Journal of Global Fashion Marketing

ISSN: 2093-2685 (Print) 2325-4483 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rgfm20

Impacts of Luxury Fashion Brand’s Social Media

Marketing on Customer Relationship and Purchase
Intention

Angella Jiyoung Kim & Eunju Ko

To cite this article: Angella Jiyoung Kim & Eunju Ko (2010) Impacts of Luxury Fashion Brand’s
Social Media Marketing on Customer Relationship and Purchase Intention, Journal of Global
Fashion Marketing, 1:3, 164-171, DOI: 10.1080/20932685.2010.10593068

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/20932685.2010.10593068

Published online: 12 Dec 2012.

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164 A.J. Kim, E. Ko / Journal of Global Fashion Marketing 1-3 (2010) 164-171

Impacts of Luxury Fashion Brand’s Social Media Marketing on Customer

Relationship and Purchase Intention

Angella Jiyoung Kim1)*, Eunju Ko2)

Abstracts conducted to figure out the properties of luxury fashion

brands’ SMM. The social media contained five properties:
entertainment, customization, interaction, word of mouth, and
Luxury brands have always been fashion industry leaders,
trend. Factor loadings ranged from .84 to .52. Cronbach’s α
with admirable aesthetic value and innovative yet traditional
lay between .80 and .88, demonstrating adequate construct
business management. The brands constantly struggle to secure
reliability.
profits by providing novel value to customers through quality
Multiple regression analysis was conducted to test the effects
products and services, customer management, retail strategies,
of SMM on customer relationship (i.e., intimacy and trust) and
and innovative marketing mixes. However, the recent entry of
purchase intention, as well as relationship between customer
numerous fashion brands in the luxury market coupled with
relationship (i.e., intimacy and trust) and purchase intention.
decreased sales related to economic downturns have led to new
Results show that entertainment has a significant positive effect
challenges for luxury firms. Because the luxury fashion
on intimacy (β=.25, t=3.48, p<.01), trust (β=.34, t=5.75,
business is considered high value-added with guaranteed high
p<.001), and purchase intention (β=.31, t=4.32, p<.001). Other
profit margins and secure regular customers, the lower sectors
positive effects are customization on trust (β=.13, t=2.28,
have begun to heat up the competition.
p<.05), interaction on purchase intention (β=.25, t=3,54,
To survive the recent unforeseen challenges of heated
p<.01), word of mouth on intimacy (β=.14, t=1.92, p<.05)
competition, they have turned toward marketing communication
and purchase intention (β=.19, t=2.65, p<.01), and trend only
using social media. Social media are the two-way
on trust (β=.32, t=5.30, p<.001). It seems that entertainment,
communication platforms that allow users to interact with each
customization, and trend were satisfying what customers
other online to share information and opinions. Use of social
expected from a luxury fashion brand. Because the luxury
media sites such as Twitter and Facebook has already
industry aims to provide value to customers in every way
expanded to almost every luxury fashion brand and been
possible, the brands should focus on providing free
evaluated as business take-off tools. With the increased use of
entertainment content, customized services, and trend forward
social media as a means of marketing communication for
social media site which all act positively toward enhancing
luxury brands, it has become necessary to empirically analyze
customer relationship. Trust has a significant relationship with
the effect of social media marketing (SMM). Thus, the study
purchase intention (β=.34, t=4.85, p<.001). Since the trust
presented here investigated the effects of this SMM on
variable within a customer relationship was only significantly
customer relationships (involving intimacy and trust) and
associated with purchase intention, the mediating effects of
purchase intention.
customization and trend were found.
A preliminary test was conducted in order to draw a sample
The study proves the effectiveness of luxury brands’ SMM
of a luxury fashion brand for this study. Self-administrated
on both customer relationships and purchase intention, and
questionnaires with visual stimuli were used to collect data
proposes a strategy to enhance the brands’ performance by
from luxury consumers in the Seoul area. Respondents were
defining specific factors influencing both. The result show that
restricted to consumers who had purchased any luxury fashion
the chosen brand’s SMM includes distinctive elements in
brand item within the previous two years. Among 150
comparison to old-fashioned marketing performances. Every
questionnaires distributed, 133 questionnaires were finally
property found in luxury brands’ SMM positively influenced
employed for statistical analysis.
customer relationships and purchase intention, with
Principal component analysis using varimax rotation was
entertainment affecting more variables than any other
properties. Luxury brands should heavily supply an
1) * Corresponding author: Graduate Student, Dept. of Clothing and entertainment aspect of social media contents and activities.
Textiles, College of Human Ecology, Yonsei University, Korea, Every activity enabled by use of the media, such as creating
Tel. +82-10-7252-0423, E-mail: ngkim@yonsei.ac.kr
relationships with other users, providing customized service and
2) Professor, Dept. of Clothing and Textiles, College of Human Ecology,
Yonsei University, Korea, E-mail: ejko@yonsei.ac.kr free entertainment contents, and obtaining genuine information
* This work was supported and funded by Ministry of Knowledge and
on personal interest should all be entertaining. By focusing on
Economy Republic of Korea. Development of Marketing Service Value providing such features, customer relationships and purchase
Model Project (10035335) intention will be enhanced. Concerning the association between
Ⓒ 2010 KAMS. All rights reserved. customer relationship and purchase intention, trust and purchase
 A.J. Kim, E. Ko / Journal of Global Fashion Marketing 1-3 (2010) 164-171 165

