Date of Publication

2003

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Marketing

Subject Categories

Advertising and Promotion Management | Marketing

College

Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business

Department/Unit

Marketing and Advertising

Thesis Adviser

Millet Zamora

Abstract/Summary

The increasing popularity of the Internet has provided people with greater opportunities to simplify their activities. Since its historic introduction to the public in 1994 (Hagel and Armstrong, 1997), more and more online methods have been employed to enable people to perform life's tasks with a click of a mouse. These include: electronic mail, research, online shopping, banking and even entertainment pleasures, among others. New technologies are constantly being developed in order to further improve the many areas of a person's lifestyle. One area is communication. The Internet has created many ways for people around the world to communicate with one another in an instant fashion. The emergence of Online Communities, or themed virtual communities that enable a large number of people to interact over a common interest, has become very popular among people and businesses. Many marketeers have employed the use of online communities to gather their customers and encourage them to patronize their products and services. In many e-commerce companies, the incorporation of online communities in their website have become an important marketing activity to support their operations.

This study determines the relationship of online communities to the brand loyalty of members towards the product it supports. The focus of this study is the online community www.FemaleNetwork.com. It is the support online community website of Cosmopolitan, a worldwide fashion magazine whose franchise is owned by Summit Publishing Incorporated. The paper primarily investigates the attitudes and beliefs on online community members towards the Brand Building Dimension of Gommans et al's E-Loyalty Framework. Specifically, it investigates consumer beliefs and attitudes using the four components of Hagel and Armstrong's Online Brand Communities Model which are: (1) Member Profiling (2) Transaction Offerings (3) Content Attractiveness and (4) Member Site Loyalty. A combination of descriptive and exploratory designs was employed in this research. Non-probability sampling was used to limit its findings among subjects who are actual members of an online community. A total of 346 respondents from the online community www.FemaleNetwork.com were surveyed using a online questionnaire. Results of a 10-question survey that used the Likert Scale were statistically tested using the Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient.

Abstract Format

html

Language

English

Format

Electronic

Accession Number

CDTG003547

Shelf Location

Archives, The Learning Commons, 12F Henry Sy Sr. Hall

Keywords

Brand choice; Internet marketing; Electronic commerce; Consumers--Attitudes

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Embargo Period

2-16-2022

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