The Research On Virtual Brand Community Based On Customer Relationship Marketing Theory

Since 1980s,there has been an increasing concern among western scholars and business circles in the field of relationship marketing due to globalization and sharp competition in world economy.Disposing and establishing the long-term relationship between enterprises and individuals and organizations correctly is not only the success of companies, but also the key to airing customer loyalty and forming brand assets.Business practices have proved that from the establishment of brand community,the enterprises can enhance customer-centered relationships,by proactively providing the context for relationships to develop,they can gain loyal customers.Along with network technology starting and the Internet development,more and more virtual communities take the brand as their subject,it indicates that virtual brand communities have become a new weapon for a corporate to build its brand and develop markets.However,based on the literature review,most of recent study focus on the concept,characters and application strategies of the brand communities in the real world.This research takes customer relationship marketing as the theoretical foundation of the study on virtual brand communities,it set up a study system of virtual brand communities research by using the methods of literature analysis,network questionnaire survey,homepage content analysis,case analysis.The results show that virtual brand communities are essentially brand communities that extended from realistic world to cyberspace,they are base on network technology and established by corporation,brand advocate or third party,they are a kind of brand relationship communities by taking brand as communication link.The formation of virtual brand communities is affected by relationship marketing factors,social and cultural factors and network technology factors.The constituent elements of virtual brand communities comprise member entities,community rules,space of identification,space of interaction and space of transformation.Enterprises can develop their virtual communities by establishing communityplatforms,making rules, strengthening community identification,perfecting interaction mechanism and introducing electronic commerce.