From the Back Cover
Online brand communities (OBCs) are hugely important in the development of marketing strategy, but it is unclear how marketers can effectively utilise these platforms to enhance and develop consumer engagement. For an online brand community to be successful, it should allow members to feel a connection to the brand and with other members while forming a disconnection from those not belonging to the community. It should also have rituals and traditions that join members together over a revered commonality, and moral responsibility in contributing to the community. Indeed, brands play active roles in securing degrees of activity in OBCs' through content that offers members the quality of engagement they seek.
This book focuses on contemporary digital marketing issues in OBCs, offering a comprehensive examination of consumers' response to active engagement in such communities. It discusses how brands can tap into the various levels of participation, engagement and online conversations in the development of marketing strategy and ultimately examines how an online brand community strengthens value co-creation.
Balancing theory with practical approaches, this book gives serious treatment to an important yet until now overlooked area of digital marketing strategy, providing an important resource for scholars, students and practitioners.
Wilson Ozuem's area of expertise lies in digital marketing and innovation. He teaches digital marketing at several UK universities. Professor Ozuem is acknowledged as an international leader in the field of digital marketing and multichannel retailing. His current research focuses on the effects of online brand communities on marketing strategy.
Michelle Willis's expertise is in digital marketing. Her current research interests include online service failure and recovery strategies and customer loyalty, particularly with the millennial generation. Her research has been published and presented in various journals and conferences, including those of the American Marketing Association and the European Marketing Academy.
Wilson Ozuem is a Professor of Digital Economy at the University of Cumbria, UK. His general area of expertise lies in digital marketing and fashion marketing, while his specific research interest concerns the impacts of emerging computer-mediated marketing environments on the fashion industry. Prof. Ozuem is acknowledged as one of the international leaders in the study of digital marketing and multichannel retailing. His research has been published in key journals, including the European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Information Technology & People and Psychology & Marketing, and many others.
Michelle Willis is a Lecturer in Digital and e-Business at the University of Cumbria, UK. Her research interest lies in emerging technologies, particularly the interface between social networking sites and the development of marketing programmes, and online service failure and recovery strategies, in associationwith consumers of the millennial generation. She has co-authored chapters in textbooks, articles for the journal Psychology & Marketing, and conference papers in her specialist area of research that were presented at the American Marketing Association and the European Marketing Academy conferences.
