Abstract
Social media has revolutionized brand and consumer interaction, from a monologue to the creation of active conversations and engagement through a variety of platforms. Within this context, social media has provided brands and consumers with an opportunity to connect at an intimate level through humanizing communication and satisfying consumers’ emotional and functional needs. Retail stores use social media as a natural fit, with the clothing worn by consumers representing their personalities, hence sharing them on social media is perceived as an authentic way of presenting their passion for fashion to peers.
In this thesis, self-brand congruency as a concept is defined as the match between an individual’s selfconcept and the image of different fashion brands. This thesis, therefore, focuses on establishing the existing relationship between consumers and fashion brands.
The study’s primary question is “how brands use social media platforms to further develop relationships with consumers?” The study applied a survey in the identification of the properties of social media marketing for brands in the Bahrain retail industry.
The researcher used random sampling to sample 305 respondents. Correlation and multiple
regression analysis were used in testing the effects of social media marketing on customer relationship
concepts that included intimacy and trust.
The findings of the study established that there is a direct
relationship between social media marketing, intimacy, and trust.
The findings also established that there is a relationship between self-brand congruency, intimacy, and trust through social media. In incorporating these findings, the study concludes that greater use of social media marketing can be gained for brands and consumers alike. This study extends previous findings and highlights that within the context of social media’s relationship to marketing and customer consumption, there is still room for the adoption of novel perspectives.
Keywords : Social Media, Intimacy and Trust, Customer Relationship Management, Retails Business, Bahrain.