Virtual Brand Community Belonging To Consumer Brand Loyalty

With the rapid development of Internet, virtual brand communities attract a lot of consumers,which integrate the advantages of virtual community and brand community.Thus,numerous enterprises give their views to virtual brand community,looking it as the new marketing tools for keeping up with consumers.This paper brings the social psychology’s concept "belonging" into the research on the relationship of the virtual brand community and consumer behavior,and research how the member’s belonging in virtual brand community turn into brand loyalty.In this paper,firstly,it developes the conceptual model based on the existing literature research,which includes two parts:(1) investigates which features of virtual brand community affect community belonging,and the moderating roles of type of virtual community brand;(2) analyzes how virtual brand community belonging affects brand loyalty, specifically, in order to verify the direct effect of community belonging on brand loyalty,and the indirect effect through the mediator variable brand trust and brand commitment.Secondly,on the basis of previous research,the author designs the research scales,which are revised after pilot study.Thirdly,this research uses SPSS17.0and LISREL8.70for descriptive statistical analysis, Cronbach’s a reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis and confirmation factor analysis.Then it uses the structural equation model to test the validity of the conceptual model and the significance on each hypothesis. At last, by multiple regression analysis, it explores whether the type of virtual brand community has a moderating effect on the relationship between each feature of virtual brand community and community belonging.The empirical results show that:(1) Members’interaction and motivation mechanism in virtual brand community significantly affect community belonging of members,but the effect of system quality,information quality and leader charm aren’t significant.(2) Community belonging has a direct effect on brand loyalty,and a significantly indirect effect on brand loyalty through the mediate effect of brand trust and brand commitment.(3) The type of virtual brand community significantly moderates the relationship between each feature of virtual brand community and community belonging.Finally, based on the empirical analysis,we put forward some proposals and suggestions for the operators of the virtual brand community,including how to create a good atmosphere of virtual brand community,play the marketing role of virtual brand community on keeping loyal consumers, choose an appropriate marketing channel and so on.