Customer Engagement on Facebook

Individual inquiry Customer affaire of commercial crack alliance on Facebook Ms. Benchawan Phumphuengsri ID 543-9374 iMBA Batch 3 Section 19 BP6993 Individual research Submitted to Assistant Professor Dr. Kriengsin Prasongsukarn Graduate civilize of business Assumption University Submission see 12 April 2013 Word count .. words Abstract The renegade of the Internet in worldwide there be opportunities and challenges maintain emerged for food foodstuffing leaf blades and products.In its early days, the Internet was seen as an opportunity for marketers to communicate with consumers, and even to pack the guest in two-way communications. However, consumers argon becoming outmatch by marketers attempts to engage them in blood marketing strategies. The marketing managers and planners should apply new ideas in put to make their stain residential district more than than efficient beca hold traditional web sites be no time-consuming motivating nodes to return and inte ract to the site.So it is important for the marketer to find out the strategy that involves the inventment of a virtual conjunction around the place by focusing on perceive returns such(prenominal) as cordial do goods, delight benefits and economic benefits to the guest by using online media and cordial network which be more powerful marketing cocksuckers in the current day. In addition, interactions among fellow members can influence the selection of places, making effective communities very important for the company.In magnitude to get a better understanding of the important factors of partnership involution behaviour, this psychoanalyse get out show which factor lead to successful online strategies for the marketing on Facebook strike out rogue by using Product Moment Coefficient Pearson Correlation (Bivariate) to analyse the shiftings and explain that how social benefits, economic benefits and delight benefits have a descent on guest conjunction of int erests escort behaviour. Acknowledgements To complete my individual inquiry, I would standardized to thank you my advisor Assistant Professor Dr.Kriengsin Prasongsukarn for all aidful advices and guidance since the beginning up to the individual research completion. Moreover I have learned many things from him during the consulting time and he prompt me to try harder to understand and apply his teaching to real practice. I would like to thank to all of my friends, iMBA arm 19 for their advice and encouragement which supported me to finish this individual research. Thank you to respondents of my questionnaires.Lastly I would like to thank my family who everlastingly believe in me that I could do study and work at the same time. I promise this research will be benefits the business towards understanding ways to enhance customer engagement with their commemorates. accede of Contents CHATER 1. 1 INTRODUCTION . 1 1. 1 Background of the topic .. 1 1. 2 Statement of the problem. 3 1. Research Objectives. 3 1. 4 Scope of Research .. 4 1. 5 Limitations of research .. . 4 1. 6 Significant of study . 5 1. 7 Definition of terms .. .. . 5 CHATER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW.. 5 2. 1 Theoretical Literature .. 5 2. 2 related Literature Review . . 7 2. 3 Summary dodge of findings of prior researches. .. CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH abstract FRAMEWORK 11 3. 1 Theoretical Framework 11 3. 2 Conceptual Framework.. .. 12 3. 3 Research hypothesis .. .. .. 13 3. 4 Operationalization of the variables .. 14 CHAPTER 4 info ANALYSIS AND conduct.. 15 4. 1 Method of Research 15 4. Source of Data .. 15 4. 3 Research instrument . 15 4. 4 Data analysis . 16 4. 5 Summary of Hypotheses Testing . 22 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION. 23 5. 1 Conclusion .. 23 5. 2 Recommendation 24 5. 3 Future Study 25 REFERENCE. . 26 entreeory A summary . 28 Appendix B Questionnaire . 2 Customer engagement in a Facebook commercial set club CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. 1 Background of the to pic The reason to select the studying community engagement deportments in a Facebook marking community of customers is beca uptake nowadays Facebook is a very famous social-networking website that has impacts on daily disembodied spirit and it socially influences the peoples choices. The world is moving toward the cyber world is which internet connections are easily access and reachable for every households and businesses.This study will show how the customer community engagement behavior affects perceived benefits of the Facebook commercial sucker, and user of its services and applications. We will focus on almost(prenominal) male and young-bearing(prenominal) respondents who are Facebook users and fans of at last one brand on Facebook, because these people can respond to our questionnaire effectively as they already experience social-networking. The company is looking for ways to brand loyalty among customers as the brand community offers both(prenominal) companies and cus tomers new ways to engage with each other.Whilst companies aim at engaging with influencing members perceptions, loyal customers nigh the brand, sharing information, and learning from and almost customers (Algesheimer et al. , 2005), customers perceive think of finished the variety of practices that they execute offline and online (Schau et al. , 2009). Although originally, an online brand community referred to a community on the www, recently social media network has been added to companies marketing and brand building activities (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010).Attracted by the great number of users of Facebook so, the creative marketing occupation in Facebook brand community will progress to people to participate and make the brand succeed. This study will help the firm understand more slightly customer engagement in the Facebook brand community. 