Improvement in Customer Experience Through the Creation of Virtual Brand Communities

Purpose – The paper aims to examine the principles of creating customer experience and analyze a novel application of such principles in virtual brand communities (VBC). The Glossier brand has been chosen for the case study of creating the VBC. Design/methodology/approach – The study employs quantitative comparison for the analysis of the social media content of the Glossier brand as part of virtual communities and qualitative semi-structured interviews to uncover how Lithuanian brands create VBCs and broaden the experience of brand users. The components of customer experience have been used as a core theoretical framework for identification based on textual or visual elements in VBCs. Findings and Implications – Content analysis of social media has confirmed that the experience of VBCs is created by applying the components of customer experience. In order to attract customers, brands most frequently use emotional and sensory components, with relationship, lifestyle, pragmatic, and cognitive components used half as often. According to the informants, the sensory and emotional components were recognized as most important for shaping customer experience in virtual communities. They agree that visual and hearing stimulation have the most decisive impact on creating customer experience through the sensory component. By contrast, touch, taste, and smell have a less significant effect on the stimulation of the sensory component. Limitations – This paper is limited by the fact that the conducted analysis covers only the case of one brand, and the professionals’ opinions might depend on their cultural background. Originality – The study examines one of the fastest-growing consumer communication phenomena in virtual brand communities, which has not received sufficient attention of researchers.