Keywords

Multiple Self-congruencies (MSC), Brand Passion (BP), Customer Citizenship Behavior (CCB), Customer Centric Model of Social Based Brand Community.

Introduction

As more and more customers embrace social media in their everyday life, Facebook has become a tantalizing opportunity for businesses (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010). LeTAO Thailand makes a great case study as they use all the elements of the customer centric model of social based brand community that consists of brand, products, company and other customers. In addition, they focus on building relationships between these elements around their customers. LeTAO Thailand brings passionate members together to build a strong community, which leads to the development of CCB. LeTAO Thailand utilizes Facebook as its major channel of communication. This allows the company to provide quick answers to customer’s questions and inquiries. It also allows them to receive instant feedback directly from its customers (Patterson, 2010). Facebook is a social platform that reflects “self-concept” by providing information on what consumers buy, own, and consume and as a result, helps to define who they are. The motivation to express oneself is the driving force that prompts customers to purchase goods and services (Sirgy, 1986). With this, LeTAO Thailand has succeeded to build a strong brand community with a significant growth in the number of users. When LeTAO Thailand launched its Facebook brand page, they obtained more than 15,000 fans within the first two weeks. This was accomplished before the launch of its physical stores. LeTAO Thailand’s Facebook page was developed as a place where it can directly interact with customers. LeTAO Thailand’s Facebook page contains advertisements, follower newsfeeds, post product photos and video, promotions, celebrity photo advertisements, videos, live stories, and games. Additionally, LeTAO Thailand’s Facebook page allows fans to interact with one another, post comments, rate the brand page, provide reviews, share product experiences, share information on it branches, and tag their Facebook friends to share information on new products, services and promotions. The researchers of this study sought to determine whether MSC based on the dimension of social media-based brand community of McAlexander et al. (2002) which consist of brand, product, or the celebrity, and other customers has an effect on BP and CCB. The researchers also sought to determine whether passionate customers could become more than just loyal customers or act as the voice of the brand by spreading Word-of-Mouth (WOM), and become “partial employees” (Bowen et al., 2000) or exert CCB (Groth, 2005). This research is important to help brand managers understand how MSC effects BP and CCB. Understanding the effects will allow managers to implement the elements into their brand’s communications and build stronger relationships with their customers to effectively manage their customer’s online and offline behaviors.

Literature Review

The Customer Centric Model of Social Media-Based Brand Community

The characteristics of brand community evolve around a brand and its members (McAlexander et al., 2002), which are described as a

“Groups of consumers with a shared enthusiasm for the brand and a well-developed social identity, whose members engage jointly in-group actions to accomplish collective goals or express their mutual sentiment and commitment” (Bagozzi & Dholakia, 2006; McAlexander et al., 2002; Stokburger-Sauer, 2010).

The concept of brand community was discussed in a triad of customer-customer-brand research papers. (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001; cited in McAlexander et al., 2002). Other entities such as product and company were derived as new elements to the customer centric model of brand community and thus the research proposed that the customer centric model of brand community is a platform of the brand community and comprised of four entities brand, product, company and other customers (McAlexander et al., 2002).

Multiple Self-congruencies

Sirgy (1986) stated that self-congruity is the match or mismatch between consumer self (actual-self and ideal-self) and a product image, brand image, or company image. Social media platforms are not only channels of communication, they are also a link of relationships between self and brand because social media can embody, inform, and communicate desirable self-identities of the consumers (Granovetter, 1985; Rao et al., 2000; cited in Hans et al., 2012). Other research shows a linkage between self-concept and brand, where self-concept is the person’s state of mind and their perception (Laroche et al., 2013). When a person evaluates self with the images, they view about themselves, they make impressions about who they are and create a self-perception that influences their behavior (Blackwell et al., 2006). Social media allows a community to build environments with high-context interactions between members and the elements of brand. It builds relationships between its customers and the brand with activities such as logging onto a social media page, exploring the brand page, commenting, sharing photos or experiences, and interacting with marketers. Social medial also allows consumers to ask questions about the brand or products or answer other member’s comments within the community. According to the theory of self-congruencies within a social media-based brand community, the authors proposed that self-congruencies can be measured based on multiple elements of the customer centric model of social based brand community developed by McAlexander et al. (2002), which include brand, product, celebrity, and other customers. Therefore, MSC can be measured using the following four dimensions: Self and Brand Congruence, Self and Product Congruence, Self and Celebrity Congruence, and Self and Other customer Congruence.