intention were highly related. Customers’ trust was ，

strengthened via interaction with other users as well as brand ， ，
on social media sites. Trust gained while enjoying 。 （β=.34,
entertainment and communication provided on the sites seems t=4.85, p<.001）。
to contribute greatly toward a luxury brand’s profit. ， 。
With the growing interest of luxury fashion brands in
providing luxurious value to customers in every way possible, 。
using social media appears to be appropriate for retaining old 。 ，
customers and attracting cross-shoppers. As competition among 。
luxury fashion brands becomes more intense by providing ，
plenty of alternatives to customers, the brands’ prosperity 。 。
seems no longer quite so promising. The importance of ， ，
managing customers as valuable assets cannot be emphasized ， 。
more. As such, more luxury brands should engage in social ， 。
media marketing activities to anticipate a positive contribution ， 。
to the brands by providing new luxury value to customers. 。
。
Keywords: Luxury fashion brand, Social media marketing, 。
Customer relationship, Intimacy, Trust, Purchase intention
，
。 ，
，
。 ，
， 。 ，
。 ， 。
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， 。
， 1. Introduction
。 ，
， 。 ， The recent entry of numerous fashion brands in the luxury
Twitter Facebook， market coupled with decreased sales related to economic down-
。 turns have led to new challenges for luxury firms. Having
， （ founded their characteristics on long history and tradition,
） 。 ， luxury brands nonetheless have become front-runners in leading
（ trends. They have always been placed at the top of the fash-
） 。 ion stream and influenced the rest of the fashion industry with
their aesthetic value and innovative yet traditional way of busi-
。 ness management. While relying on the styles of their own
。 traditional design houses, they have never neglected to provide
。 150 ，133 。
hip and trendy styles as industry leaders. Innovative style is
not limited to their main products, but also is applied to cus-
。 ： ， ，
tomer management, marketing mixes, customer services, retail
， 。 .84 .52，Cronbach’s α .
strategies, and more.
80 .88， 。
Because the luxury fashion business is considered high val-
（
， ） ， （ ， ue-added with guaranteed high profit margins and secure regu-
） 。 （β lar customers, the lower sectors have begun to heat up the
=.25, t=3.48, p<.01）， （ β=.34, t=5.75, p<.001） competition. In this intense business environment, many luxury
（ β=.31, t=4.32, p<.001） 。 brands have begun to search for new markets in Asia in order
（β=.13, t=2.28, p<.05）， to make up for poor sales in Europe and America. Others
（β=.25, t=3,54, p<.01）， （β=.14, t=1.92, have either focused on a retail network that brings efficiency
p<.05） （β=.19, t=2.65, p<.01） to existing retail systems or launched second brand lines to
（β=.32, t=5.30, p<.001)。 ， ， expand customer boundaries. They have even stopped depend-
。 ing solely on their own design house to collaborate with ce-
166 A.J. Kim, E. Ko / Journal of Global Fashion Marketing 1-3 (2010) 164-171
lebrities, star designers, and artists in providing new value to
their customers. From temporary stores to exclusive limited
items, luxury brands are struggling to take back their lost
customers.
As a means to provide value to their customers in every
way possible, luxury brands have now turned to social media,
the two-way communication platforms that allow users to inter-
act with each other online to share information and opinions.
Use of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook has
already expanded to almost every luxury fashion brand and
been evaluated as business take-off tools. Advanced technology
has begun to benefit the luxury fashion industry while brands
and customers are building and strengthening relationships via
the social media sites. Even more, brands are able to introduce
themselves and provide information while engaging in a casual
interaction with customers. In the beginning, as evident in the
brands’ use of websites and e-commerce, the luxury market
showed a passive attitude toward the use of technology and
did not believe in its potential to attract customers. Most were
resistant because the technology worked against the firms’ de-
sire to control their own brands. However, although the tech-
nology is still seen as a threat to luxury brands, it is also
inevitable.
With the increased use of social media as a means of mar-
keting communication for luxury brands, it has become neces-
sary to empirically analyze the effect of social media market-
ing (SMM). The purpose here is to define SMM properties
and evaluate the impact for luxury brands on customer rela-
tionships as well as on purchase intention. Luxury brands en-
gage in social media activities mainly to build a strong rela-
tionship with their customers and create purchase intention to
ensure success in the long run. Therefore, the research pre-
sented here studies the impact of luxury fashion brands’ SMM
and details its effects. Moreover, as this study has been carried
out at the beginning stage of luxury fashion brands’ SMM ac-
tivities, it is hoped that the results will eventually serve as a
guide to managing SMM for the rest of the fashion industry.
2. Literature Review
2.1. Social Media Marketing of Luxury Fashion
Brands
Traditional designer houses such as Louis Vuitton are pro-
viding live broadcasts of fashion shows on Facebook. Ralph
Lauren, Chanel, Donna Karen, and Gucci have worked with
Apple to create iPhone applications. Many luxury houses have
created their own Twitter accounts or posted themselves on
Facebook. Brands and customers are communicating with each
other with no restriction in time, place, or medium so that
old-fashioned one-way communication is transformed into inter-
active two-way direct communication.
Social media are defined as the “online applications, plat-
forms and media which aim to facilitate interactions, collabo-
rations and the sharing of content” (Universal Maccann
International, 2008). There are a variety of forms, including
weblogs, social blogs, microblogging, wikis, podcasts, pictures,
video, rating, and social bookmarking. Two of the most com-
monly used among luxury fashion brands are social blogs
(e.g., Facebook) and micro-blogs (e.g., Twitter). The Facebook
pages of luxury fashion brands provide a variety of contents
such as video clips, pictures, and stories. The brands not only
expose their PR contents on Facebook, but also designers’
lives and episodes, which draw attention from customers. On
Twitter, users are able to get instant customer service or an-
swers to personal questions, and can easily form a community
