Herausgegeben vonCh. Burmann, Bremen, DeutschlandM. Kirchgeorg, Leipzig, Deutschland

Innovatives MarkenmanagementBand 55

Marken sind in vielen Unternehmen mittlerweile zu wichtigen Vermögenswerten geworden, die zukünftig immer häufiger auch in der Bilanz erfasst werden können. Insbesondere in reiferen Märkten ist die Marke heute oft das einzig nachhaltige Differenzierungsmerkmal im Wettbewerb. Vor diesem Hintergrund kommt der professionellen Führung von Marken eine sehr hohe Bedeutung für den Unter-nehmenserfolg zu. Dabei müssen zukünftig innovative Wege beschritten werden. Die Schriftenreihe will durch die Veröffentlichung neuester ForschungserkenntnisseAnstöße für eine solche Neuausrichtung der Markenführung liefern.

Herausgegeben vonProfessor Dr. Christoph BurmannUniversität Bremen, Lehrstuhl für innovatives Markenmanagement (LiM®)

Professor Dr. Manfred KirchgeorgHHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management,SVI-Stiftungslehrstuhl für Marketing

Barbara Kleine-Kalmer

Brand Page Attachment

An Empirical Study on Facebook Users’ Attachment to Brand Pages

Foreword by Prof. Dr. Christoph Burmann

Barbara Kleine-KalmerBremen, Germany

Dissertation Universität Bremen, 2015

Innovatives MarkenmanagementISBN 978-3-658-12438-0 ISBN 978-3-658-12439-7 (eBook)DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-12439-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016930288

Springer Gabler© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2016This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illus-trations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

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Foreword V

Foreword

Brands evoke emotions. That is a known fact. Emotions become even more im-portant for the success of brands in the current market situation. As a result of global-ization, product and process technologies nowadays are diffusing faster and the in-ternet accelerates the widespread availability particularly of technological know-how. As a consequence of both developments, functional benefits of brands (based on technology) can be imitated easier than ever.

Another reason for the importance of emotions is that today most needs of buyers are satisfied, especially in highly industrialised countries. Hence, the wish for emo-tional benefits and special experiences becomes more important for buyer behaviour. Therefore differentiation and competitive advantages of brands today and in the fu-ture are based primarily on emotions rather than functional benefits.

The emotionality of a brand depends on the extent to which a brand reflects the buy-er’s identity. The more it does, the more attractive a brand becomes and the feeling of emotional connectedness towards a brand grows. This connection is called brand attachment. Research e.g. from Park and his colleagues shows, that brand attach-ment has high predictive power for future purchase behaviour. Further, studies re-vealed that brand attachment is influenced highly by emotions. In other words, in every emotional brand attachment and purchase decision, rational justification is im-plicit.

Dr. Barbara Kleine-Kalmer transfers this state of the art research on brand attach-ment into the context of Facebook brand pages. Thus, she introduces the concept of brand page attachment. On the basis of a comprehensive quantitative study Dr. Kleine-Kalmer validates the new construct as relevant for buyer behaviour. She fur-ther investigates which instruments and antecedents influence brand page attach-ment. Through these conceptually and empirically profound analyses, the author de-tects highly interesting implications for the management of brands in the context of social media.

The PhD thesis at hand represents Volume 55 of the edited book series entitle “Inno-vative Brand Management” published by Springer Gabler. These book series docu-ment research projects conducted by Germany’s first and only Chair of innovative Brand Management (LiM) at the University of Bremen and the Chair of Marketing Management at Leipzig Graduate School of Management (HHL). My co-editor Prof. Dr. Manfred Kirchgeorg and I are looking forward to getting feedback (please e-mail to burmann@uni-bremen.de or mkirchgeorg@t-online.de). We will go on to publish at least five PhD thesis projects per annum within these book series in order to vitalize

Foreword VI

the growing interest in innovative brand management. This growing interest is also represented through the translation of the book “Identity-based Brand Management” into the Chinese (March 2015), English (December 2015) and French language (January 2016).

Finally, I wish the thesis of Dr. Barbara Kleine-Kalmer a very broad distribution in theory and practice given the excellent conceptual and empiric quality of this study.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christoph Burmann

Preface VII

Preface

Rapid development and fast adoption of digital devices into everyday life has changed perspectives. When I grew up, I used to call friends from a landline tele-phone and we would agree on a fixed time and place where we would meet. Today, such a routine seems almost impossible without communication via smartphones and immediate response from friends. When we went on holidays, we studied a map and planned the route before the trip started. I do not know how we ever found any place without satellite navigation and google maps. Going to a different country meant be-ing disconnected because there was no wireless LAN, no skype, facetime, facebook or what’s app. I might sound like a dinosaur but I actually just turned 33.

