IRCS UNUD Journals, Vol. 1 No. 1, February 2017

85

BRAND ENGAGEMENT AND WORD OF MOUTH

I Nyoman Nurcaya1 and Ni Made Purnami2

  • 1,2 Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Udayana, Bukit Jimbaran, Badung Telp/Fax: 0361 22413, E-mail: ichangnur@yahoo.com

Abstract Modern marketing using social media such as Facebook allow the marketers to have a two-way interaction with the consumers, let them give appreciation each other, allow the consumers to leave comments about the products, and the company can directly provide answers to the consumers’ questions and complaints. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of brand engagement on word of mouth. This research was conducted in Denpasar. The respondents are those who have clicked “like”, “share”, or “comment” button upon a particular brand on Facebook. The data were collected by distributing questionnaires to the respondents who have met the criteria. This study used Partial Least Square (PLS) analysis technique. The results show that 1) Inner self has positive and significant impact on brand love Oriflame; 2) Social self has positive and significant impact on brand love Oriflame; 3) Brand love has positive and significant impacton Word of Mouth Oriflame on Facebook.

Keywords: consumer involvement, word of mouth, inner self, social self, brand love, Facebook

  • I.    Introduction

The traditional way of marketing has changed in accordance with the improvement in technology. Nowadays, the marketers are required to have a twoway communication with their customers. Customer engagement has come as a more dynamic yet interactive concept to understand the nature of customer relation (Naumann&Bowden, 2015). This research focuses on the customer engagement to particular brands, which is known as brand engagement. It is a combination between experience and social dimension (Gambetti et al, 2012). Brand engagement is a level of customer’s motivation to take part in a certain brand, marked by direct coginitive activities, emotion, and behaviour (Hollenbeek et al, 2012).Maholtra et al, 2013, state that Facebook is a key marketing channel to drive brand engagement and awarness. It enables the customers to keep in touch with the brand as well as driving other people to share the same preference (Hollenbeck & Zinkhan, 2006). On Facebook, the consumers’ identity is created by a self-description and byhow they communicate with others (Gilly, 2003).A customer who cliks “like” botton for a brand can show their real personality (Ahuvia, 2005). The numbers of “like” or comments in a brand’s page is thevariable to measure the brand’s engagement (Chauhan & Pillai, 2013; Hoffman & Fodor, 2010). Facebook in 2010 (in Wallace, 2004) stated that customers who clicked “like” were more

active and highly connected comparing to other Facebook users. The latest data from BrandZ shows that those who cliked “like” spent money five times more than those who did not (Hollis, 2011). Brands that are more discussed on Facebook have greater chance to influence others. Users who chose “like” tend to have more friends on Facebook and tend to click 5.3 times more links than other users (NelsonField, et al., 2012). It is already identifed that there is a relation between a brand’s engagement, brand love, and brand use to improve self-expression (Bergkvist & Bech-Larsen, 2010).

This study focuses on a question whether brand’s engagement can be proven with the “like” button, expressed with self expression, brand love, and word of mouth. Inner self can be reflected in brand which is in accordance with the statement that brand is a reflection of personality, brand can symbolize one’s true self, and brand forms the extension of the (customer’s) inner self. Social self is how people want to be seen and treated by others such as the statement that brand contributes to self-image, brand provides positive impact on what others think of oneself. Wallace et al., 2014, said that inner self and social self have positive impact on brand love. It can be measured by people’s preference and view. Someone can contribute in a good word of mouth if he/she likes particular brand.This research test customer’s engagement on Facebook. It is important to carry out this research because online customer’s engagement is

crucial in maintaining a long-term relation between a company and their clientele. Modern marketing using social network, like Facebook, create a two-way communication between the marketers and the customers, both marketers and customers can appreciate each other, the consumers are allowed to give commets or complaints about the product, and the company can directly respond to the consumers’ questions or complaints. This study was conducted in Denpasar. The criteria for the respondents are students who have clicked “like” or “share” button, or given comments about Oriflame products on Facebook.

