IMPLICATIONS FOR HOW COMPANIES CAN USE VIRTUAL COMMUNITY           

 When the attachment to the community becomes very strong members go beyond their normal commitment to help other members of their community (Rheingold, 1991). Such consistent behavior over a period of time makes the relationship durable and consistent.

Virtual community as channels for building store image Keller (1993) defines store image as the perceptions of an organization reflected in the association held in consumer memory. Store image is essential for development of loyalty, store patronage, purchase intent and customer loyalty (Andreassen and Lindstad, 1998). It is an important input in the consumer decision-making process and encompasses characteristics such as the physical environment of the store, service levels, and merchandise quality. Store image is different from brand image. Brand image refers to the product and has been defined as a perception of quality associated with the name. In the context of an online store, store image is more appropriate as the online store may carry many different brands and if the customer Proceedings of the Tenth Americas Conference on Information Systems, New York, New York, August 2004 2684 Gupta et al. Virtual community Concepts, Implications and Future Research Directions doesn’t have a good store image, he may not buy products from that online store even if he has a good brand image. For e.g., Amazon.com has a good store image, while it carries a myriad of brands. Formation of store image is slightly different in an online store. A customer may not be able to explore all parts of an online store as the internet store front doesn’t make available the products the way one perceives in an offline store. In case of virtual communities, members share their experience with each other about the product. For e.g., Amazon.com provides product-reviews obtained from its customers. A customer forms his own image based on other’s image and/or word-of-mouth communication depending upon his trust on other members and past experience. By enhancing positive word-of-mouth among the members and by actually providing facilities a vendor can generate positive word-of-mouth thus enhancing image of the online store. Virtual community as tools for building loyalty among customers According to Oliver (1999) loyalty is a deeply held commitment to re-buy or re-patronize a preferred product/service consistently in the future, thereby causing repetitive same-brand or same brand-set purchasing, despite situational differences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behavior. In addition to purchasing loyal customer also frequently refer new customers to a supplier, providing another rich source of profits. Internet can amplify this effect through the word-of-mouth or customer referrals. In virtual community, members trust each other and exchange product knowledge among each other. For example, more than half the customers at eBay are referrals. According to Anderson and Lindstad (1998) customer loyalty expresses an intended behavior related to the service of the online vendor.

This includes the likelihood of future renewal of service contracts, customer changing patronage, customer providing positive word-of-mouth, or customers providing voice. Customers may also be loyal due to high switching barriers or lack of real alternatives. Virtual community increases switching barriers because of relationships formed with other members.

BY JOSHUA HELENA M

BAPRM  42571