Digital technology entered our lives and changed the way we communicate, travel, research, work and manage our everyday lives. It also altered the way we manage brands. The rise of social media fostered the transformation from one-way mass communication to a dialogue between users and brands and between users about brands. Being fascinated from these phenomena, the aim of my doctoral thesis is to contribute to closing one of the many knowledge gaps about brand management in digital media.

The focus of this work is to research the role of connection in social media. Though many studies have been published about social media by now, the discussion about measuring engagement and the effects of branding is still evolving. Quantitative measures as likes, shares and comments are challenged to be the right diagnostics. Hence, the intent of this thesis is to consider the emotional connection to brand pag-es and correspondingly investigate the antecedents and consequences. For this pur-pose the conceptual framework was developed by a thorough investigation of state of the art research. The concept of brand attachment could be identified as most suita-ble for the measurement of emotional connection and was therefore transferred to the context of brand pages. Consequently, the construct of brand page attachment was developed.

Through a comprehensive quantitative study, the impact of brand page attachment on consumer behaviour in social networks could be validated. Furthermore, insights on antecedents and determinants for impacting and controlling brand page attach-ment could be generated and hence implications for practitioners were deducted.

This document was accepted as doctoral thesis by the Faculty of Business Studies & Economics at the University of Bremen, Germany in early 2015. The thesis was writ-

Preface VIII

ten during my time as Research Associate at the Chair of Innovative Brand Man-agement (LiM).

The successful completion of this work was only possible thanks to the great support of many people. First, I would like to thank my PhD advisor Prof. Dr. Christoph Bur-mann for giving me the opportunity to pursue my doctoral education and for support-ing my wish to study a field of research that was rather unexplored at the time. Fur-ther, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Martin Missong for taking over the role of second reviewer. Many thanks also to Prof. Dr. Georg Müller-Christ and Prof. Dr. André W. Heinemann for joining the Examination Committee.

To my friends and colleagues at the Faculty:

Michael Schade, Rico Piehler, Frank Hemmann, Heidi Schröder, Maleen Ulbricht, Daniela Eilers, Fabian Stichnoth, Sabrina Hegner, Christopher Kanitz, Andreas Mül-ler, Stephan Hanisch, Ines Nee, Florian Horstmann, Corinna Beckmann, Uwe Schnetzer, Tanja Koppen, Tilo Halaszovich and Julia Feddersen

thank you for the team spirit, for great memories, for sharing your knowledge, for your support, for the great time we spent together. You really made these three years a very special and unforgettable time.

Without the support of my family, this thesis would have never been possible. To my parents Maria and Achim Kleine-Kalmer and my siblings Ruth and Joachim thank you for being the greatest and for supporting me in every phase of my life.

Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my husband Oskar, for your love and patience, your encouragement and for caring. To you, I dedicate this work.

Barbara Kleine-Kalmer

Contents IX

Contents

Contents ................................................................................................................... V

Figures ..................................................................................................................... XI

Tables ...................................................................................................................... XV

Abbreviations ....................................................................................................... XVII

A Relevance of social networks for brand management .................................. 1

1 How new media challenge brand management .............................................. 1

2 Approaches evaluating brand pages ............................................................. 10

2.1 State of the art research on engagement ................................................. 16

2.2 Participation .............................................................................................. 23

2.3 Rationale for a psychographic measure ................................................... 24

3 The position of brand pages in marketing theory ........................................ 26

3.1 Research on brand communities .............................................................. 28

3.2 Differentiating brand pages and brand communities ................................ 33

3.3 The concept of brand pages ..................................................................... 37

4 Gaps in current research evaluating brand pages ....................................... 37

5 Research objective, research questions and outline of the study ............. 40

B Theoretical foundations .................................................................................. 43