Self and brand congruence

Self and brand congruence are comparisons of the self-image with a user-imagery of the brand or a perception of a brand (Sirgy, 1982, 1986). Consumers use brands to express their actual-self (Belk, 1988) and ideal-self (Malhotra, 1988). Consumers buy brands because they find congruity between a brand’s personality and their self. (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2000). Self-congruity is a mental comparison a consumer makes in regards to the similarity or dissimilarity of a brand’s image and their own self-image (Dolich, 1969; Gould, 1991; Graeff, 1996; Sirgy, 1982; 1986; Surtherland et al., 2004). Brand image is described as linking favorable and unique association of the brand to a consumer’s memory (Keller, 1998). This is a subjective perception, either functional or non-functional information regarding the product or service or it can be based on customer’s direct experience with the brand, promotion of the brand or even by observing others who use the brand (Patterson, 1999). For example, a “tick” represents the Nike brand in the “sport shoes” category. However, brand is also obtained by referencing specific aspirations and lifestyle (Belk, 1998). For example, a luxury vehicle like Porsche is likely to be purchased because customers are discretionary and emotionally motivated (Abbott et al., 2006). Thus, self-congruency also leads to brand acquisition behaviors. Consumers who prefer brands that are consistent with their self-image tend to have a favorable attitude towards the brands and a greater brand preference which consequently leads to acquisition of the brands (Sirgy, 1982), increase of brand loyalty (Kressmann et al., 2006) and purchase intention (Matzler et al., 2006; cited in Pradhan et al., 2014).

Self and product congruence

As consumers buy products that are perceived to be similar to their own self-concept (Graeff, 1996), products become a representative of those who consume them (Levy, 1981; cited in Anaza, 2013). The decision to buy certain products is influenced by social values, product classes, and norms of the reference groups to which consumers belong (Sheth et al., 1991). The purchase behavior is claimed to derive from self-product congruity or when customers perceive their self-match with the products (Sirgy et al., 1997). Consumers also select products by matching themselves to prototypical users to fulfill the need for self-consistency. For example, a person who perceives himself or herself as an environmentalist will purchase the type of lawnmower, he or she believes environmentalist use. These people consume products not only for symbolic value but also for their functional value (Belk, 1988; Lee & Hyman, 2008; Sirgy et al., 2005; Solomon, 1983). Similarly, to product functional congruence, the state at which products perceived functional attributes that relate to the consumer desired performance attributes (Sirgy & Su, 2000). In other words, it can be called perceived quality which is a result from the comparison of the consumer’s expectation with the product actual performance (Parasusaramn et al., 1985).

Self and celebrity congruence

Social media-based brand community research model identified four elements of brand community including brand, product, company and other customers (McAlexander et al., 2002). In this case study, the brand community element of “company” was found to be interchangeable with “celebrity”. The term “celebrity” is not only defined to include actors, actresses or singers, but also artists, businesspersons and others (Scheidt et al., 2018). For example, celebrity CEOs are also viewed as corporate spokespersons who represent their company’s values and provide their company with a “master’s voice” the public is eager to listen (Ferns et al., 2008; cited in Scheidt et al., 2018). Celebrity endorsements are a popular means to enhance marketing communication which uses a person with a public recognition to promote products, goods, services and brands (McCracken, 1989). In this research, LeTAO Thailand also utilizes celebrities to enhance their marketing communication to promote their brand. Many companies create the characters of their brand to match their target audiences (Tom et al., 1992 cited in Byrne et al., 2003). Therefore, self and celebrity congruence is the process by which consumers borrow the identity of a celebrity they admire and adopt it as their own. (Boon & Lomore, 2001). Self and celebrity congruence can be an antecedent of the intention to purchase (Choi & Rifon, 2012). By consuming the products endorsed by celebrities, consumers obtain a self-meaning transfer and become satisfied with their self-concept (McCracken, 1989).

