Brands as Socialising Agents

The paper focuses on the growing aspect of consumer-brand communities in the online context and the manner that the engagement of individuals in brand communities can actually support the broadening of the social interaction of individuals outside the online brand community and the brand related context. In the context an on line service, on line strategy games, and using data collected from 384 gamers, it suggests that the relationship that consumers have with the brand and their need to socialise can predict their participation in the online community (community engagement and community identification), while their participation in the on line community, and in particular community identification, can predict their willingness to develop social ties with the other members of the on line community outside the on line environment and the brand related context.