Brand experience and consumers' social interactive engagement with brand page: An integrated-marketing perspective

Abstract

As consumers increasingly go online to communicate about brands, brand marketers have been utilizing a popular platform to interact with them and create brand communities, namely a brand page. Prior studies have examined factors that promote the success of a brand page by narrowing focusing on only two influencing factors of engagement with the brand page: individual consumer characteristics and brand page features. Taking an integrated marketing perspective, this study extends that research by examining a broad range of influencing factors affecting engagement with brand page, such as sensory, affective, intellectual, and behavioural brand experiences. Building upon the fundamental motive framework, we demonstrate that brand experience enhances consumers' motivation to participate, socialize, and perceive benefits from others involved within the brand page regardless of individual propensity to socialize online. Furthermore, as consumers are engaged in social interaction within a brand page, they are more likely to be involved in positive WOM about the brand. The theoretical and practical contributions of our study are further discussed, along with suggestions for future research in this important and growing field.