Self and other consumer congruence

The self and other consumer congruences are determined by consumer’s experiences related to the extent to which consumers can be identified. The congruence between the self and other consumers identifies oneself with others of the group with some sense of belongingness to the group (Hohenstein et al., 2007; Smith, 1998). Customers observe and compare the sameness and choose to associate with people who are similar to them (Reagans & Burt, 1998). They make purchase decisions to share functional and symbolic meanings with their idols and opinion leaders who also acquire the same products or brands (Dutton & Celia, 1994). The congruence between self and other consumers can simply be described as a match between one’s perception of self with specific characteristics of the members of the social group (Mael & Ashforth, 1992; cited in Ruediger Kaufmann et al., 2012). Another study found a similar relationship between an employee’s self and brand, when a company’s corporate goal is integrated and congruent, employees become fulfilled with self-definitional needs and develop behaviors that benefit the company (Hall et al., 1970). Thus, self and other consumer congruence leads to the behaviors that benefit a company.

Brand Passion

BP is defined as

“A primarily affective, extremely positive attitude toward a specific brand that leads to emotional attachment and influences relevant behavioral factors” (Bauer et al., 2007).

It is a zeal and enthusiastic relationship between consumers and the brand (Keh et al., 2007); a feeling of arousing and positive intense towards the brand (Thomson et al., 2005) and their willingness to consume the brand (Baumeister & Bratslavsky, 1999; Hatfield & Walster, 1978). Passionate consumers miss the brand when it’s not available (Matzler et al., 2007) and are willing to forgive any mistake a brand makes (Fournier, 1998). Passion is claimed to be the driver for individuals to set performance goals, engagements of practice to reach the goals, motivation for one to spend time, effort and emotions to pursuit the goals (Vallerand et al., 2008), including buying behavior (Lafreniere et al., 2009; Mageau et al., 2005; Seguin-Levesquie et al., 2003; Vallerand, 2008; Vallerand et al., 2003, Vallerand et al., 2010, cited in Wakefield, 2016), brand trust, satisfaction (D’lima, 2018) and brand loyalty (D’lima, 2018; Jacoby & Kyner, 1973).

Customer Citizenship Behaviors

An introduction of CCB has developed from the concept of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in the organizational level that exclusively focused on employees (Organ, 1988a; Podsakoff et al., 1990; cited in Groth, 2005). Groth (2005) extended this concept to the customer domain while explaining in-role and extra-role behaviors of customers. As consumers develop and maintain CCB to set relationships with the organization, customers seem to have personal sense of obligation to provide benefits and positive feedback to the organization (Lii & Lee, 2012). That is customers act as partial employees and as a human resource of the organization (Bowen et al., 2000). CCB is similar to OCB as it exists within the brand community in two ways both in-role and ex-role behaviors. That is consumers express their support for the company by participating in a brand community and purchasing products from the company (Ahearne et al., 2005). For example, customers who participate in service delivery take roles during the process of the service to be successful (Groth, 2005). The extra-role behavior exists when consumers make positive WOM and make recommendations to others (Anderson et al., 2004; Bettencourt, 1997), recommend a product/service or a business to their family and friends or provide feedback (Groth, 2005), positive WOM communication, constructive involvement in suggesting service improvements, and other polite and considerate behaviors to the company (Bettencourt, 1997; Rosenbaum & Massiah, 2007). Recent research has identified four dimensions of CCB: feedback, advocacy, helping, and tolerance (Yi, 2014). These behaviors portray characteristics of the brand citizenship: the relationship between customers and brand that is more than just loyal customer who only has a positive attitude and consistently repeat purchases.

The effect of Multiple Self-Congruencies on Brand Passion

MSC based on a customer centric model are discussed to examine how the relationships between a company and customers overlap. This research proposes that a match between the self and McAlexander’s customer centric model elements of brand community (brand, product, celebrity and other customers) affects BP. For example, when LeTAO Thailand’s customers perceive their actual-self and ideal-self to be congruent with the elements of brand, such as brand, product, celebrity and other customers, they develop passion towards the brand. This is consistent with other research on MSC that found dimensions, such as: (1) self and brand congruence, people consume brands to express their actual self and ideal self; (2) self and product congruence, consumers buy products that have a perceived match with their self-concept; (3) self and celebrity congruence, celebrity represents the consumer self, ideal self, aspirational and symbolic self-image (McCracken, 1989; Keller, 1993); and (4) self and other consumer congruence, people have their own incentive to join the community with psychological need to feel socially connected to fulfill a need for belongingness (Tardini & Cantoni, 2005). These four dimensions of congruencies allow consumers to construct their self-identity (Ahuvia, 1993) and express their self-concepts to others (McCracken, 1986). With this process, BP is developed when there is a match between the self and elements of the brands in each dimension. Because Facebook allows members of the community to interact, share meaningful consumption experiences and useful information and valuable resources about the brand to others (McAlexander et al., 2002), Facebook has become a channel of communication where MSC affects BP. This is the researchers’ Hypothesis 1: MSC has an effect on BP.

