Young people attitude towards vitrtual comunities and their relationship with brands. (An approach through the college students of communication & marketing in Nebrija University)

Abstract

Virtual communities are a new way of relationship quite steady for some time, mainly in the social networks. For some this is due to the weakening of the social links in real life; for others, it´s just a newer form of social relationship. In the middle of this controversy, brands have found an opportunity to interact with their users, taking the advantage of the growth of social media, interest of consumers who have become prosumers and also due to the interest of publicity communication in  branded content and the influence marketing. In this context, brands are deploying their strategies in order to create contents to feed their communities, their paid influencers’ communities or their users’ communities. This investigation aims to explore the attitudes and motivations of the young students in communication and marketing courses at Nebrija University towards this way of sociability through virtual communities and how they understand the role of the brands in this context. The applied qualitative methodology is based on discussion groups with young university students related with marketing and communication studies. The results confirm that communal links are truly ingrained into young people but, regarding brand communities, the feeling is not as intense to wake an authentic sense of belonging, commitment, and solidarity with both the embodied brand values and with the people which form this type of virtual community.