  • II.    Research Methods

This study is an associative research. It discusses the impact of inner and social self on brand love and word of mouth. This research was conducted in Denpasar. This research tested customer’s engagement on Facebook. The variable is everything in any form that has been determined by the researcher to study in order for the researcher to get information on it and finally reach conclusion (Sugiyono, 2013:58). Based on the research concept, research variables can be seen on Table 1.

Table 1. Identification of Research Variables

Inner Self

The Brand ‘Oriflame’ reflects my personality The brand ‘Oriflame’ reflects my real identity The brand ‘Oriflame’ is the extension of my inner self

Social Self

The brand ‘Oriflame’ contributes to my image

The brand ‘Oriflame’ gives good impact on people’s perception of me

The brand ‘Oriflame’ improves the way people look at me

Brand Love

The brand ‘Oriflame’ makes me happy

I like the brand ‘Oriflame’

The brand ‘Oriflame’ is great

Word of Mouth

I clicked the “like” button on ‘Oriflame’ pages to tell it to my friends

I clicked the “like” button on ‘Oriflame’ pages in order to spread good things about the product I recommend ‘Oriflame’ to my friends and family on Facebook

Population is a scope of generalisation that consists of qualified objects/subjects with particular characteristics that determined by the researchers to

study and to finally come to a conclusion(Sugiyono, 2013: 61). The population of this research is students of Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Udayana (regular and non-regular program). The population of this research is the people in Denpasar. The potential respondents must be in accordance with the following criterias and characteristics, namely: (1) They must be the citizen of Denpasar and (2) They must have clicked the “like” or “share” button, or given comments to particular brands onFacebook. Data collecting for this research was conducted by giving questionnaire to those who match the criterias. The quesionaire for this research is a sort of questionnaire with closed questions list. It means that the respondents were only able to give answer based on one or several options provided by the researcher. Component or variance-based SEM, called PLS (Partial Least Square) was applied to this study as the data analysis technique. According to Ghozali (2011:18) PLS is a factor indeterminancy which is a strong analysis methode. It is assumed that the data does not have to be processed through certain scale, however, few samples are helpful enough to corfirm a theory as well as to obtain latent variable value for predicting the result.

  • III.    Results and Discussion

    • 3.1.    Result

The first hypothesis in this research shows that inner self has good influence on brand love. This is identified with the value of path coefficientof 0.339 with a t-statistic value of 2.661. The t-statistic value is higher than t-table value which is of 1.981. Based on the second hypothesis test, it shows that social self gives good influence on brand love. It shows that the value of path coefficient is of 0.539 with t-statistic value of 4.417. It is lower than t-table value which is of 1.981. The test of the third hypothesis shows that brand love influences word of mouth with good impact. The value of path coeficient shows the figures 0.0877 with t-statistic value of 38.494. This t-statistic is higher than t-table which is of 1.981.

  • 3.2.    Discussion

There is significant influence between variable inner self and variable brand love. This result matches the research conducted by Wallace et al, 2014 which states that inner self and social self have positive impact on brand love. It is possible for customer to like particular brand because of “self image and a prestige” (Albert et al, 2008). Carrol and Ahuvia, 2006; Wallace et al, 2014 mention that inner self and social self have positive influence on brand love

  • (2011) . Batra et al (2011) state that brand image includes the way the customers use the brand to express themselves and the identity they want to get after using that brand. There issignificant impact between variable social self and variable brand love. This result hereof is consistent with a study conducted by Wallace et al, 2014 showing that inner self and social self have good impact on brand love. It is possible for customer to like a certain brand because it reflects “image and prestige” (Albert et al, 2008). Carrol and Ahuvia, 2006; Wallace et al, 2014 write that inner self and social self have positive influence on brand love. Batra et al (2011) state that image of brand includes the way the customers use the brand to express themselves and the identity they want to get after using that brand. There is significant impact between variablebrand loveand variable Word of Mouth. This is in accord with a study conducted by Wallace et al, 2014 showing that brand love have good impact on brand word of mouth.

  • IV.    Conclusion

The result shows that inner self and social self have good impact on brand love. It is followed by another result showing that brand love gives good influence on word of mouth.

Acknowledgment

We would like to express our gratitude to The Head of Institute for Research and Comunity Service, Udayana University; Dean of Faculty of Economics and Business Dayana University; the president and secretary of Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, Udayana University.

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