Building Customer Citizenship Behavior through Multiple Self-Congruencies with Brand Passion as a mediator

A long-term relationship between the customers and the brand exists as MSC develop and customers are able to express their selves socially on Facebook. The authors propose that a congruent relationship develops between consumer’s actual-self and ideal-self and the customer centric model elements (brand, product, celebrity and other customers) as the customers become passionate about the brand, which results in CCB. Passionate consumers or emotionally dedicated customers who usually go beyond the simple act of spreading positive WOM; they also convince others to choose a specific brand (Pimentel & Reynolds, 2004). These strong emotional connections derive from overpowering controls within customers' attitudes, feelings and behaviors (Belk et al., 2003). They are likely to share excitement about the brand and convince others to feel the same way (Holt, 1997). Passionate consumers invest time and love to identify themselves with the brand and drive set performance goals (Vallerand et al., 2008).

This research showed that LeTAO Thailand’s’ customers have authentic conversations about the brand, products, and services through its Facebook page. It also showed that they invest their time associating with the brand by posting comments and sharing product experiences. Additionally, they click like, share celebrity photos, and tag to share and recommend products. This interaction generates the desire to buy the company’s products. They engage in conversations about the brand and participate in games to win special privileges. They also provide comments to the brand by giving rated stars and comments and act as “partial employees” (Bowen et al., 2000) to provide feedback that directly benefits the company. Therefore, the authors proposed that MSC have a direct effect on BP and CCB and BP is an antecedent of CCB and also helps mediate the relationship between MSC and CCB. Therefore, this research has four hypotheses: (1) MSC has a direct affect on BP, (2) MSC has a direct effect on CCB, (3) BP has a direct effect on CCB, and (4) BP mediates the relationship of MSC and CCB.

Research Methodology

A sample size of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is 10 times of the parameters (Hair et al., 2011). In this research, a sample size of 530 was selected from 623 respondents. Half of the Survey samples, 265 sets, were purposely obtained on LeTAO Thailand’s Facebook page and the other half, 265 sets, were obtained at two LeTAO cafés located at Central Plaza Ladprao and Central World in Bangkok, Thailand from September through October 2019. The respondents’ profiles were collected to ensure that the respondents were not only customers but also members of LeTAO’s Facebook fan page. The original English language questionnaire was translated into Thai prior to surveying the customers. A pretest questionnaire was given to 30 respondents. This was done to improve and minimize response error, assess the flow of question patterns, and timing to keep respondents interested and attentive (Converse & Presser, 1986). All of the research questions used the seven point Likert Scale in Table 1.

Table 1: Summarized Acronym and Definition of the Terms
Terms	Acronyms	Definitions
Brand Passion	BP	“A primarily affective, extremely positive attitude toward a specific brand that leads to emotional attachment and influences relevant behavior factors” (Bauer et al., 2007).
Customer Citizenship Behavior	CCB	The customer behavior that is established when customers set up a relationship with the firm with personal sense of obligation to provide benefits and positive feedback to the organization (Lii & Lee, 2012) and act as “partial employees and human resources of the organization” (Bowen et al., 2000).
Multiple Self-Congruencies	MSC	The sameness, a match up of the relationship between actual self and ideal self and brands, products, celebrity, and other customers of the customer centric model of social based brand community.

The research questions for self congruencies were taken from the social media based brand community in which self congruencies include the actual self and ideal self as they relate to the elements of the brand: brand, product, company, celebrity and other customers as developed by McAlexander et al. (2002). The questionnaires of each dimensions of MSC such as self and brand congruence was developed and adapted from Caroll & Ahuvia (2006) and Escalas (1996), Self and Product congruence was developed and adapted from Caroll & Ahuvia (2006), Self and Celebrity Congruence and Self and Other Customer Congruence were developed and adapted from Hohenstein et al. (2007). The questionnaires that measure BP were developed from (Sarkar et al., 2012). Two additional questions were developed and adapted from Albert & Velette-Florence (2010) to assure the questions explained the intense and aroused positive feeling of the consumers towards the brand (Thomson et al., 2005). The questionnaire items for CCB were taken from the study of (Chui et al. 2015). Here CCB was described as behaviors of the customers who are more than loyal customers but citizens of the brand. The terms, acronyms and measurement scales are shown below in Table 2.

