Consumer-brand engagement is becoming one of the key priorities in brand management, particularly on social media, where an important question arises: how do the characteristics of consumer-brand engagement interactions influence engagement? The literature review identifies two broad categories of interaction characteristics – utilitarian (e.g., accessibility and usefulness of brand information, as well as information feedback) and hedonic (e.g., brand entertainment, brand personification, and brand self-expressiveness). Yet, few studies integrate and compare the effects of utilitarian and hedonic drivers of engagement, and even fewer examine them in the context of social media, including TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. The purpose of this master’s thesis is thus to examine which interaction characteristics increase engagement and what consequences engagement has for consumer loyalty and positive word of mouth. To test the proposed hypotheses, which examine the effects of selected utilitarian and hedonic drivers and the consequences of consumer-brand engagement, a quantitative study was conducted among 231 TikTok, Instagram and Facebook users in Slovenia. The results show that consumer-brand engagement is driven by hedonic factors, with brand self-expressiveness and brand entertainment on social media as key antecedents. Brand personification has no direct effect on engagement, but its indirect effect through brand self-expressiveness is significant. Utilitarian drivers show no statistically significant effect on engagement. Greater engagement increases brand loyalty and positive word of mouth. Brand loyalty partially mediates the effect of consumer-brand engagement on positive word of mouth.
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