through networking and to exchange opinions as well as
information.
According to Miller, Fabian, and Lin (2009), the importance
of social media lies in the interaction between consumers and
the community, and in the facilitation of immediate, interactive,
and low-cost communications. Nowadays, internet communities,
blogs, and social networks have become a part of life for
most people, so that social media have become alternative
communication tools supporting existing relationships and activ-
ities in a joyful way that can enrich the users’ experience.
Moreover, increased use of social media provides a platform
for nurturing brands and affecting consumers’ purchase
decisions.
Luxury fashion brands actively make use of social media for
advertising and marketing. Now that marketing has merged
with services as joining of business and advertising, it will
continue to align itself with services that users’ value. The
shift to marketing-supported services opens up enormous oppor-
tunities for marketers to expose consumers to brand messages
and, more important, to interact with them. Commercial mes-
sages and interactions with consumers will be partnered with
media, events, entertainment, retailers, and digital services of
all types. Social media have made it possible to perform in-
tegrated marketing activity with much less effort and cost than
before. Marketing is a multidimensional process made up from
various strategies; however, one of the main goals of any mar-
keting strategy is to increase sales and profitability. Thus, this
study investigates the effects of this newly introduced market-
ing phenomenon: social media.
2.2. Customer Relationships
Relying on a brand itself can no longer guarantee company
performance as competition gets tough in the luxury
environment. Loyalty toward a certain brand weakens as a va-
riety of alternatives are provided to customers. Brands now
need to build strong relationships with their existing customers
in order to keep them around as long as possible. Intimacy
and trust have received extensive exposure in the academic lit-
erature on customer relationships in the fashion marketing
field. While this study aims to investigate how SMM influen-
ces customer relationships and purchase intention, it will focus
 A.J. Kim, E. Ko / Journal of Global Fashion Marketing 1-3 (2010) 164-171
on intimacy and trust as representative of a customer relation-
ship that will eventually contribute to a brand’s performance.
2.2.1. Intimacy
Intimacy refers to feelings of closeness, connectedness, and
bondedness (Sternberg, 1996). It is possible that consumers
forge an emotional relationship such as intimacy with a certain
brand, and perceptions of intimacy are required before the
consumer will make an emotional investment in the brand and
develop perceptions of trust (Elliot and Yannopoulou, 2007).
Intimacy is a matter of knowledge that accumulates over time
(Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006) and lasts longer than other
emotional relationships (Sternberg, 1996).
2.2.2 Trust
A degree of tendency to believe in a certain brand’s ability
to perform a promised function can define trust (Chaudhuri
and Holbrook, 2001). Trust is considered one of the keys to
an enhanced relationship between a consumer and a certain
brand, and it has been recognized recently as a core variable
of long-term relationships with customers. In order for custom-
ers to attain firm and lasting relationships with a brand, trust
must first be obtained. As one party trusts another, positive
behaviors, such as intention to purchase and recommend, are
created (Lau and Lee, 1999). Thus, strong belief in a brand
becomes a fundamental element of a customer relationship.
2.3. Purchase Intention
Purchase intention is defined as the consumer’s possibility of
purchasing in the future. Since it is expressed as a customer’s
will to promise certain activity related to future consumption,
many studies have employed purchase intention to estimate a
brand’s future profits. Understanding consumers’ purchasing be-
havior is essential to a firm in order to attract and retain its
customers (Ko, Kim, and Zhang, 2008). According to previous
studies, purchase intention is strongly related to attitude and
preference toward a brand or a product (Kim and Ko, 2010;
Kim and Lee, 2009). As customer relationship is built on atti-
tude toward a brand, purchase intention is expected to be in-
fluenced by such relationships.
3. Methods
3.1 Research Questions, Hypotheses, and Proposed
Model
According to Samsung Design Net (2009), the use of social
media among luxury fashion brands builds friendly affection
toward brands and stimulates customers’ desire for luxury.
Because of the recent emergence of the use of SMM among
167
luxury fashion brands, academic work dealing with its effects
is rare. However, in light of the luxury industry’s growing in-
terest in SMM, it has become necessary to empirically inves-
tigate those effects. Within a limited body of literature, the
following research questions and hypotheses have been devel-
oped:
Research Question 1. What are the properties of luxury fashion
brands’ social media marketing?
Research Question 2. How does each property affect customer
relationships (i.e., intimacy and trust) and purchase in-
tention?
H1. Social media marketing will have a significant positive in-
fluence on customer relationships (i.e., intimacy and trust).
H2. Social media marketing will have a significant positive in-
fluence on purchase intention.
Research Question 3. What is the relationship between custom-
er relationships (i.e., intimacy and trust) and purchase in-
tention?
H3. Customer relationships (i.e., intimacy and trust) will have
a significant positive influence on purchase intention.
Figure 1 presents a proposed model for outlining the hy-
pothesized relationships among SMM, customer relationships,
and purchase intention.
Fig. 1. Research model
3.2. Preliminary Test, Sampling, and Data
Collection
In advance of the final development of survey ques-
tionnaires, a preliminary test was conducted among fifteen
graduate students majoring in fashion marketing in order to
draw a sample of a luxury fashion brand for this study.
Participants were asked to list three such brands. After a fre-
quency test using SPSS 17.0, Louis Vuitton was mentioned
most often and was selected to represent the brands. Louis
Vuitton is currently engaging in a variety of social media ac-
tivities and is ranked at the top in international luxury brand
168 A.J. Kim, E. Ko / Journal of Global Fashion Marketing 1-3 (2010) 164-171

