Designing Mobile Brand Communities: Concept and Empirical Illustration
Journal
Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce
ISSN
1091-9392
ISSN-Digital
1532-7744
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2006
Author(s)
Prykop, Catja
;
Heitmann, Mark
Abstract
Brand communities are a commonly used marketing instrument to enhance customer attraction and retention. Well-known success stories of brand communities include brands such as Jeep®, Apple Macintosh®, or Harley Davidson®. Despite the great importance for companies to effectively manage the social facet of their products, research in this field has been rare. In literature, indications for success factors and constituting elements of communities have been found. However, seldom have viable business cases for the community operator been provided.
We propose the mobile channel to be a particularly promising media for establishing brand communities. Due to the significant and still increasing worldwide penetration of mobile devices and current always-on location sensitive mobile services, innovative community concepts bear the potential for substantial value creation, which tends to result in positive effects on customer loyalty and brand equity for the community operator.
In this article, we review selected literature to develop propositions on how concepts for mobile brand communities can be developed. Building on the 4 constituting elements of a community, which are member entities, shared interest, common space of interaction, and relation, combined with the specific characteristics of the mobile channel, which are location awareness, ubiquity, identification, and immediacy, we developed a procedure on how to design mobile brand communities according to perceived consumer value. We use the case of a mobile content provider to illustrate the suggested process. Starting from the theoretical mobile community model, we apply means-end chains to do justice to the specific brand values. In concluding, we propose a 4-step model of key mobile brand community design tasks.
We propose the mobile channel to be a particularly promising media for establishing brand communities. Due to the significant and still increasing worldwide penetration of mobile devices and current always-on location sensitive mobile services, innovative community concepts bear the potential for substantial value creation, which tends to result in positive effects on customer loyalty and brand equity for the community operator.
In this article, we review selected literature to develop propositions on how concepts for mobile brand communities can be developed. Building on the 4 constituting elements of a community, which are member entities, shared interest, common space of interaction, and relation, combined with the specific characteristics of the mobile channel, which are location awareness, ubiquity, identification, and immediacy, we developed a procedure on how to design mobile brand communities according to perceived consumer value. We use the case of a mobile content provider to illustrate the suggested process. Starting from the theoretical mobile community model, we apply means-end chains to do justice to the specific brand values. In concluding, we propose a 4-step model of key mobile brand community design tasks.
Language
English
HSG Classification
not classified
Refereed
No
Publisher
Ablex Publ.
Publisher place
Norwood, NJ
Volume
16
Number
3-4
Start page
301
End page
323
Pages
23
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
16200