1. 1. 2 Social Network, Facebook Over the last years, the ways people search, share information and communicate with each other has c hanged dramatically (Hennig-Thurau et al. , 2010). Social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube are playing a major role and are more important in business communication.The changes force the company and brand to focus on online services in order to compose family family relationships to customers. Facebook allows companies several services to contact and communicate with their customers. Fan rogues are a very interesting tool for companies to use. Usual characteristics of fans are self-identification as a fan, cultural competence, emotional engagement, co-production and auxiliary inhalation (Kozinets et al. , 2010). The Internet brought the first step to overcome geographical restrictions and also help the company build fan communities world-wide.In practice, Facebook users can be fans of a fan scallywag by pressing the like-button, then it identifies that they like this brand and will present their profiles on social network. The limit and information of fan page is automatically posted to the customer is Facebook news feed, and the customer can post comments on the fan page, interact with the brand, forward offers from the page as well as the interact with other community members (Jahn and Kunz. ,2012). 1. 2 Statement of problem As a social network, Facebook has touch on the social life and activity of people in several ways.With its availability on many meandering(a) devices, Facebook allows users to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and other connections wherever they are in the world, as persistent as there is access to the Internet. It can also tie people with same interests or beliefs finished groups and other pages. This study will help the company to understand more how community engagement behavior in Facebook is important to the company for implementing the technique to get company brand perception and gain market share via Facebook.In addition, engaging with the brand community in divers(prenominal) be haviors, receive several(predicate) relationship benefits, for object slighton amusement, may make customers more satisfied. This assumption is gripd on the reasoning that customers. This study will check out how a customer engagement behavior affects consumers perceived benefits, and assume a positive relationship amidst the work ups. (Gummerus et al. , 2012) 1. 3 Research objectives The research objective is to study the affects of community engagement behaviour of Facebook commercial brand on perceived benefits.The company can know more insight of customer behaviour specially the company who focuses on social network marketing activities. This study will help the company create marketing and content to their page on Facebook effectively to increase perceived benefit of the brand. * To study community engagement behaviour has a positive relationship on social benefit * To study community engagement behaviour has s positive relationship on delight benefit * To study commu nity engagement behaviour has a positive relationship on economic benefit 1. Scope of research The research studied the affects of community engagement behaviour on triplet factors of perceived benefits. The three separate variables of perceived benefits factors are social benefit, merriment benefit and economic benefit. The respondents of this research are male and womanly Facebook user in Bangkok. This research result would be advantage to the marketing department of the company who has community page of their brand on Facebook they can apply more attractive activities for their members.This study will help them to monitor their Facebook fan page effectively after they understand the fact that the brand community will help a firm draws individual customers and to create relationships with those customers, and also establishing long-term relationships. 1. 5 Limitations of research in that location are some limitations to this study of customer community engagement behaviours o f commercial brands on Facebook. The study is express to the engagement behaviour in a Facebook commercial brand community, while customers also engage with the brand in other ways.The limitations that need to be considered are first, self-selection of respondents affects the results which may come from inactive community users. Second, the behavioral ms were reported by the respondents themselves, and do not know that the answers are from actual behaviour or not. Finally, because the findings are based on commercial brand on Facebook page and the respondent have to be both Facebook user and commercial brand community page so this will represent only some portion of target customer of the company not the whole market 1. Significant of the study The findings in this study have several implications for social media strategies, and help the company to understand why customers participate in the Facebook brand community which is important to increasing more numbers of Facebook users to become brand community members and towards develop marketing on Facebook, which is lower cost than other commercial media. Firms may want to encourage and honour consumers to become more active on the site to receive maximal perceived benefits from the community (Gummerus et al. 2012). 