rankings (e.g., Interbrand, 2008; Millward Brown, 2008).
Data were collected from a convenience sample in the Seoul
metropolitan area. Respondents were restricted to consumers
who had purchased any luxury fashion brand item within the
previous two years. Self-administrated questionnaires were dis-
tributed to 150 customers and, after excluding incomplete an-
swers, 133 questionnaires were finally employed for statistical
analysis.
3.3. Measurements
The questionnaires consisted of three parts, with the first
part measuring the brand’s SMM activities. In order to do this,
a visual stimulus of Louis Vuitton’s activity on the two most
commonly used social media, Facebook and Twitter, was de-
veloped (See Figure 2). Participants were asked to review the
proposed visual stimulus and answer 25 measurement items,
which were developed from previous literature related to luxu-
ry fashion brand’s social media marketing (i.e., Kim, 2010).
The second part of the questionnaire included eight items to
measure customer relationship and purchase intention. In this
study, customer relationship was to include overall intimacy to-
ward a brand (e.g., I am a true fan of this brand, I feel in-
timacy toward this brand, I know this brand well), trust (e.g.,
I have a strong belief in this brand, This brand provides pre-
cise service information). Measures were developed from
Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner, and Gremler (2002) and Ju and
Chung (2002). Items to measure purchase intention were devel-
oped from Park, Jeon, and Kwak (2007). All statements were
measured by five-point Likert-type scales (1 = Strongly

