Linking Operational Behaviours to Long-Term Brand Loyalty in Early-Stage User Communities of Emerging Consumer Brands

¹ Aien Institute, Shanghai Ocean University, 201306 Shanghai, China
² School of Accounting, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, 611130 Chengdu, China

^* Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract

In the context of the decline of traffic benefits, new consumer brands generally face issues of user loss and lack of growth. How to transform short-term traffic into long-term brand loyalty through early user community operations has become a key issue in the industry. This study, based on the SOR theory, uses multi-case comparison and process tracking methods, and takes Pop Mart and Perfect Diary as examples to explore the influence mechanism of community operation behaviours on brand loyalty. The results show that early community operations can be divided into three types: interaction, co-creation, and exclusive benefits; different operation behaviours will trigger differentiated psychological identifications of emotional attachment or value recognition; emotional attachment drives diverse loyalty behaviours, while value recognition only leads to functional repeat purchases. The study reveals the transmission path of “operational behaviour → psychological identification → brand loyalty”, providing theoretical references and practical inspirations for new consumer brands to optimize community operations and cultivate long-term user loyalty.