Does social currency matter in creation of enhanced brand experience?
| Published date | 21 March 2016 |
| Date | 21 March 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-09-2014-0717 |
| Pages | 98-114 |
| Author | Sabrina Trudeau H.,Saeed Shobeiri |
| Subject Matter | Marketing,Product management,Brand management/equity |
Does social currency matter in creation of
enhanced brand experience?
Sabrina Trudeau H. and Saeed Shobeiri
Department of Marketing, University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada
Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to demonstrate the importance of the newly developed concept of social currency as an antecedent of brand experience
in the context of cosmetics consumption. In other words, the authors suggest that social currency could act as a brand experience provider.
Design/methodology/approach – Data collection was made through a paper and pencil survey. The sample consisted mostly of undergraduate
and graduate students recruited on a voluntary basis at a large northeastern university. Self-administered questionnaires were filled by 373
participants, who were instructed to think about their favourite brand when it comes to buying cosmetic products for themselves.
Findings – Results showed that social currency positively impacts all four dimensions of brand experience, i.e. sensory, affective, behavioural and
intellectual experiences. The findings also suggest that conversation, advocacy and affiliation are the three significant dimensions of social currency
when it comes to the consumption of cosmetics.
Originality/value – This study reveals, for the first time, how the concept of social currency could enhance a fundamental component of brand
equity, i.e. brand experience. Another important contribution of this research is the establishment of higher levels of validity for the newly developed
concept of social currency. This study would also contribute to the investigation of brand experience antecedents, which have been little addressed
in the literature on the emerging paradigm of experiential marketing.
Keywords Consumer behaviour, Brand evaluation, Brand communities
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Developing a strong brand identity and communicating it to
consumers is a key challenge in brand management (Keller,
2007;Da Silveira et al., 2013;Phillips et al., 2014a,2014b).
Today, brands no longer have full control over their images.
As consumers continually interact with each other, they
conjointly shape the brand image and modify the brand
associations (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2006;Hennig-Thurau
et al., 2010;Lin and Sung, 2014). Indeed, the speed and the
extent of consumer-to-consumer interactions have largely
increased over the past few years due to the popularity of
digital communications and the prevalence of social media
platforms (Miller et al., 2009;Bugshan, 2014;Franklin et al.,
2014). As a result, consumers are now able to diffuse and
gather information about the brands (e.g. recommendations,
critics, opinions, etc.) openly and instantly.
A recent study by Euromonitor (2013a) shows that more
than one in every three consumers uses social media to learn
more about a product or service, or ask for advice during the
purchase decision. In recent years, brand communities based
on virtual platforms have become increasingly popular for a
wide range of brands (Zagila, 2013;Baldus et al., 2015).
Participation in these communities helps consumers to create
interpersonal ties in a cost-effective and dynamic way (Chiu
et al., 2006;Miller et al., 2009). Virtual brand community thus
serves as a key source of social value for consumers, as it
facilitates social networking, community engagement and
collective identity development (Dholakia et al., 2004;Schau
et al., 2009;Tsai and Bagozzi, 2014). These social benefits
play a major role in shaping consumers’ participation in virtual
communities (Kuo and Feng, 2013;Zhou et al., 2013) and
determining consumers’ attitudes towards both the
communities and the brands (Jung et al., 2014).
To capture the complex and multifaceted nature of brand’s
social value, Lobschat et al. (2013) recently introduced the
concept of social currency. Brand’s social currency represents
the sum of all actual and potential social interactions that
mostly happen on social media and other online platforms. As
social currency is a new concept, its role in success or failure
of the brands has not been yet thoroughly evaluated. Although
Lobschat et al. (2013) found that solid social currency could
enhance certain dimensions of brand equity including
perceived quality, brand trust and brand loyalty, there remains
a great potential to further examine the role of this concept in
the development of strong brands. According to Keller
(2010), information that consumers receive from outside the
firm’s formal communication channels plays a major role in
shaping brand equity. Past research also confirms that social
influences by one’s network impact one’s decisions to
continue or end relationships with brands (Nitzan and Libai,
2011). Indeed, interactions on social networks allow
consumers to share brand-related information and help them
better appreciate the brand’s value. Consistent with this
notion, a number of previous studies have revealed that online
brand-related forums widely affect consumers’ impressions of
brands (Adjei et al., 2010;Scarpi, 2010;Marzocchi et al.,
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on
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Journal of Product & Brand Management
25/1 (2016) 98–114
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-09-2014-0717]
98
2013). It could thus be concluded that social elements are
crucial in determining the strength and the success of brands
in the marketplace.
The emerging paradigms of branding suggest that
consumer’s experience of dealing with a brand plays a key role
in shaping the performance and the popularity of the brand in
the market (Brakus et al., 2009;Pine and Gilmore, 2011).
According to Holbrook (1999), other-oriented desires serve as
a fundamental source of experiential benefits, but have not
been sufficiently considered in the past. Previous studies have
confirmed that involvement in online brand-related forums is
a process with experiential nature (Brodie et al., 2011;2013).