Table 2: The Standardized Values of Direct Effect, Indirect Effect and Total Effect
Path	Direct Effect	Indirect Effect	Total Effect
MSC→ BP	0.641***	-	0.641***
BP→ CCB	0.678***	-	0.678***
MSC→ CCB	0.230***	0.435***	0.665***
BP→ CCB	R2 = 0.411 R2 = 0.713

The collected data was analyzed with the statistic software program, AMOS, using descriptive and inferential statistics. To test the quality of the data, Skewness Index (SI) and Kurtosis Index (KI) were used determine whether the data is modeled for a normal distribution (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007). According to Curran et al. (1996), the values of skewness < ± 2 and kurtosis < ± 7 are considered acceptable. The results show the acceptable normal distribution with the SI value between -1.177 and -0.313 and a KI value of the distribution was between -0.557 and 1.154.

On Table 3, the research results show Composite Reliability Values of 0.962, 0.960 and 0.933, respectively and were acceptable at >0.70 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). The Average Variance Extracted (AVE) values of each latent variable were 0.865, 0.801 and 0.779 respectively and were acceptable at > 0.50 (Diamantopoulos & Siguaw, 2000). Based on the results, it can be concluded that the values were acceptable and the research model is valid and reliable. For discriminant validity, the AVEs for each of the vairiable must be more than share variance estimates (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). AVEs were demonstrated in the value of 0.930, 0.895, 0.882, more than share variance values of 0.650, 0.666 shown vertically and 0.830 shown horizontally on Table 3.

Table 3: CR, AVE and shared Variance Estimates
Latent Variables	1	2	3
1 Multiple Self-Congruencies	0.930
2 Brand Passion	0.650	0.895
3 Customer Citizenship Behavior	0.666	0.830	0.882
Composite Reliability (CR)	0.962	0.960	0.933
Average Variance Extracted (AVE)	0.865	0.801	0.779

Research Results

The Structural Model of the hypothesis (Figure 1)

The chi square difference of 4,888.4 with p-value less than 0.00001 in the model confirms that BP is a partial mediator for the variables tested in Table 4. The results of goodness of fit demonstrated a fit for the research after model modification was implemented. All values fit model indices were CMIN/DF =2.680, CFI = 0.948, GFI = 0.803, NFI = 0.919, RFI = 0.912, TLI = 0.943, IFI = 0.948 and RMSEA = 0.056 at p value < 0.001.

Table 4: Terms and Acronyms of Measurement items in Figure 1
Terms	Acronyms	Measurement items
Actual Self and Brand congruence	ASBC	- This brand suits me - This brand is an extension of my inner self - the brand symbolizes the kind of person I really am inside - the brand reflects my personality
Ideal Self and Brand Congruence	ISBC	- This brand contributes to my image - This brand improves the way society views me - This brand has a positive impact on what others think of me - This brand adds to a social role I play
Actual Self and Product congruence	ASPC	- The product image suits me well - The product symbolizes the kind of person I really am inside - The product is an extension of my inner self - The product reflects my personality
Ideal Self and Product Congruence	ISPC	- The product has a positive impact on what others think of me - The product adds to a social role I play - The product improves the way society views me - The product contributes to my image
Actual Self and Celebrity congruence	ASCC	- I feel a close connection to the celebrities LeTAO uses to endorse the brand - LeTAO’s celebrities reflect what I am - I can completely identify with the celebrities LeTAO uses to endorse the brand - LeTAO’s celebrities are a lot like me
Ideal Self and Celebrity Congruence	ISCC	- LeTAO’s celebrities reflect as I want to be perceived - The image of LeTAO celebrities corresponds to my self-image in many respects - LeTAO’s celebrities are a lot like how I want to be - LeTAO’s celebrities are exactly how I want to be perceived
Actual Self and Other customer congruence	ASOC	- LeTAO customers reflect what I am - I feel a close connection to other LeTAO customers when sharing about LeTAO experiences - LeTAO customers are a lot like me - LeTAO customers are a lot like me than customers of other brands - LeTAO customers are exactly how I see myself
Ideal Self and Other customer Congruence	ISOC	- LeTAO customers are a lot like how I want to be - The image of other LeTAO customers corresponds to my self-image in many respects - LeTAO customers reflect how I want to be perceived - LeTAO customers are exactly how I want to be perceived
Brand Passion	BP	- This brand really fascinates me - I find this brand very attractive - This brand delights me - I would be in deep despair if the brand no longer existed - If I were separated from this brand for a long time, I would feel a craving for it - This brand captivates me
Feedback	FB	- When I receive products or services that do not meet the quality standard, I will let the employees know - When I feel satisfy with LeTAO products and receive good service, I will let the employee know or comment about it” (Mean = 5.42) and “If I have useful ideas on how to improve products and services of LeTAO, I will let the employees know
Advocacy	AD	- I encourage friends and relatives to visit LeTAO - I recommend LeTAO brand to others and they must try the products - I say positive things about LeTAO products and the quality of its services to others
Helping	HP	- I will assist other customers at the café if they need more information about LeTAO products - I would be willing to tell other customers what product is good and must try - I would give advice to other customers on LeTAO menu and what to order or buy - I will help other customers if they seem to have problems with LeTAO products or services
Tolerance	TL	- If employees make mistake during your service delivery, I would be willing to be patient - If the products or services are not delivered as expected, I would be willing to put up with it and forgive - If I have to get in a queue or wait longer than I normally expected to received the service, I would be willing to continue waiting and be patient