Table 1. Factor analysis of social media marketing

On June 2009, Louis Vuitton created its official account on Facebook called Factor
Factors Items Cronbach’s α
‘The Art of Travel by Louis Vuitton’(www.facebook.com/louisvuitton) as a loading
first among luxury brands. Louis Vuitton’s Facebook has been visited by 850 The contents found on Louis
thousand people around the world up to now, and it is creating intimacy Vuitton’s social media seem .82
between the public and brand since its page on Facebook provides exclusive interesting.
details such as designers’daily lives, preparation for collection, or episodes
which are not found on its official webpage. On October 2009, Louis It is exciting to use Louis Vuitton’s
.73
Vuitton attempted service to feed real-time fashion shows on line, and it also social media.
Entertainment .88
It is fun to collect information on
brands or fashion items through Louis .70
Vuitton’s social media.
It is easy to kill time using Louis
.69
Vuitton’s social media.
It is possible to search customized
information on Louis Vuitton’s social .79
media.
Louis Vuitton’s social media provide
.76
customized services.

Customization Louis Vuitton’s social media provide .87

lively feed information I am interested .67
in.
It is easy to use Louis Vuitton’s
.63
social media.
receives real-time feedback from customers by Facebook and Twitter. Louis Vuitton’s social media can be
.52
In addition, Louis Vuitton established official Twittie (http://www.twitter.com/ used anytime, anywhere.
LouisVuitton_HQ) on Twitter for users to lively exchange information or It is easy to convey my opinion
.84
diverse opinions based on the network created on-line. through Louis Vuitton’s social media.
It is possible to exchange opinions or
conversation with other users through .73
Louis Vuitton’s social media.
Interaction It is possible to do two-way .88
interaction through Louis Vuitton’s .69
social media.
It is possible to share information
with other users through Louis .66
Vuitton’s social media
I would like to pass out information
on brands, products, or services from .87
LV’s social media to my friends.
I would like to upload contents from
LV’s social media on my blog or .72
Word of Mouth .80
micro blog.
I would like to share opinions on
brands, items, or services acquired
.70
from Louis Vuitton’s social media
with my acquaintances.
It is a leading fashion to use Louis
.82
Vuitton’s social media.
Trend .82
Contents found on Louis Vuitton’s
.73
Fig. 2. Visual stimulus of Louis Vuitton’s social media social media are up-to-date.
 A.J. Kim, E. Ko / Journal of Global Fashion Marketing 1-3 (2010) 164-171 169

