Abstract
M.Com. (Marketing Management)
The advent of the Internet and Web 2.0 has given rise to numerous digital technologies on the Internet, including vlogs. Vlogs are becoming popular sources of information when searching for beauty products such as colour cosmetic products, especially among Generation Y women. Through vlogs, Generation Y women are able to watch the colour cosmetic products being used. This can enhance their interest in purchasing and using these products. What is more, Generation Y women might rely on the opinions of those who add their comments to beauty vlogs and form vlogging communities. This study was aimed at empirically investigating the influence of vlogging communities on brand loyalty for colour cosmetic products among Generation Y women. ‘Vlogging communities’ is a relatively new phenomenon, and not many studies have been conducted on the influence of such platforms on consumer behaviour.
The study followed a qualitative research approach using in-depth interviews. A total of 12 Generation Y women in and around Johannesburg, South Africa were interviewed during the study. These participants were selected based on whether they met the two screening criteria; whether they had an interest in colour cosmetic products, and whether they had read or actively engaged with a vlogging community.
Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. NVivo version 11, a qualitative data analysis software package, was used to assist with the data analysis. NVivo version 11 was mainly used to classify and organise the data, and thematic analysis was used to identify themes. Three main themes were explored in trying to understand the influence of vlogging communities on brand loyalty. These were information credibility, brand image, and group identification.
Brand image and group identification were both found to have an influence on brand loyalty. Of those two factors, brand image was found to have more influence on brand loyalty than group identification. Information credibility was found to enhance the believability of the information conveyed on vlogging communities, and also to have an influence on group identification. For brand image, it was discovered that women...