1. 7 Definitions of Terms Fan pages the important tool on Facebook for brand communication. The company can use to mingle and interact with the customers effectively (Dholakia et al. , 2004). conjunction engagement behaviour is the customer behaviour that is more value than get the product or service, and can be defined as a customers behavioural manifestations that have a focus as motivational drivers rather than purchasing by the brand or firm (van Doorn et al. , 2010).Social benefits results from interaction among the company and consumer and mention to recognition and also friendship (Gweinner et al. , 1998). sport benefits is the relaxation and delight which customer perceive and could e ncourage community participation (Dholakia et al. , 2004). Economic benefits refer to people joining brand communities in order to get discounts and time savings, or to take part in marketing activity campaign and competitions (Gwinner et al. , 1998). CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2. Theoretical Literature Customer engagement in brand communities Customer engagement in brand communities causes the customers interactive experiences direct to the brand, is context-dependent, and develops consumers experience of brand value (Brodie et al. , 2011). Customer engagement is some clock used to represent the highest form of loyalty (Bowden, 2009 Roberts and Alpert, 2010), but as behavioural indicator it comprises all kinds of behaviours, not only those that are characteristic of high degrees of loyalty (Libai, 2011 Narayandas, 1998).The customer engagement consists of five dimensions. First, customer engagement can be defined in a different ways depending on customer time, interest or preferen ce this called customers resources. Second, it can fall in in different of outcomes for the customer such as improvement in the service. Third, it can be different in scope and be momentary, for example on going behaviour or issuing a complaint. Fourth, it has various impact on the company both negative and positive impact. Fifth, customer can engage in the behaviours for specific purposes (van Doorn et al. , 2010).Consumers engage in a number of behaviours that tie their relationship with the brand. For example frequency of visit, buying behaviours, and intended behaviour which go beyond the traditional measuring stick of the loyalty of the customer (Gummerus et al. , 2012). comprehend benefits of customer engagement in brand communities Before the existence of Web 2. 0, the customers did not consider social benefits important in an online context. They sought to experience trust benefit and special treatment benefit such as saving time and receiving special service rather than experience social benefit (Yen and Gwinner, 2003).The previous research studied on practical benefits which included informational and instrumental benefits (Dholakia et al. , 2004) which are often achievable through a Facebook fan page set up by the company. This study is focused on social, pleasure and economic benefits which we called perceived benefits. The reasons that people use social networking site are social connections such as keeping in touch with their friends and exchanging information such as events or gossip, (Raacke and Bonds-Raacke, 2008). In similar interest, shelter et al. 2010) fix the important motivation of people to participate the social network is the perceived information value from the community and the connection to their friends. The experiential value that derives the satisfaction of the customer of using online services is entertainment (Mathwick et al. , 2001 Nambisan and Baron, 2009 Nonnecke et al. , 2006). Entertainment benefit can be expected a s an important more than e-commerce in a brand community context. The Facebook fan pages spend their time with the community page such as game applications (Gummerus at al. 2012). Many previous researches also show that entertainment plays an important role as shared and consumed content on social networking sites (Sheldon, 2008 LaRose et al. , 2001). Economic benefits (Gwinner et al. , 1998) mention to people connecting brand communities because they want to get discounts and time savings, or to be a part in awards and competitions. 2. 2 Related Literature Review Brand fellowship The companies aim to engage with the loyal customers, influencing the member to have good perception toward the brand, distributing information and earning form and about customers (Algesheimer et al. , 2005), customer perceive value from the variety of practice that they perform online and offline (Schau et al. , 2009). An online brand community referred to a community on the World Wide Web, recently soc ial media has been added to companies marketing and brand building activities (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). In this study, brand community is defined as a group of people who possess a particular brand or who have a strong interest in a brand, and who are active both online and offline (Muniz and OGuinn, 2001 Jeppesen and Frederiksen, 2006).Research on brand communities found several different dimensions, including