Abstract:

Along with the development and the use of Internet and the opportunity of two-way communication that Web 2.0 provides enable consumer-brand interactions via social media. The very significant social media usage rates in Turkey demonstrate a necessity for business to use social media effectively with respect to marketing communications in order to build up and sustain relationship with consumers. The main objective of this research is to propose and test a social media integrated brand love model with the intention of gaining an understanding whether consumer-brand relationship in social media develops brand love. Therefore, this study investigates both the influence of quality (as social media driven brand love antecedent) and social media driven brand love core elements (passion-driven behaviors, self-brand integration, positive emotional connection, long-term relationship, anticipated separation distress, overall attitude valence and attitude strength) on social media driven brand love consequences. Data were collected through an online survey with a sample size of 235 respondents. The proposed model and hypotheses were tested via structural equation modeling and multiple linear regression analysis. The results demonstrate that anticipated separation distress, passion-driven behaviors and positive emotional connection indicate the most significant influence on social media driven brand love among proposed seven brand love constructs. Furthermore, quality has a significant but a weak influence on brand love consequences.

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