After studying Consumer Brand Engagement (CBE) literature (Hollebeek et al 2014) I wonder how to use the CBE scales and what for?
The CBE scales contain usually three dimensions:
Cognitive: Using [brand] gets me to think about [brand].
Affective: I feel very positive when I use [brand].
Activating1: I spend a lot of time using [brand], compared to other [category] brands.
Scholars that use the scales in their studies can get results about what are consumer reactions (natural science?) to particular brands. However they can't study how the brands inspire (social sciences) consumers to transform their value formation practices, can they? It limits the scientific critic of brand values.
I would argue that the consumer-brand engagement concept contains the hidden assumption that consumers choose what is best for them or at least they can rank or order the offers according to the personal preferences. Scholars who use the concept (together with the assumption) don’t study values/principles which are independent of observed individual interactants choices and valuations – they put the values (causes? inspirations?) into the black box in their studies.
The problem is known in economics (the social-science-based economists criticize the natural-science-based economists with different outputs) but not recognized in brand management I suppose.
What do you think?
Literature
Hollebeek L.D., Glynn M.S.. and Brodie R.J. (2014) Consumer Brand Engagement in Social Media: Conceptualization, Scale Development and Validation, Journal of Interactive Marketing 28(2): 149-165
You can read: Kaur, H., Paruthi, M., Islam, J., & Hollebeek, L. D. (2020). The role of brand community identification and reward on consumer brand engagement and brand loyalty in virtual brand communities. Telematics and Informatics, 46, 101321.
I would keep my critical points about the hidden assumptions of CBE studies (Kaur et al. 2020).
1. "the experience offered by consumer engagement helps in developing an emotional connection with consumers that makes them brand loyal"
hidden assumptions:
(1) the approach is firm/provider centric = it asks how to get brand loyalty instead how brands empower beneficiaries when the beneficiaries use the brands,
(2) the approach studies "value-in-exchange" instead "value-in-use" that empower beneficiaries for the rest of their lives
2. The CBE's ”I like to know more about X” and all other items (table 1)
hidden assumption:
when individuals perceive X as valuable, it is valuable - it consequently puts the collective values that should be studied into a back box,
- it measures what is easy to measure instead what is important = collective cultural values = institutions that drive collective value formations and their transformations that are also declared as a research priority.
What is your point about the study?
Do you agree with me?
Literature
Kaur, H., Paruthi, M., Islam, J., & Hollebeek, L. D. (2020). The role of brand community identification and reward on consumer brand engagement and brand loyalty in virtual brand communities. Telematics and Informatics, 46,
Some sources to strengthen your arguments:
1. Cheung, M. L., Pires, G., Rosenberger, P. J., & De Oliverira, M. J. (2020). Driving consumer–brand engagement and co-creation by brand interactivity. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.
2. Algharabat, R., Rana, N. P., Alalwan, A. A., Baabdullah, A., & Gupta, A. (2020). Investigating the antecedents of customer brand engagement and consumer-based brand equity in social media. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 53.
3. Cheung, M. L., Pires, G., & Rosenberger, P. J. (2020). The influence of perceived social media marketing elements on consumer–brand engagement and brand knowledge. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics.
I have just browsed
Algharabat, R., Rana, N. P., Alalwan, A. A., Baabdullah, A., & Gupta, A. (2020). Investigating the antecedents of customer brand engagement and consumer-based brand equity in social media. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 53.
my point:
The authors study how brands can generate consumer brand engagement that affects brand equity whereas the should rather study how brand offers or other activities inspire consumers-and-other-stakeholders transformation and empowerment for rest of their life.
There is a lot of research on how brands generate consumer engagement and almost no research on how brands transform and empower consumers/stakeholders for the rest of their life. The last work of Banksy about eclipse of the liking-based heroes belongs to the latter group as to the field of art. The Instagram initiative of like- button removal is the practical action of this kind.
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