geographic concentration, social context, size, and temporalty (Dholakia et al. , 2004 McAlexander et al. , 2002). Regarding the size, Dholakia et al. , (2004) found the differences between small group-based communities and big communities in terms of motivation to join the communities. Another dimension is their temporality in communities, some are unchanging and others are short-term.The temporal stability of community members can be benefit to marketers as well as longevity associates with a long-term, stable market. Finally, geographically concentrated or scattered ar e considered as a dimension of communities (Hur at el. , 2011) The keys of brand community participation are hedonic and functional. Functional goals mention to information sharing among community members, while hedonic goals lead customer to have a positive experience over the interactions among the member (Holland and Baker, 2001).Regardless of which aim is established before a participation, the effect of brand community on private lives has been growing, for example over actual product consumption and purchasing, or the formation of opinions toward products or brands (Hagel and Armstrong, 1997), since they have been changing the role performed by existing reference groups (Constant et al. , 1996). The firms have begun to use brand communities for the strategic purpose of getting closer to a specific target market segment.Members of a brand community define the outline and particular community activities by the inter-relationships between members who like the same brand, and as t hey share information about the brand (Muniz and Schau, 2005), they set up brand-centered sub-culture (Schouten and McAlexander, 1995), which could be utilize for companies brand-building strategies. Then, the interaction between brand communities and companies is helpful for the firms to analyse customers characteristics and needs more accurately, so that firms can reach long-term customer relationships at a lower cost. . 3 Summary table of findings of previous researches. thither are many researchers who studied about the customer engagement, brand community, social networking, social benefit, entertainment benefit and economic benefit. The researcher name, objective and result are as follow Table 2. 1 previous(prenominal) empirical studies CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 3. 1 Theoretical Framework From previous research two engagement behavioural factors were found, one being community behaviour and one being transactional behaviours as independent variables (Gummerus et al. , 2012).The variable measuring how often customers visit the page and react to the brand on Facebook. Therefore, the three constructs were social benefits, economic and entertainment benefits as mediator. The dependent variables were relationship outcome, one is satisfaction and one is loyalty. public figure 3. 1 Model of study on relationship benefits mediate the effect on customer engagement on relationship outcomes Source Johanna Gummerus, Veronica Liljander, Emil Weman, Minna Pihlstrom, (2012),Customer engagement in a Facebook brand community, Management Research Review 35 (9), 857 877 . 2 Conceptual Framework The theoretical framework of relationship benefits mediate the effect on customer engagement on relationship outcomes (Gummerus et al. , 2012). The researcher adjusted the conceptual framework to study the relationship on customer engagement behaviour and perceived benefits as follows pick up 3. 2 Conceptual Framework There are three independent variables which a re social benefit, entertainment benefit and economic benefit. The dependent variable of this conceptual framework is community engagement behaviour. . 3 Research hypothesis The hypotheses studies the relationship between customer engagement behaviour which is community engagement behaviour about the brand community on Facebook and perceived benefit which are social benefit, economic benefit and entertainment benefit and demonstrate that there is positive relationship of customer community engagement behaviour on perceived benefit for Facebook users in Tailand. Customer engagement in brand communitiesFrom previous studies, the researcher examined the customer behavioural engagement in a brand community relationship on perceived relationship benefits of Game Club in Facebook. For this study we will study a customer community engagement behaviour relationship on perceived relationship benefits of Facebook user in siamese connectionland who are members of the commercial brands fan pag e. Perceived benefits of customer engagement in brand communities From previous studies, the researcher examined the relationship benefits mediation of customer engagement on satisfaction and loyalty of Game Club in Facebook.For this study we will research the relationship of customer community engagement behaviour and perceived benefits which are social benefit, entertainment benefit and economic benefit of Facebook user in Thailand who is fan page of the commercial brand. Hence, the hypothesized present can be summarized as shown below H1 Community engagement behaviour has a positive relationship on social benefits. H2 Community engagement behaviour has a positive relationship on entertainment benefits. H3 Community engagement behaviour has positive relationship on economic enefits. 3. 4 Operationalization of the variables CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULT 4. 