Luca Casablanca

Integration in the Brand Community: a Model Applied to Apple Users Luca Casablanca

The study of the relationship between consumers and brand has developed a remarkable speculation over the years. Especially during last decade, it has been delved into the topic of brand communities ? groups of consumers associated by the fact of being connected to a brand through the ownership of a product, the fruition of a service, or the sharing of an experience. Some scholars have defined a model for measuring the integration of users within a community (Integration in the Brand Community, IBC). This study intends to validate this model, adapting it to Apple community, through an exploratory analysis and a quantitative study, drawn up on 351 owners of Apple products. Afterwards, it analyses the IBC according to the change of the amount or the typology of owned products. At last, it examines the relation that IBC establishes with the Consumer-brand Identification and the company success variables ? satisfaction, loyalty, advocacy. Finally, some implications are suggested: theoretical implications ? concerning reliability and application of the model ? and practical implications ? i.e. strategic-operational actions the company could implement in order to monitor the integration.