The full model hypotheses confirmed that: (1) MSC between actual self and ideal self and the elements of brand within the customer centric model of social based brand community of McAlexander et al. (2002), which consist of brand, product, company which in this research were celebrity, and other customers, were the antecedents of BP. The standardized estimates support the claim that MSC have a positive direct effect on BP with a standardized value of 0.641 at p-value < 0.001. (2) BP has a positive direct effect on CCB with the standardized value of 0.678 at p-value < 0.001. (3) MSC also affects CCB with a standardized value of total effect = 0.665, positive direct effect = 0.230 and indirect effect = 0.435 at p-value < 0.001. MSC between actual self and ideal self and the elements of brand within the customer centric model of social based brand community from the model of McAlexander et al. (2002) that includes brand, product, company which in this research was celebrity, and other customers have a direct effect on CCB and the relationship is also mediated by BP.

Discussion

This research confirms the linkages between self-concept and brand within the community based on the study of Laroche et al. (2013) and confirmed that MSC between actual self and ideal self and the elements of brand within the customer centric model of social based brand community from the model of McAlexander et al. (2002) such as product, brand, celebrity, and other customers were the antecedents of BP and CCB. BP also has a direct affect on CCB and also acts as a mediator to the relationship of MSC and CCB. MSC also has a direct affect on CCB.

In this research, LeTAO Thailand was a great example of a company using integrated marketing communication by utilizing their Facebook page as a social media-based brand community. The results suggest that firms must create marketing contents that focus on building a relationship between customers and the product, brand, other customers and celebrity, respectively, and focus on creating messages that convince customers to believe that the elements of the brand produce certain self-image (ideal self rather than actual self). As for self and product congruence, the company must assure that customers like the product, the price is right, and product creates happiness in customers and assure the products suit them. The company must represent the brand in a way customers want to be viewed and also contribute to how others view them as they consume the brand to create self and brand congruence. Another important factor in regards to self and other customer congruence is that the firm must create a place where customers can communicate and interact with one another to create a strong community between the brand and the customers and among the customers themselves. For example, LeTAO Thailand uses its Facebook page as a means to promote new products and engage with customers to create a strong tie with the brand. Customers share, post photos, give comments and have two-way communications amongst consumers and the brand. Although celebrity seems to be the least important dimension, the results show that celebrity must be included as an important dimension of MSC. Because celebrity is the voice of the brand, a company must select a celebrity that likes the brand, have some sort of product knowledge, be trustworthy and have good image that the customers can rely on when they talk about the brand.

In this research, the results showed that LeTAO Thailand’s customers feel captivated and fascinated about the brand and find the LeTAO brand delicious and attractive. Passionate feelings about the brand develop as MSC takes hold within the relationship. The research also found that BP leads to CCB and is portrayed in behaviors such as helping other customers, advocacy about the brand, providing feedback to the brand and be tolerant if they were disappointed by the brand. LeTAO Thailand’s Facebook page has become a community where LeTAO members interact and has become a means of community between the brand and the customers.