1 Method of Research The Facebook user who is a member of the fan page of the brand on Facebook is defined as a target gr oup to distribute the questionnaire in order to test the hypothesis. The questionnaires are available into two methods one is online questionnaire and second is questionnaire paper. The respondent who answered the questionnaire of this study is all Thai Facebook users and also being a fan page of commercial brand on Facebook.The questionnaire combined 4 constructs which are customer community engagement behaviour construct, social benefit construct, entertainment benefit construct and economic benefit construct and consists of 23 questions which this research applied the question from the previous study base on this research objectives. 4. 2 Source of Data This research was applied from the previous study of customer engagement on Facebook. The information was collected from 208 respondents who are Facebook users and members of a commercial brand fan page and were tested to prove the hypotheses.The researcher collected data by distributed 58 questionnaires in Siam Square, Assumption University and Thai Summit Tower building in Bangkok, and posted a questionnaire online for Thai Facebook users and there is 150 respondents from online questionnaire. The date duration to collect the data is 24th February 2013 to 12th March 2013. 4. 3 Research instrument The instruments for concourse the data for the research are online questionnaire and paper questionnaire.To test the hypothesis the question paper consists of varies specific questions to measure the relationship of community engagement behaviours on three perceived benefit, social benefit, economic benefit and entertainment benefit. The questionnaires consist of four constructs. The Community engagement behaviours the perceived benefit statement was measured on a Five-point Likert scale with the anchors Strongly agree Strongly disagree. Table 4. 1 Measurement Scale 4. 4 Data Analysis In this research, there are three types of data synopsis.First, this study uses descriptive analysis to analyse the frequency an d plowshare of the data in screening question and demographic information. Second, this research use dependability analysis to test the reliability of each question for dependent and independent variables. Finally, this research use inferential analysis to analyse the correlation between variables by using Pearson correlation (Bivariate). Descriptive Analysis After screening question of the questionnaire from 208 respondents there are 200 respondents who are Facebook users and be a member of brand fan page and 8 respondents who are not Facebook user.The following table shows the frequency and division of demographic by using descriptive analysis. Table 4. 2 Screening question Facebook user From table 4. 2 of 208 respondents, we found 200 respondents are Facebook users 96. 2% (200) and 3. 8% (8) are not Facebook user. Brand fan page on Facebook From table 4. 2, after the first screening question we got 200 respondents who are members of a brand fan page on Facebook. Frequency of v isit fan page From the table 4. 2, the highest portion of visits to brand fan page on Facebook of the respondents is 1-3 times per week and the last percentage is once a month or seldom.There are 37. 5% (75) of respondents who visit 1-3 times per week, 29. 5% (59) of visit daily, 20% (40) of 4-6 times per week, 7% (14) of 2-3 times per month and 6% (12) of once a month or seldom. Table 4. 3 Demographic information Factor of Gender From the table 4. 2, the highest percentage of respondents was female. There are 56. 5% (113) of female respondents and 43. 5% (87) of male respondents. Factor of Age From the table 4. 2, the highest percentage of respondents was age 25-29 years old and the lowest percentage is age below 20 years old.There are 69% (138) of age 25 to 29 years old, 16% (32) of age 21 to 24 years old, 12. 5% (25) of age 30 and to a higher place and 2. 5% (5) of age below 20 years old. Factor of education level From the table 4. 2, the highest percentage of respondents was college/university level and the lowest percentage is high school level. There are 66. 5% (133) of college/university level, 31. 5% (63) of introduce degree level and 2% (4) of high school level. Table 4. 4 The Analysis of Descriptive statistics of constructs by using Average Mean and Standard Deviation Reliability AnalysisThe purpose of testing the reliability is to measure the question of each variable by using Cronbachs Coefficient Alpha test. The results of each variable are as follows Table 4. 5 The reliability Analysis of Research Instrument From table 4. 5, the results show that the reliability of all variables is greater than . 6 so all questions are reliable to use for this study. Inferential Analysis There are 3 independent variables which are social benefit, entertainment benefit and social benefit to analyse the relationship with community engagement behaviour by using Coefficient Pearson Correlation (Bivariate).Each independent variable has a positive relationship to c ommunity engagement behaviour and significant value is less than 0. 01 which nub all hypotheses are fail to reject (supported). Hypothesis 1 Community engagement behaviour has a positive relationship on social benefits. Table 4. 6 The Analysis of relationship between Community engagement behaviour and Social benefit As the result in table 4. 6, the sig. is equal to . 000 which is less than . 01 (. 000