1 Identity-based brand management model as theoretical basis .................. 43

1.1 Development of the identity-based brand management model ................ 43

1.2 Brand identity ............................................................................................ 45

1.3 Brand image .............................................................................................. 49

1.4 The relevance of interaction for identity-based brand management ......... 50

2 Attachment as central construct for assessing brand pages ..................... 55

2.1 The attachment construct .......................................................................... 56

2.2 Reviewing the concept of attachment ....................................................... 57

2.2.1 State of the art research on brand attachment ............................. 57

2.2.2 State of the art research on brand community attachment .......... 69

2.3 Distinction from related constructs ............................................................ 71

2.3.1 Brand attitude strength ................................................................. 71

2.3.2 Consumer-brand relationship ....................................................... 74

Contents X

2.3.3 Brand love .................................................................................... 77

2.3.4 Identification ................................................................................. 80

2.3.5 Commitment ................................................................................. 84

2.4 Introducing the concept of brand page attachment ................................... 90

2.4.1 Defining brand page attachment .................................................. 90

2.4.2 Conceptualising brand page attachment ...................................... 93

2.5 Summary ................................................................................................. 102

3 Antecedents of brand page attachment ...................................................... 103

3.1 Information and service ........................................................................... 104

3.2 Entertainment .......................................................................................... 105

3.3 Social value ............................................................................................. 107

3.4 Economic incentives ............................................................................... 108

4 Behavioural consequences of brand page attachment ............................. 109

4.1 Brand page participation ......................................................................... 110

4.2 Word-of-mouth ........................................................................................ 111

4.3 Co-creation of value and meaning .......................................................... 113

4.4 Willingness to share personal data ......................................................... 114

4.5 Intention to maintain connection ............................................................. 115

5 Moderating effects between brand page attachment and its behavioural consequences ................................................................................................ 116

5.1 Propensity to interact .............................................................................. 117

5.2 Privacy concerns ..................................................................................... 118

6 Summary and visualisation of research model .......................................... 121

C Empirical validation of antecedents and consequences of brand page attachment ..................................................................................................... 123

1 Research design ............................................................................................ 123

1.1 Structure of research process ................................................................. 123

1.2 Pre-study investigating relevant antecedents ......................................... 124

1.3 Data collection and sample characteristics of main study ...................... 126

1.3.1 Questionnaire and pre-test ......................................................... 127

1.3.2 Data check and data cleansing .................................................. 129

1.3.3 Sample statistics ........................................................................ 132

Contents XI

2 Methodological basis for the measurement of theoretical constructs .... 135

2.1 Structural equation modelling (SEM) ...................................................... 135

2.2 Structural equation modelling with partial least squares (PLS-SEM) ...... 139

2.3 Second-order constructs ......................................................................... 140

2.4 Moderating effects ................................................................................... 142

2.5 Quality criteria for PLS structural equation modelling ............................. 143

2.5.1 Evaluation of the measurement models ..................................... 144

2.5.1.1 Quality criteria for the evaluation of reflective measurement models ................................................ 144

2.5.1.2 Quality criteria for the evaluation of formative measurement models ................................................ 146

2.5.2 Evaluation of the structural model .............................................. 149

3 Operationalisation and validation of constructs ........................................ 152

3.1 Operationalisation procedure .................................................................. 152

3.2 Operationalisation and evaluation of the construct brand page attachment ................................................................................................................ 156

3.3 Operationalisation and evaluation of the antecedent constructs ............ 162

3.4 Operationalisation and evaluation of behavioural consequences ........... 166

3.5 Operationalisation and evaluation of moderating constructs .................. 174

4 Analysis of the structural model .................................................................. 179

4.1 Evaluation of inner model ........................................................................ 179

4.2 Evaluation of moderating effects ............................................................. 182

4.3 Differences between industry types ........................................................ 184

4.4 Discrimination from competing constructs .............................................. 189

D Conclusion, reflection and outlook ............................................................. 193

1 Summary of the empirical results ................................................................ 193

2 Managerial implications ................................................................................ 196

2.1 Definition of brand page objectives ......................................................... 198

2.2 Deducing brand page key performance indicators ................................. 199

3 Implications for further research ................................................................. 206

Appendix ............................................................................................................... 207

References............................................................................................................ 211

Figures XIII

Figures

Figure 1: Social media zones and characteristic sites ....................................... 3

Figure 2: Number of monthly users in social networks in Germany .................. 4

Figure 3: Internet users that are “fan” of a brand in social networks in percent by age ................................................................................................. 6

Figure 4: Number of scholarly peer reviewed articles published in academic journals on the subject of customer engagement, November 2013 . 17

Figure 5: Consumer-brand-consumer triad ..................................................... 30

Figure 6: Customer-centric model of brand community ................................... 32

Figure 7: Structure of thesis ............................................................................ 42

Figure 8: Identity-based brand management basic model .............................. 45

Figure 9: Components of the brand identity .................................................... 49

Figure 10: Brand post and user comments on Facebook wall .......................... 53

Figure 11: Number of peer-reviewed publications in academic journals issued on brand attachment by year, November 2013 ................................ 58

Figure 12: Items for brand-self connection of the brand attachment scale by PARK ET AL. (2010) ............................................................................ 65

Figure 13: Items for brand prominence of the brand attachment scale by PARK

ET AL. (2010) ..................................................................................... 67

Figure 14: Brand connection matrix ................................................................... 79

Figure 14: Twitter post by Oreo Cookie: Power out? No problem. .................. 106

Figure 15: Facebook post by Nutella ............................................................... 108

Figure 16: Antecedents of brand page attachment ......................................... 109

Figure 17: The concept of co-creation ............................................................. 114

