Customer Engagement in Social Media Brand Community A Study of Fast-Food facebook brand pages in Syria

Omran, Wajdy

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/38572

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Authors

Omran, Wajdy

Abstract(s)

The term "costumer engagment" has grown in importance in recent years to describe cosumers interative experiences with brands. The populaty of that term was boosted by the rapid penetration of social networking sites which facilitated the engagement of consumers through online brand communities. Moreover, Facebook brand pages are widely popular among young consumers due to its rapid adoption in marketing on social media networks.In light of the Syrian conflict, and after the return of stability and safety to most of the Syrian regions, local Fast food Syrian chains found an opportunity to recover and powerfully expand in the Syrian market, especially after the closure of global fastfood chains due to international sanctions. On the other hand, Social media marketing practices are considered to be in the infancy stage in Syria, with many mpanies starting to recognize the power of social media in communication with customers. The objective of this thesis was to investigate the antecedents of young customers engagement between ages 18-29 years in Fast food Facebook brand pages in Syria. The study examined two structures (brand trust and brand love) as antecedents related to consumers relationships with Local Fast-food brands and brand loyalty as an outcome of customer engagement. In the quantitative phase, an online survey was used to collect data for the current study, where was posted on Facebook brand pages of the fast-food chains in Syria. The data collection was conducted by drawing a sample from young consumers whose ages are between 18 and 29, and who are active members of official fast-food brand pages on Facebook in Syria, Also Structure Equation Model (SEM) was conducted to study these relations between variables. The most significant findings of this study reveal that brand trust and brand love factors can influence the level of customer brand engagement, which in turn will affect loyalty. Moreover, this study offers useful managerial insights for Fast food brand managers to better assess the motives and outcome of customer brand engagement with these Facebook brand pages, to establish better emotional and effective relations with them, therefore the ability to stand in the competitive business environment.