Building brand relationships online: A comparison of two interactive applications

Due to its potential for interactive communication, the Internet is considered a promising tool for relationship marketing. However, the effects of interactive communication on marketing effectiveness may depend on several factors related to each individual consumer, such as Internet experience. In this study, two of the most common applications for interactive communication—personalized Web sites and customer communities—were compared for their ability to develop consumer-brand relationships as measured by the Brand Relationship Quality (BRQ) framework of Fournier (1998). No main effects of the applications were observed. However, significant effects of Internet applications were found when Internet experience was included as a moderating variable. Specifically, it was found that personalized Web sites developed stronger consumer-brand relationships for respondents with extensive Internet experience than for respondents with limited Internet experience. Conversely, it was found that customer communities developed stronger relationships among respondents with limited Internet experience than among respondents with extensive Internet experience. Implications for marketing management and future research in this area are discussed.