Disagree, 5 = Strongly Agree). The last part measured demo- Table 2. Impact of social media marketing on customer relationship and
purchase intention
graphic characteristics of the sample, including age, education,
marital status, occupation, average household income, spending Independent variable
Dependent
β t-value R2 F
variable
on fashion goods, and spending on luxury purchases.
Entertainment .25 3.48**
4. Results Customization .10 1.47
Interaction Intimacy .01 .22 .12 3.72**
Word of Mouth .14 1.92*
4.1. Properties of Social Media Marketing Trend .05 .75
Entertainment .34 5.75***
Customization .13 2.28*
Principal component analysis using varimax rotation was Interaction Trust .07 1.18 .35 14.18***
conducted to figure out the properties of luxury fashion Word of Mouth .10 1.74
brands’ SMM. After eliminating some items possessing either Trend .32 5.30***
low factor loadings or cross loadings, five factors with ei- Entertainment .31 4.32***
Customization .13 1.85
genvalues greater than one were drawn: entertainment, custom- Purchase
Interaction .25 3.54** .24 8.42***
ization, interaction, word of mouth, and trend. As indicated in intention
Word of Mouth .19 2.65**
Table 1, factor loadings ranged from .84 to .52. Cronbach’s α Trend .04 .63
was used to test reliability of the measures, and the reliability ***p<.001, **p<.01, *p<.05
coefficient of each property lay between .80 and .88, demon-
strating adequate construct reliability. The brands’ social media to provide value to customers in every way possible, the
were found to comprise fun elements and provide custom- brands should focus on providing free entertainment content,
er-focused service while supplying two-way interaction plat- customized services, and trend forward social media site which
forms that enable users to influence each other. Moreover, the all act positively toward enhancing customer relationship.
social media included trend aspects. Moreover, entertainment was the most effective property of
SMM, influencing all customer relationship variables in the
4.2. Impact of Social Media Marketing study. In addition, Chen and Wells (1999) insisted that enter-
tainment contributes most to attitude toward the website. A re-
To test the effects of SMM on customer relationships and lationship between customer and brand formed by entertainment
purchase intention, multiple regression analysis using SPSS is steady and is enough to induce future customer behaviors
17.0 was used. The five SMM properties were entered as in- that are important to a brand. Thus, luxury fashion brands
dependent variables, and intimacy and trust (for customer rela- should focus on offering entertainment through their social me-
tionship) and purchase intention were applied as dependent dia platforms as much as possible.
variables. Prior to multiple regressions to test the hypotheses,
4.2.2. Purchase Intention
reliability tests proved the internal consistency of each depend-
ent variable. Cronbach’s α was .74 for intimacy, .82 for trust, With regard to the impact of each SMM property on pur-
and .81 for purchase intention. chase intention, entertainment (β=.31, t=4.32, p<.001), inter-
action (β=.25, t=3,54, p<.01), and word of mouth (β=.19,
4.2.1 Customer Relationship t=2.65, p<.01) had a positive influence on purchase intention.
When the effects of SMM on intimacy and trust were ex- It was interesting that the impact of interaction was greater
amined, entertainment (β=.25, t=3.48, p<.01) and word of than that of word of mouth. The result indicates how im-
mouth (β=.14, t=1.92, p<.05) had a positive impact on portant it is for customers to share information and opinions
intimacy. Regarding trust, entertainment (β=.34, t=5.75, on social media. Consumers seem to create purchase intention
p<.001), customization (β=.13, t=2.28, p<.05), and trend (β while they engage in a casual interaction with other users as
=.32, t=5.30, p<.001) each had a positive impact. Table 2 well as the brand. It thus becomes necessary for luxury fash-
summarizes the results of multiple regressions between SMM ion brands to provide an interaction venue that enables cus-
and customer relationships. tomers to express and share opinions of communal interest.
According to the findings, intimacy was driven by entertain-
ment and word of mouth. Because intimacy with a certain 4.3. Relationship between Customer Relationship
brand is formed by frequent exposure with familiar feelings
and Purchase Intention
and positive information, entertainment and word of mouth
seemed to influence intimacy positively. Trust was affected by In addressing Research Question 3, multiple regression anal-
entertainment the most and the effects of trend and custom- ysis with SPSS 17.0 statistic package was conducted to figure
ization followed after. It seems that entertainment, custom- out the connection between customer relationships and purchase
ization, and trend were satisfying what customers expected intention. Table 3 summarizes the results of multiple re-
from a luxury fashion brand. Because the luxury industry aims gressions between customer relationship and purchase intention.
170 A.J. Kim, E. Ko / Journal of Global Fashion Marketing 1-3 (2010) 164-171
The results indicated a significant relationship between trust
and purchase intention (β=.34, t=4.85, p<.001). Thus, H3 was
