The Impact of Brand Communities on Consumer Based Brand Equity

The past few decades have seen the theory underpinning the development of brands receive considerable research focus with particular attention being placed on the development of brand equity. This can be viewed from several perspectives but this research proposes to utilise consumer based brand equity (CBBE) models (Aaker, 1991). This consists of salience, imagery, performance, judgments, feelings and resonance (Keller, 2013). These models provide a clear process by which brand equity is formed within the consumer with the ultimate aim of the brand establishing a relationship with consumers. These relationships can take many forms and a recent research focus has been the development of Brand Communities theory (Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001; McAlexander, Schouten and Koenig 2002). These communities are based purely around the consumption of a particular brand and the current research states that they assist in the development of consumers' brand loyalty. There is however a gap in the knowledge surrounding how brand communities impact consumer's behaviour and in turn how this affects the development of brand loyalty (Ouwersloot and Odekerken-Schroder, 2008). It is these complexities that the proposed research is targeted to address by exploring how consumers' interaction with brand communities can affect each stage of the CBBE process, as well as the community's impact on both behavioural and attitudinal loyalty. This research will be conducted within the context of niche national team sports. This has been selected for two reasons. Firstly, my personal networks will enable me to have access to data from national governing bodies, professional organisations and clubs. Secondly, this context enables the research to have real world managerial and policy maker implications which could in turn have a positive societal impact. Objectives 1. Investigate the effect brand communities have on consumer based brand equity. 2. Investigate the effect brand communities have on behavioural loyalty (attitudinal and behavioural). 3. Investigate the development of brand equity within niche national team sports with relation to the role which brand communities play. 4. Investigate the boundary conditions (moderating effect) of the above relationships. By achieving these objectives this research will build upon the understanding of brand communities and fill a gap within the current knowledge base. The gap being the role that brand communities have in the development of consumer based brand equity and ultimately brand communities' impact on both consumers' behavioural and attitudinal loyalty to brands. This advance in knowledge will extend existing theory as well as inform real world practitioners' and policy makers' future decisions. Method The proposed research project intends to utilise a mixed methods design. This will enable the project to maximise the advantage of having access to numerous data sources. This data will then be used to extend current theory by gaining a greater understanding from the perspectives of multiple brand community stakeholders including fans, clubs and sponsors. This will be achieved through the use of a range of analytical techniques, including the application of multi-level modelling. This will enable the analysis of different levels of data which when aligned to each of the stakeholders' perspectives will provide greater insight. Alongside multi-level modelling field experiments will be employed. This will provide the opportunity to understand the impact of individual variable changes. This can then inform the development of branding strategies to be utilised by practitioners in real world applications. In summary, the proposed research project will operate multiple studies in order to create an integrated framework for the development and successful utilisation of brand communities.