Brand Reputation: A Qualitative Study

3. Results
3.1 Methodological approach
The results table (see Appendix A) shows that 11 out of 15 studies used a questionnaire/survey to gather their results. Another observation from the results table shows that 12 out of 15 studies were quantitative. Whereas, 1 mixed method study was conducted and two qualitative studies. Which is an interesting development since the brand relationship theory originated out of a qualitative study. Whereas the aim was to find the motives and how strongly people had relations towards certain brands (Fournier & Yao, 1997). Studies like Jurisic & Azevedo (2010) , focused more on a quantitative approach by using a questionnaire for their participants. Therefore, they could have a more precise measurement of perceived

Jurisic & Azevedo (2010), argued that brand tribalism, group of people who are linked by a shared belief around a brand, is a better predictor than brand reputation. Therefore, if people are more linked by a common belief they would be more likely to enter a strong consumer-brand relationship. However, Jurisic & Azevedo (2010) did suggest brand reputation is contributing to a certain extent in the formation of brand relationships. Loureiro, Kaufmann, & Wright (2016), agree that brand tribalism seemingly has a more important role than reputation to strengthen the brand-consumer relationship. They extend the statement by adding brand-consumer relationships can develop in long time relationship, if they are maintained. In addition, the research of Loureiro et all (2016), argued that functional values are more effective in creating brand reputation than in generating brand tribalism. E.g. if a luxurious car is unique than it can create a better brand reputation. However, it would have less effect on the brand tribalism. The studies show that there are links between reputation and consumer-brand relationships. However, most studies that combine both reputation and brand-consumer relationships do not take into account different social media platforms. In addition, most research has been conducted using luxury brands but seem

The combination of brand-reputation and consumers-brand relationships is not ,in depth, present in social media research. They do acknowledge importance of brand reputation, but do not give a clear structure of how reputation influence the social media channels which influence the consumer-brand relationship.
3.3 The effects of brand reputation and consumer-brand relationships on Brand Loyalty Brand loyalty is a term which is occasionally present in brand relationship theory research. Brand loyalty is often compared to consumer-brand relationships, but a consumer-brand relationship can exist without a consumer being brand loyal (Fournier & Yao, 1997). Four out of the fifteen articles did mention specifically brand loyalty in their results (See Appendix A). It was already mentioned that Twitter is a medium that can be effectively used for relationship maintenance. Li (2015), argues that relationship maintenance strategies utilized in Twitter had a positive effect on brand