SOCIAL MEDIA AND ONLINE BRAND TRIBALISM BEHAVIOR ON CONSUMER BRANDS

A. A. Cooray & D. M. R. Dissanayake

ABSTRACT

Social media marketing is a strategic tool applied by many organizations for brand promotion and stakeholder relationship activities. Marketers use social media platforms to target different sets of stakeholders including consumers as the main category. The strategic focus of resulting extended brand engagements with the consumers is a must in today’s branding and communication campaigns due to stiff competition and consumer dynamics noticed. Brand tribalism is one of the holistic results a brand could obtain via social media marketing tools. Previous studies investigated the impact of social media marketing on brand tribalism with reference to different product categories, marketing, and consumer groups. Consumer products promoted via social media options are attributed with special attention due to brand competition, consumer engagements, and dynamic natures of brand performances. Accordingly, researchers claim further studies to examine how social media marketing could result in brand-related outcomes in different market and consumer contexts due to many dynamic factors that impact outcomes. Alongside, this paper followed a comprehensive literature review as the main method to examine social media marketing and its relationships with brand-related outcomes with special attention to brand tribalism behavior. The authors attempted to explain how social media marketing influences brand tribalism whilst mentioning the avenues for mediating paths.  Alongside, the paper concludes with future research directions proposing mediating variables and new consumer contexts encouraging new researchers to contribute knowledge and practice perspectives.

Keywords: Brand Tribalism, Consumer Products, Social Media Marketing.

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