, allowing them to overcome boundaries that once made communication difficult and slow. It has become a big part of everyday life and has fundamentally changed the way we send and receive information. This transformation has led to businesses acknowledging the need for a change in the way they communicate with their customers. The purpose of this thesis is to understand what makes a business successful in Social Media and what are the tools that businesses may use in order to communicate with their consumer community. Method: This study is exploratory and qualitative in nature. Authors conducted a case study research and used an inductive approach in order to answer research questions. Several methods of gathering data are used in the thesis for the full analysis of the case study: interview, survey, netnography (“internet – based ethnography”). Qualitative measures are used to draw conclusions regarding Social Media metrics and consumer engagement. Conclusion: Authors state that there is no universal communication strategy suitable for every company, but the appropriate one may be build according to the company goals and means. Process of creating the communication strategy should focus on several targets which companies may identify by themselves or with the help of guides. One of those targets is identifying appropriate ways of engaging with the customers with the combination of Brand Awareness, Brand Engagement and Word of Mouth. Three main parts of the communication strategy are interconnected: Brand Awareness, Brand Engagement and Word of Mouth. Effectiveness of communication strategy (different combination of Brand Awareness, Brand Engagement and Word of Mouth) may be measured by specific metrics or statistical ones. Increasing those interconnected metrics depends on ability to follow the customer needs and the quality of content. Main B2C Social Media tools nowadays are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. This thesis found out strong relationship between those three (“Social Media Triangle” model). Company having accounts in each of those networks should use it as a whole and not as separate tools.

How much is a brand worth? Brand equity is a measurement that reflects brand valuation, and is built through a brand’s various products, actions and activities. According to the Consumer Based Brand Equity (CBBE) model, the epitome of equity is achieved when the brand and the people are in a relationship, when the brand resonates with people. Until a few years back, most of this relationship played out in real life, but the arrival of new media and social media in particular is changing this. Brands are migrating into the realm of social media where people are socialising like never before. People move to social media, and so to maintain a relationship with them brands need to be there too. However, how do they go about engaging with people in these relatively unchartered waters? Is there a formula, a strategy that fits all? This study examines how brands work to maintain relationships with people in social media through looking at Social CRM and strategies that encourage participation and involvement. It aims to see whether there are differences in how different brand types manage their relationship with fans on the largest and most extensive social networking site, Facebook. Brands satisfy consumer needs and these influence consumer purchase decisions. The brand types investigated correspond to the different levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as it is the most cited and respected categorisation available. This means that a wide variety of brand are eligible for the investigation as long as their primary use is to satisfy one of the needs described by Maslow. The investigation takes the shape of a content analysis of 20 brands from four need categories (physiological, safety, behavioural, and ego), accompanied by a case study of one of these brands to illustrate the points made based on the quantitative data. What the data showed was that brands in general primarily focus on content rather than contact and collaboration in their engagement plans. Content is least time intensive and also easily involves the 90 percent of people that are categorises as lurkers. Two-way communication is encouraged but it varies between brand types. Brands within the safety need category were most open to two-way communication and also used it for customer service purposes. Collaboration is encouraged in social media but it is still used very sparsely, physiological brands being the most open to collaboration. However, the collaboration is more often cause-related than brand product/service-related.

The aim of this study is to investigate how self-employed entrepreneurs create and manage their brands and how the entrepreneurs engage customers to their brands in online and offline contexts. Furthermore, the viewpoints of entrepreneurs towards branding will be explored To answer the research question, a qualitative, multiple case study was conducted. The primary data was collected by semi-structured interviews and the secondary data was obtained by studying the entrepreneur´s social media behaviour. This study found that entrepreneurs build their brands by utilizing their own personalities and characteristics. The brands created have loyal following and the customers are positively engaged. The engagement process itself is due to the relationships built between the company and the customers. Even if the brands are effective, there is not much strategic elements to them but are rather very organic.

Brand-lurking Phenomenon on Social Media Abstract The key measures to assess consumer-brand engagement on social media have mainly been visible interactions with media content, including 'likes', comments and shares. However, as research into consumers' online behaviour demonstrates, only a minority of users in fact participate 'visibly'. On social media, the vast majority of users are passive participants, so called 'lurkers'. This thesis explores consumers' publicly invisible behaviours on social media and introduces an original methodological approach to exploring the otherwise invisible behavioural patterns on social media, which builds on ethnographic principles and combines digital methods with qualitative methods. Drawing on a data set of 134 hours of screen recordings obtained through ad hoc tracking devices installed on PCs and smartphones of 15 young adults from seven European countries recruited from the "Generation Z" and 15 in- depth interviews conducted with the same participants, the study proposes the following contributions. First, the thesis illustrates a research protocol to explore consumers' lurking behaviours in relation to branded content as they occur within the young people's natural social media settings. Second, it introduces the concept of invisible engagement, defined as an...

Background: Sustainability within the skincare industry is an important theme in marketing research. Sustainability sells, but it is necessary to understand how brands can drive consumer engagement on Instagram by using certain appeals. As social media has revolutionized the way consumers interact with brands, engaging online today represents a fundamental factor for a company’s success. Consequently, this study explored in particular CBE of green skincare brands with regards to female European millennials. As we were the first to research the context of three highly relevant fields in today’s time, which are sustainability, Instagram and skincare in the European setting, we contribute with new significant findings. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand which appeals drive millennial’s CBE of green skincare brands on Instagram. Thus, particularly green company-created content was examined. Method: The method chosen to answer our study purpose was semi-structured interviews. Therefore, 18 female European millennials have been interviewed to understand their thoughts and opinions concerning our purpose. Hence our study was based on an interpretivist philosophy while an inductive approach was followed. In addition, deductive elements loosely framed this qualitative study, given existing literature in respective fields of this research. Finally, we concluded this study with a conceptual framework, created upon our empirical findings. Conclusion: The results show that in specific three different types of appeals could be identified to drive CBE of green skincare brands on Instagram. These are Affective, Identification, Spokesperson & Trust as well as Factual. With regards to our CBE conceptualization, these three themes all drive CBE to a different extent in terms of cognitive processing, affectionand activation. All in all, this study could identify Affective to be the most relevant appeal in terms of driving CBE as well as affection being the only CBE dimension, which can be driven by all three themes. Green skincare brands can use these findings to understand which appeals drive engagement while also raising awareness around sustainability-related topics.