Consumer engagement is becoming an increasingly important challenge for businesses in a competitive market and an increasingly important concept in science. Despite its relative lack of research, the concept is proving to be extremely relevant for explaining consumer behaviour, especially in the context of the Web 2.0, specifically within highly interactive social networking sites. In recent years, Instagram has seen the greatest growth, which, with its interactive nature and functionalities, provides a great basis for engaging consumer behaviour. However, the question of the relevance and power of engagement in consumer–brand relation on Instagram and its effects remains open. Therefore, we aim to research if, in the context of Instagram, engagement really influences consumer behaviour in their decision-making path – what processes and how. For this reason, our thesis raises a question of the power of influence of consumer engagement in brand-related content on Instagram on selected communication effects that apply to specific stages of consumer's decision-making path – brand awareness, positive brand image and brand loyalty. The theoretical part focuses on reviewing relevant theoretical contributions to consumer engagement, specifically in the context of social networking sites. Moreover, we highlight the consequences of engagement and selected communication effects and derive our theoretical model. The empirical part contains our own quantitative study of the aforementioned main research question, performed on a sample of 386 units. The research has shown that consumer engagement on Instagram has a positive impact on better brand knowledge, which is most influenced by the monitoring and instant responses to brand content. The positive impact of engagement has also been shown in brand loyalty, which is most influenced by the consumer's creation of brand-related content.
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