The effect of communications and social interactions through virtual communities on consumer-based brand value

Nowadays, due to increasing form of the effective competition and consumer awareness, the most important competitive advantage for the firms is to build brands. Along with the change and development of global economy, the firms with strong brands can have competitive advantages against their followers and rivals. The most effective way to create strong brands is contriving brand value based upon the consumer oriented approach. In this study, marketing communications and social interaction provided through virtual communities on consumer-based brand value have been investigated. Furthermore, their relations with each other have also been displayed and compared with the current consumer-based brand value model. A research questionnaire has been prepared for choosen brands which are placed in virtual communities and obtained datas have been analyzed in order to test the hypotheses. According to the results; marketing communications through virtual communities have direct effect on brand awareness. Marketing communications have indirect effect on brand value. Social interactions through virtual communities have direct effect on the components of consumer-based brand value which are brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand assosications and perceived quality. Also social interactions have indirect effect on brand value. Statistically, we found perceived quality has no effect on brand value and brand awareness has negative effect on brand value. Keywords: Brand, Brand Value, social interaction, communications, virtual comminities.