It is also found that social interactions serve as an antecedent
of perceived experiential benefits (Keng et al., 2007;Keng and
Ting, 2009). Furthermore, several scholars have noted that
brand experience is shaped by various stimuli originating from
brand-related communications (Haeckel et al., 2003;Brakus
et al., 2009). Virtual environments provide a rich context for
such social interactions. Accordingly, this study further
investigates the potential links between the social currency and
the brand experience. Could the social currency of the brand
contribute to consumers’ actual brand experience? This
question is fundamental, as past studies have investigated the
antecedents of one’s brand experience mostly in the absence of
other consumers. In other words, few studies have examined
whether brand experience could be shaped collectively and
through interaction with peer consumers. To the best of our
knowledge, this study is the first to explore the possible links
between the constructs of social currency and brand
experience. It is also essential to understand which exact
dimensions of the brand experience would potentially improve
because of the brand’s superior social currency. Indeed, firms
are mainly encouraged to design and offer a complete brand
experience, in which all different sources of experiential values
are present (Pine and Gilmore, 1999). However, we know
very little about how each marketing initiative could affect the
equilibrium between various dimensions of the brand
experience. Finally, what types of social benefits would form
the brand’s social currency in any specific product category?
Indeed, Lobschat et al. (2013) believe that the relevance of
social currency dimensions could vary from one industry to
another. To what extent would the dominant dimensions of
social currency alter when one moves from the automobile
industry in the original study of Lobschat et al. (2013) to a
more delicate product type such as cosmetics? This study aims
to shed some more light on these unexplored topics.
We focus on the context of cosmetics consumption, in
which the brand experience plays a major role in shaping
consumers’ decisions. Indeed, past research has demonstrated
that experiences provided by cosmetic brands involve
emotional associations that trigger certain desires, appraisals,
feelings, actions and physiological responses (Hansen and
Christensen, 2007;Apaolaza et al., 2011). We believe that
benefits inherent to social interactions – such as emotional
attachment, personal development and sense of affinity –
would help in creation of a fulfilling brand experience. In other
words, we suggest that social currency could act as a brand
experience provider (Schmitt, 1999a) when it comes to the
consumption of cosmetics. To test our conceptual framework,
we collected data through a paper and pencil survey that used
a sample of undergraduate and graduate students from a large
northeastern university. Our findings confirm that social
currency positively impacts all four dimensions of brand
experience conceptualized by Brakus et al. (2009), i.e.
sensory, affective, behavioural and intellectual experiences.
Results also suggest that conversation, advocacy and affiliation
are the most salient dimensions of social currency in the
context of cosmetics consumption.
As social currency is a newly developed construct, its
relationships with many antecedents of consumer behaviour –
including brand experience (Brakus et al., 2009;Iglesias et al.,
2011;Lee and Kang, 2012) – have not been verified yet.
Therefore, an important contribution of this research is the
establishment of higher levels of validity for the newly
developed concept of social currency. Our study also
contributes to the investigation of the sources of brand
experience, and in particular the other-oriented side of it
(Holbrook, 1999), which has been very little addressed in the
literature on experiential marketing. Our results suggest that
managers should pay close attention to the role of
consumer-initiated efforts – in addition to that of
firm-initiated efforts such as advertising or promotions – in
formation of the brand experience. The observed differences
between the outcomes of the six social currency dimensions
suggest that managers should first identify those dimension(s)
of the brand experience that need to be enhanced, and then
adapt their social marketing strategies accordingly.
2. Theoretical background
2.1 Social currency
The concept of social currency was defined for the first time by
Lobschat et al. (2013, p. 126) as:
[. ..] the extent and modality with which consumers share a brand with
others, or information about a brand, and derive social benefit from
interacting with other brand users as part of their everyday social lives.
In this view, social interactions among consumers of the brand
would result in information acquisition, knowledge exchange
and other social benefits such as achievement of status and
recognition. Lobschat et al. (2013) based the theoretical
foundation of social currency on the social capital theory
(Bourdieu, 1977,1986;Coleman, 1988). According to
Bourdieu (1986), social capital refers to general social benefits
derived from interaction and cooperation of individuals or
groups. In this perspective, the functional and symbolic
benefits generated from interactions or memberships are the
main drivers of cooperation of individuals. Later, Nahapiet
and Ghoshal (1998) introduced three distinct dimensions –
including structural, cognitive and relational – for social
capital. According to Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998), the
structural dimension refers to the existence of network
connections between actors, while the cognitive dimension
covers resources that provide shared representations,
interpretations and systems of meaning among actors. Finally,
the relational dimension points to the personal relationships
that individuals develop through a series of interactions, and
serves as the basis for social currency (Nahapiet and Ghoshal,
1998;Lobschat et al., 2013). In this view, bonding with brand
and its other consumers helps one to fulfil his/her social desires
and gain sociability, approval and prestige.
Creation of enhanced brand experience
Sabrina Trudeau H. and Saeed Shobeiri
Journal of Product & Brand Management
Volume 25 · Number 1 · 2016 · 98–114
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