Social Brand Value and the Value Enhancing Role of Social Media Relationships for Brands

Due to the social media revolution and the emergence of communities, social networks, and user generated content portals, prevalent branding concepts need to catch up with this reality. Given the importance of social ties, social interactions and social identity in the new media environment, there is a need to account for a relationship measure in marketing and branding. Based on the concept of social capital we introduce the concept of social brand value, defined as the perceived value derived by exchange and interactions with other users of the brand within a `community. Within a qualitative study marketing experts were interviewed and highlighted the importance towards social media activities, but also indicated that they do not have a clear picture on how strategies should look like and how their success can be measured. A second quantitative study was conducted which demonstrates the influence the social brand value construct has for consumers brand evangelism and willingness to pay a price premium and hence the value contribution of the social brand value for consumers.