Antecedents and consequences of brand community image : research from Vietnam's alcohol industry

Abstract

Building a strong brand is a major element of brand management. Keller (2013) argued that brand image is a measure of brand strength, which is a key source of customer-based brand equity. Marketing managers strive to build a unique and inimitable brand image to attain advantage in a fiercely competitive market. Suggestions from branding research indicate that a brand image can be extracted from secondary associations: that is, that its strength depends on the depth of brand knowledge and consumer experience found in the brand community. Thus, a brand community becomes an effective marketing tool to strengthen both the consumer-brand relationship and the social identity of individuals in that community. In the brand community literature, researchers have placed consumers at the centre of any relationships. This is an important role; however, little attention has been paid to the psychological and social processes of the individual members of consumer-centric brand communities. The purpose of this research is to examine empirically the antecedents and consequences of a brand community image. Amid the call for research into emerging markets that will advance the understanding of management theories and their practical implications (Sheth 2011), this research is designed to be conducted in an emerging marketing context: in this case, Vietnam. The choice of alcohol branding is particularly appropriate for this research as its symbolic characteristics and strong social influences affect its consumption (Casswell & Maxwell 2005).

Date of Award	2017
Original language	English