partially supported. Only the trust variable within a customer
relationship was significantly associated with purchase intention.
In testing H1 and H2, the mediating effects of customization
and trend were found. Although these two properties did not
have a direct effect on purchase intention, they will eventually
affect intention through the influence of customers’ trust. Since
intimacy was not significantly influential toward purchase in-
tention, it is assumed that there might be other moderating
factors that affect the relationship between intimacy and pur-
chase intention. For that reason, future studies might test mod-
erators concerning this in order to reveal the relationship be-
tween customer relationship and purchase intention in more
detail.
Table 3. Relationship between customer relationship and purchase intention
Independent 2
Dependent variable β t-value R F
variable
Intimacy -.00 -.01
Purchase intention .51 45.55***
Trust .34 4.85***
***p<.001
5. Conclusion and Implications
The study presented here has examined the impact of luxury
fashion brands’ social media marketing on customer relation-
ships and purchase intention. Research objectives and hypoth-
eses were developed to meet the purpose of the study and the
results were derived through appropriate procedures to reach
the conclusions. Findings indicate that luxury fashion brands’
SMM is a significantly effective marketing medium. Specific
results and corresponding implications are as follows.
First, luxury brands’ social media comprise five properties:
entertainment, customization, interaction, word of mouth, and
trend. The result show that the chosen brand’s SMM includes
distinctive elements in comparison to old-fashioned marketing
performances. In evaluating its impact on customer relation-
ships and purchase intention, entertainment and word of mouth
had a significant positive influence on intimacy. Trust was in-
fluenced by entertainment, customization, and trend, while pur-
chase intention was influenced by entertainment, interaction,
and word of mouth. Every property found in luxury brands’
SMM positively influenced customer relationships and purchase
intention, with entertainment affecting more variables than any
other properties. Luxury brands should heavily supply an enter-
tainment aspect of social media contents and activities. Every
activity enabled by use of the media, such as creating relation-
ships with other users, providing customized service and free
entertainment contents, and obtaining genuine information on
personal interest should all be entertaining. By focusing on
providing such features, customer relationships and purchase in-
tention will be enhanced.
These results correspond to a DEI Worldwide report that
states that consumers make a purchase decision based on the
information posted on social media sites, and consumers using
those sites pass along information to others (DEI Worldwide,
2008). While marketing can be characterized as an investment
in improving a firm’s performance (Srivastava, Shervani, and
Fahey, 1998), marketing activities using social media have pro-
ven their effectiveness. Recently, previous studies on customer
equity have noted that customers can be seen as intangible as-
sets that a firm should wisely acquire, maintain, and maximize
like other financial assets (Blattberg, Getz, and Thomas, 2001).
In the current competitive marketing environment, customers’
future behavior is a key strategic asset that must be monitored
and nurtured by firms to maximize long-term performance.
And customer relationship is what strengthens the bond be-
tween customer and brand. Thus, using social media in con-
ducting marketing activities appears to be an appropriate me-
dium for luxury brands.
Concerning the association between customer relationship and
purchase intention, trust and purchase intention were highly
related. Customers’ trust was strengthened via interaction with
other users as well as brand on social media sites. Trust
gained while enjoying entertainment and communication pro-
vided on the sites seems to contribute greatly toward a luxury
brand’s profit.
With the growing interest of luxury fashion brands in pro-
viding luxurious value to customers in every way possible, us-
ing social media appears to be appropriate for retaining old
customers and attracting cross-shoppers. As competition among
luxury fashion brands becomes more intense by providing plen-
ty of alternatives to customers, the brands’ prosperity seems no
longer quite so promising. The importance of managing cus-
tomers as valuable assets cannot be emphasized more. As
such, more luxury brands should engage in social media mar-
keting activities to anticipate a positive contribution to the
brands by providing new luxury value to customers.
As an initial effort to evaluate effects of social media mar-
keting, a visual stimulus employed to measure attributes of so-
cial media marketing activities faced difficulties. Moreover, its
possible error could not be controlled. Due to the reason men-
tioned above, limitation follows in generalizing the result of
the study. Future study should develop effective instrument to
measure social media marketing of luxury fashion brand more
appropriately.
(Received: August 2, 2010)
(Revised: August 16, 2010)
(Accepted: August 23, 2010)
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