There are many similar platforms providing potential marketing opportunities, though Facebook is one of the most commonly used social platforms in Thailand. Table 5 illustrates examples of social media platforms commonly used throughout various regions. Each platform provides similar benefits to firms as they share similar technological symbiosys, functions and opportunities Table 6. Although some platforms are not available in some regions, there are alternative platforms for certain regions such as China. Based on this research, these co-evaluation and socio-cultural orientation could be based, but not limited to only Thailand. Firms can utilize similar marketing opportunities in social platforms that are available in their own country and enjoy the benefits of social media platforms for marketing opportunities to create BP and CCB through MSC built by brand in each platform.

Table 5: Examples of Social Media Platforms in Various Regions
United States and some countries	Facebook	Instagram	Twitter	Google	Youtube	Pinterest	Whatsapp
China	WeChat	Weibo, WeChat	Sina Weibo	Baidu Tieba	Toudou Youku, Tencent Video, iQiYi	Weibo, WeChat	WeChat, tencent QQ
Thailand and some Asian countries	Facebook	Instagram	Twitter	Google	Youtube	Pinterest	Line, whatapp

Table 6: Comparison Chart Contrasting Each of the Major Social Media Platforms that Share Similar Functions and Provide Similar Marketing Opportunities and Brand Benefits
Social media platforms	Facebook/ WeChat	Instagram, Weibo, WeChat	Twitter, Sina Weibo	Google, Baidu Tieba	Youtube, Toudou Youku, Tencent Video, iQiYi	Pinterest, Weibo, WeChat	Line, whatapp, WeChat, tencent QQ
Main industry	B2C	B2C, C2C	B2B/ B2C	B2C	B2C	B2C	B2C/ C2C
Social media site focus	Sharing of news, contents, stories	Sharing of news, contents, stories	Sharing of news, contents, stories	Sharing of news, contents, stories	Sharing informative and entertaining VDO	Sharing interesting products/ websites	Instant messaging
Company brand presence	Business page	Business account	Profile page/ enhanced profile page	Business page	Brand Channel/ customer brand channel	Boards	Business/ Official accounts
Virtual Brand exposure	Likes or Comments on contents	Likes or Comments on contents	Re-tweet of follows	Share comments and add to circle activity	Subscribe and share activity	Likes, comments, repin	Likes or Comments on contents, add friends
Impact on website traffic	Direct links from content posted and e-commerce store app	Direct links from content posted and e-commerce store app	Direct links from content posted	Direct links from content posted/ google activity influence google search results	Direct links from content posted	Direct links from content posted	Direct links from content posted/ instant messaging
Advertising opportunity	Facebook ads, premium ads, sponsored stories	Instagram ads, premium ads, sponsored stories	Promoted tweets, promoted trends, promoted accounts, enhanced profile	n/a	Video ads, reach ads, display ads	n/a	- Line OA (official account) - Tencent QQ publish ads

The authors believe that this research provides valuable insights into customer’s behavior patterns in the citizenship of the brand, rather than just loyalty of customers. The results showed that MSC, in regards to products, brand, other customers and celebrities are important factors for brands to build customer passion and CCB. This research model also provides managerial and socio-commercial interest, allows the firms to understand and create impact communication campaigns and build a strong brand community with customers who will act as citizens of the brand.

Recommendations & Conclusion

Because this research was a study on social media-based brand community and the data was collected online (Facebook) and offline (cafes), the sample data may intervene with the relationship of the constructs. In future research, the researcher should investigate the effect of each dimension of MSC on BP and CCB. Other dimensions of Self-concept such as Actual Social Self and Ideal Social Self can be explored as dimension of MSC. In this research, the authors investigated the relationship of celebrity as element of the brand based on the social media-based brand community of (McAlexander et al., 2002). Future research could also explore the term “company” within the research model. Moreover, the researcher may investigate whether BP has an impact on impulsive buying for the brand. Other research could study whether BP could result in negative CCB (Albert et al., 2013) or explore a negative influence of BP. The researcher may also explore other dependent variable types of behaviors other than CCB. Other social media platforms, other than Facebook, from other countries may also be explored in future research. Lastly, managers must adapt and apply the studied model for specific strategic usage because the results may not apply to all businesses.

References

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