Research On The Influence From Mobile Operators Brand Community Identity To Members’ Participation Behaviors

With the development of mobile network technology, the mobile phone functionshave broken the limitations of the basal business, and gradually become a complex ofbasic call, life guide, entertainment and shopping. The demand for mobile phonefunctions varies from different consumer groups. Brand community is a hot topic inthe world of marketing, and the long-term maintenance of brand communities canimprove customer brand loyalty and satisfaction. This customer satisfaction and brandloyalty are based on the recognition of the brand community. The further study of thebrand community identity factors and the impact of such factors on customerbehaviors, can provide a more viable strategy for maintaining and building brandcommunities and make important effect on the formation of brand loyalty.This study chooses the industry of Mobile Operators China Mobile M-Zonebrand. According to the relevant theoretical literature, this research divides the factorsof brand community identification into three dimension self-categorization, emotionalattribution, group self-esteem. The members’ participation behaviors are divided intotwo aspects: community interaction and member interaction. Using SEM (structuralequation model)to conduct empirical analysis, the research focus on the influencefrom brand community identity to members’ participation behaviors. the influence ofbrand community members to participate in behavior. Meanwhile, the business typeof the M-zone is classified into four categories, and the Categorical Regression is usedto test moderator effect of the business type regulation by business type. UsingSPSS19.0, LISREL8.70software to conduct empirical analysis of the model, then theresults confirmed: self-categorization has positive influence on member interactionbehaviors; emotional attribution has considerably positive influence on communityinteraction behaviors and member interaction behaviors; group self-esteem haspositive influence on community interaction behaviors. In the process to test moderating effect, because the entertainment business, the consumers who haveformed brand community recognition are more willing to participate in communityinteraction and member interaction.According to the above conclusions, mobile operators can take steps from thefollowing aspects in maintaining and building brand communities:(1) finding thecommonalities between the brand image and the personality of consumer groups;(2)expanding community members communication based on the network and entitiestwo platforms;(3) allowing the customers who have a high degree of recognition ofthe community to participate in building and maintaining brand communities;(4)developing value-added services based on the phone’s entertainment business.