A low-cost airline as a brand community in social media?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14267/TURBULL.2021v21n4.4Keywords:
brand community, low-cost airline, reputation management, consumer perceptionAbstract
Social media offer a rather easy way to introduce top-down establishment and management for brands of virtual communities. The success of a brand community operation may provide a positive return for the company under optimal conditions. Our research consists of a netnographic analysis of posts (n1=206) and comments (n2=536) on the official Facebook page of chosen low-cost carrier Wizzair. We investigate which types of post elicit the higher number of comments from users, and what the tone of user response is to these posts. Contrary to our prior assumptions, our results show a strong emphasis on consumer-oriented communication and, overall, an attractive organization. Our results, however, are slightly influenced by the presence of sweepstakes, out-of-context consumer reactions in search of customer service, and an overall neutral (instead of markedly positive) sentiment in user comments.
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