The effect on the brand loyalty of virtual brand communities: A research on Nikon brand community members

Today, the concept of brand expresses much more than the narrow sense. Enterprises are striving to strengthen their brand image by assigning a meaning to its brands. In terms of enterprises, the importance of the brand loyalty issue reveals that the most profitable customer group is loyal customers. Along with the development of production technology, the increases of product alternatives, enterprises are testing different strategies by creating an emotional connection with the consumer for the creation of brand loyalty. Brand communities are one of the strategies of creating brand loyalty. These communities, which was formed by consumer groups that converge around a brand with common values, develop multiple relationships between consumer and brand. In this study, it is desirable to examine the impact of virtual brand associations on brand loyalty. For this purpose, a questionnaire study was carried out with the members of the virtual brand community of the Nikon brand by developing research models and hypotheses. The questionnaire study was performed as online and the data were analyzed by using the SPSS package program. As a result of this study, the extent to which the interaction characteristics in the virtual brand communities influence brand loyalty was addressed and proposals were submitted for the strategies of brand loyalty development of enterprises. KEYWORDS: Brand, Brand Loyalty, Brand Communities, Virtual Brand Communities