Rationalizing social media opportunities and customer relationships in the luxury fashion industry

The internet is a conventional means of customer communication for all types of business. However, luxury companies are still in the experimental phase of utilizing social media to generate customer relationships. The marketing literature discloses insights into the advantages of social media customer relationships, although there is limited information on how online luxury customers pursue satisfactory social media relationships. Drawing on social identity theory, this paper extends understanding of luxury customers’ conceptualization of their social media relationships. Three constituents of company–customer online relationships are identified: visualization, status, and intrinsic influence. Our results suggest that social impact conceals perceptions of the online relationship with luxury brands.