Examining brand communities among children and adolescents: an exploratory study
Abstract
Purpose
Online communities designed to appeal to children are on the rise. The success of this marketplace phenomenon indicates that adolescents are likely candidates for brand community membership; however, the literature has yet to examine this trend. This research aims to address this gap and establish the likely existence of brand community involvement among adolescents. It further seeks to explore the characteristics which may differentiate children who are more likely to become involved in brand communities and examine what impact their involvement may have on adolescents' psychological well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
A national online panel was employed to collect survey data from respondents aged 7-18 and their parents.
Findings
The results support the existence of a high brand community involvement segment among adolescents. Adolescents high in brand community involvement are found to display noteworthy differences in attitudes, values, and marketplace behaviors. Several interesting avenues of future research are proposed.
Originality/value
To the authors' knowledge this is the first study attempting to measure differences between adolescents who measure high and low in brand community involvement. Of particular interest are the results indicating that adolescents involved in brand communities may have important distinguishing attitudes and values and exhibit noteworthy differences in their marketplace behavior.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
All authors contributed equally to this manuscript, regardless of the order in which they appear.
Citation
Ann Flurry, L., R. Swimberghe, K. and M. Parker, J. (2014), "Examining brand communities among children and adolescents: an exploratory study", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 103-110. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCM-08-2013-0685
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited