Brand Communities for Fast Moving Consumer Goods: An Empirical Study of Members‘ Behavior and the Economic Relevance for the Marketer

Do brand communities really work for FMCG? Can consumers involved in brand communities be characterized by specific behavioral attributes? Are there significant differences between members and those consumers who are simply visiting the brand-community site? And do the members show a higher level  of customer retention as those non-member? In her study Sandra Meister derives a set of behavioral attributes relevant for brand-community members. By means of a significance test and a structural equation model, she examines the behavioral profile of brand-community members and compares the results with brand-community non-members. Additionally, she investigates the impact of  the behavioral attributes on the performance measure ‚customer retention‘. Finally, she formulates leanings and recommendation for brand-community management.?