Research In Automotive Brand Loyalty Promotion Strategy Based On The Virtual Brand Community Theory

At present, product homogeneity is so serious that the functional value of thesame type of products, though from different brands, doesn’t show many differencesfor clients. One product is able to be placed by another. Due to the improvement ofincome and education, customers are more rational during consumption. They aremore willing to hear from different opinions before buying. Consequently, companiesrealized that they have to build up their own brand, applying brand strategies tocultivate users’ loyalty.In the1990s, with the rapid growth of the Internet, interactive network of web2.0platform provide users with more space to express their views independently.Many brand manufacturers take advantage of this opportunity to set up a virtual brandcommunity, aiming to promote brand to cultivate loyal users.There are three types of virtual brand communities according to different creatorsor administrators: the first is organized and managed by a third party; the second isthe self-management type by the brand side while the third party provides theplatform; the last is the user community built and administrated by the companyindependently. Considering the management authority to the brand community, thearticle focuses on the second and the third for the research.Most researches emphasize on doing virtual brand community analysis bystatistic method, while rarely give specific suggestions in practical terms to deal withthe problem that are to improve the brand loyalty based on the virtual brandcommunity.First, will analysis the history and current condition of automotive industry,finding out its weakness. And then talk about the function of virtual brand community,especially in dealing with the problem about the automotive industry. Defines thetheoretic bases on the groundwork of literature review:(1) The virtual brand will bediscussed in three dimensions---value space, interactive space and recognitionspace.(2) Between virtual brand community and brand loyalty exist intermediatevariables-community awareness. All the variables of the three spaces show theirfurther impacts on brand loyalty by the primary influence on community awareness. Second, suggestions on how to improve the brand loyalty are associated with thecore variables of the virtual brand community.Third, concrete analyses are made on the specific industry. Taking auto industryas the research object, this part focuses on the current situation of its virtual brandcommunities and its existing problems.Ultimately, the case study of Shanghai Volkswagen is launched with the concreteanalysis of the construction of its virtual brand community, its advantages worthlearning and the weaknesses to improve and the specific proposals to enhance brandloyalty based on virtual brand community.