Real vs Reel: Drivers of Consumer Engagement in Online Brand Communities. A Netnographic Study on Red Bull’s Facebook Brand Page

Abstract: Online brand communities contribute to companies by being a digital extension of the brand, enabling a diversified complementary market, and constituting a driving marketing force through consumer engagement. However, with great opportunities comes also great responsibilities, and its challenges. To manage those, it is imperative to first know what drives consumers to engage in online brand communities and how it is manifested. This research is purposed to contribute to the understanding of consumer engagement and provide new insights to brand page owners. The scope of this inductive research is limited to the driving factors of engagement, relationship marketing, trends, and challenges, in Red Bull’s Facebook online brand community. Since the study considers social expressions on social media, a netnographic approach has been applied and the software program NVivo has served as a complement to the research. From the six posts with the highest engagement rate of a total of 67 posts investigated, the result of the research indicates that posts containing videos showing extreme sports performances drives the highest engagement. The key driving factors of consumer engagement in the online brand community are indicated to relate to questioning of individual’s fundamental conceptions, foremost authenticity, tension of negative experiences, and contextual lack of knowledge within the member comments. Negatively valanced engagement is shown to generate an escalation of negative comments, in some cases, driving consumers to express their intention to disengage or exit the online brand community. The investigated sample of 6,674 comments provides useful theoretical insights and practical implications for marketing managers, platform managers and brand page owners. In the end of the paper managerial implications, limitations and opportunities for future research are reflected upon based on the findings.