Impact of social media on consumer-brand relationships

This chapter bridges academic and managerial perspectives on the use of social media platforms for the creation of strategic consumer–brand relationships and their effect on brand equity. In particular, the chapter explores some of the recurring barriers that marketing managers have identified when discussing the implementation of relationship-based initiatives linked to marketing communications objectives. According to Fournier (1998: 344), the fact that brands are “animated, humanized, or somehow personalized” supports the idea that brands can be relationship partners. Kent and Taylor (1998) suggested that organizations have an opportunity to build dialogic relationships with stakeholders through the use of strategically designed websites. Although previous studies have investigated the potential of social media platforms for building and maintaining relationships with the public (Bortree and Seltzer, 2009; Park and Reber, 2008), there has been little empirical exploration on the evolution of consumer–brand relationships resulting from the advent of social channels (e.g., Mandelli and La Rocca, 2014). Social media platforms have had a remarkable impact in the evolution consumer–brand relationships. This phenomenon is expected to play a leading role in the creation of economic and social innovation during this decade (Tapscott, 2014). As Gummesson (2004: 139) noted, “when relationship marketing, CRM, and services marketing are combined with a network view, they become drivers of a paradigm shift in marketing.” The reason for the shift is the advancement of information technology, which has resulted in the use of information to understand and enhance customer relationships. The author of the present chapter examines several cases to better understand the advantages of a total relational approach enhanced by digital technology