Luxury brand marketers have recently turned their attention to customer-driven social media devoted to their brands. The key concepts of involvement, interaction and behavioral intention provide the theoretical foundation to investigate luxury brands. The purpose of this study is to test a model that analyzes the relationship among brand involvement, consumer-brand interaction and behavioral intention in the context of luxury brand-related activities on social media. Based on content value theory, the present research identifies the moderating role of utilitarian/hedonic motivations on the relationships proposed. Data were collected from 326 social media users who look for information on internet about luxury brands before purchasing a specific brand. We provide evidence indicating positive relationships between brand involvement, consumer-brand interaction and behavioral intention. The results also confirm the moderating role of the utilitarian/hedonic motivations. This study provides recommendations to luxury brands to understand the nature of consumer involvement and brand-customer relationship in order to forecast the behavioral intention of their consumers more accurately.

Introduction

Luxury brands have recently focused their attention to luxury consumers in their social media networks [1]. Consumers are drawn to luxury brands for more than just the acquisition of materialistic or superficial possessions. They may also be drawn by perceptions of profound value, exceptional craftsmanship, and identification with a particular country [2]. Luxury consumption is therefore multidimensional and embraces financial (e.g., exclusivity), functional (e.g., product excellence), individual (e.g., personal enjoyment), and social value (e.g., prestige and status) components [3]. As a result, luxury brand managers recognize that complex and psychological motivations drive consumers to purchase their items. Social media activities can create trustworthy experiences for consumers, improve brand involvement, inspire interactivity, intensify brand loyalty, and increase purchase behaviors [4]. Social media networks have been used by numerous brands as two-way communication platforms towards the target audience to stream instant information, as well as to initiate dialogues and interactions [5]. Hence, the consumer can engage in brands’ online environment, through brands’ social media sites. Among the many activities consumers may carry out with regard to brands on this channel, only some of them are of the greatest relevance to companies. Existing research contends that the types of activity that matter most to companies are those in which consumers interact with brands by creating original content or by contributing to content created by others [6,7]. For example, consumers can comment on brand-related content, rate products or brands, and perform other actions in which they interact to contribute to brand-related content initially generated by others. These activities typically require high or moderate levels of brand involvement on the part of consumers, which refers to a positive psychological state that typically occurs during interactive or cocreative experiences consumers have with brands and entails aspects of consumer’s perceived relevance of a brand based on its level of appeal, meaning, and value to consumers. Brand involvement is related to their level of engagement with the brand on social media [8]. In line with this, viewing a brand as important or needed relates to the extent to which a consumer would choose to engage and interact with one social media site over others [9].