Figure 18: Consequences of brand page attachment ..................................... 116

Figure 19: Trust in handling of confidential data is low .................................... 119

Figure 20: Research model ............................................................................. 122

Figures XIV

Figure 21: Structure of questions in a typical questionnaire ............................ 128

Figure 22: Question: How long have you been following (“clicked like”) the brand page of [BRAND]? .......................................................................... 134

Figure 23: Demographics by category ............................................................. 134

Figure 24: Social media usage intensity .......................................................... 135

Figure 25: Reflective and formative measurement models with three indicators ....................................................................................................... 137

Figure 26: Simplified structural equation model with two constructs ............... 138

Figure 27: Rules of thumb for SEM method decision ...................................... 140

Figure 28: Second-order construct specifications ........................................... 141

Figure 29: Methods for estimating moderator effects ...................................... 143

Figure 30: Process for a decision on keeping or deleting formative indicators 148

Figure 31: Final research model ...................................................................... 177

Figure 32: Path coefficients and R2 values for cause-effect relationships ....... 179

Figure 33: Engagement rates by industry ........................................................ 185

Figure 34: Evaluation of structural model by industry ...................................... 186

Figure 35: Discrimination of constructs ........................................................... 189

Figure 36: Cockpit for brand page performance indicators ............................. 199

Figure 37: The Epic Split feat. Van Damme .................................................... 201

Figure 38: Lay’s “Do Us A Flavor” ................................................................... 202

Figure 39: Cadbury: Thanks A Million ............................................................. 204

Figure 40: Dove Real Beauty Sketches ........................................................... 205

Tables XV

Tables

Table 1: Approaches assessing brand pages 15

Table 2: Definitions of attachment 93

Table 3: Conceptualisations of attachment 98

Table 4: Research hypotheses regarding antecedents of brand page attachment 121

Table 5: Research hypotheses regarding consequences of brand page attachment 121

Table 6: Research hypotheses regarding moderators between brand page attachment and behavioural consequences 122

Table 7: Response rates and data cleansing 131

Table 8: Investigated brand pages per category 133

Table 9: Quality criteria for the evaluation of reflective measurement models 146

Table 10: Quality criteria for the evaluation of formative measurement models 149

Table 11: Quality criteria for the evaluation of the structural model 152

Table 12: Decision rules for formative or reflective construct setup 154

Table 13: Operationalisation of the dimension brand page connectedness 157

Table 14: Operationalisation of the dimension brand page prominence 158

Table 15: Global item to measure brand page attachment 159

Table 16: Total variance explained for the construct brand page attachment 160

Table 17: Factor matrix for the construct brand page attachment 161

Table 18: Quality criteria for the reflective measurement model of the construct brand page attachment 162

Table 19: Operationalisation of antecedents 164

Table 20: Total variance explained for determinants factor analysis 165

Tables XVI

Table 21: Factor analysis for the determinants 166

Table 22: Quality criteria for the reflective measurement models of the determinant constructs 166

Table 23: Operationalisation of behavioural consequences 169

Table 24: Total variance explained for behavioural consequences factor analysis 171

Table 25: Factor analysis for the behavioural consequences 172

Table 26: Quality criteria for the reflective measurement models of the behavioural consequences constructs 173

Table 27: Operationalisation of moderators 175

Table 28: Total variance explained for moderator factor analysis 176

Table 29: Factor analysis for the moderators 176

Table 30: Quality criteria for the reflective measurement models of the moderator constructs 177

Table 31: Final research hypotheses regarding antecedents of brand page attachment 178

Table 32: Final research hypotheses regarding consequences of brand page attachment 178

Table 33: Final research hypotheses regarding moderators between brand page attachment and behavioural consequences 178

Table 34: Quality criteria for structural model 180

Table 35: Quality criteria for moderating effects 183

Table 36: Comparative results of the multi-group analysis represented by p-values 188

Table 36: Scale for attitude toward the brand page based on BURKE/EDELL (1986) 190

Table 37: Quality criteria for the reflective measurement models 191

Table 38: Quality criteria for the structural model 192

Abbreviations XVII

Abbreviations

AVE average variance extracted

CB-SEM covariance-based structural equation modelling

cf. confer (compare)

ed. editor

e.g. exempli gratia (for example)

et al. et alii (and others)

et seq. et sequens (and the following one)

et seqq. et sequentes (and the following ones)

eWOM electronic word-of-mouth

FMCG fast moving consumer goods

i.e. id est (that is)

KPI key performance indicator

p. page

pp. pages

PLS-SEM partial least squares structural equation modelling

ROI return on investment

RSVP répondez s'il vous plaît

SEM structural equation modelling

U&G uses and gratifications

VIF variance inflation factor

WOM word-of-mouth