A Study On The Relationship Between Social Capital And Brand Loyalty Of Brand Community

In recent years,brand community has become a hot topic in the field of brand management.Many scholars have discussed the role mechanism of brand community to brand loyalty,but mostly from the individual level of the consumer,paying attention to the motivation,brand experience and value perception of community members,which does not go deeply into the nature of community attribute.From the perspective of group level,there is a lack of research on how social connections and relationship structures affect brand loyalty among community members.As the essence of the brand community is the social relations network with the core of consumers,social capital exists in the community.Therefore,some scholars have proposed that the research perspective should be extended to the social network and social capital theory.When consumer behavior is studied,brand community social capital should be taken into account.This study is based on the research framework of Mathwick,Xue Haibo and Zhou Zhimin,from the perspective of sociology,using social capital theory to explore the influence of social capital on community value and community commitment,and to construct a theoretical model to explain the inherent influence of brand community social capital on brand loyalty.This study focuses on women brand community "Chen Zao",taking "Chen Zao" members as the research samples.Combineing with the theoretical model,and through the questionnaire survey,participatory observation and in-depth interview and other methods,the following conclusions are obtained.Firstly,social capital exists in brand community and it can be obtained and used by community member.Social capital contains three dimensions,they are structural social capital,relational social capital and cognitive social capital.Social capital includes seven factors,they are network density,relationship level,trust law,reciprocal law,common language,shared symbol and common vision.The stronger perception ofthese factors among community members,the more resources they can get from the community.Secondly,brand community social capital can bring information value,social value and image value to community members,and then affect community members' community commitment.Thirdly,community members' community commitment has an important impact on brand loyalty.Community commitment is a psychological attachment between community and community members.It is the consciousness and willingness of community members to maintain the identity of their own community and the relationship with other members,and continue to help other members.It encourages community members to pay close attention to the community dynamics,actively maintain the community order,plan and organize various social activities,actively contribute their strength to the community development,and jointly build a healthy and sustainable community ecosystem.Community commitment makes community members more close,so that community members spontaneously generate the behavior of buying brand products continuously and eventually,which caused brand loyalty.Fourthly,brand community social capital has a significant impact on brand loyalty through community value and community commitment.Lastly,by exploring the role mechanism of "Chen Zao" brand community social capital to brand loyalty,this study puts forward four suggestions for brand operators in order to help them build better brand relationship with consumers in the mobile internet era.,they are positioning brand community accurately,paying attention to the community value created by community members,creating personalized brand products and actively constructing the network effect of brand community.