Research on strategies of content production and operation in brand virtual communities from the perspective of user thinking—Taking Lululemon as an example

Abstract

Background: As a platform for value co-creation, branded virtual communities retain a large amount of user-generated content, which not only serves as a convenient way for brands to grasp consumer preferences but also influences the purchasing intentions of users themselves and other users. Methods: This paper takes the Lululemon Weibo community and Xiaohongshu community as an example, firstly, the paper uses Python to capture the text content generated by the members of the two communities, and then we clean and pre-process the acquired content. After that, with the help of the LDA model and the confusion evaluation index, we thematize the content generated by the members of the two communities and identify the hot topics. Finally, the paper makes a comparative analysis of the hot topics in the two Lululemon virtual communities. Results: Members of the two virtual communities pay attention to same topics like “Wear Sharing”, “Life Sharing” and “Product Design”. But there are still differences in the focus and constitution of the two communities. Conclusions: Enterprises can identify the hot topics through their brand virtual communities, which provide the basis for the motivation of user-generated content within the community, as well as provide inspiration for enterprises to output content and marketing within the community; enterprises also need to ensure that members of the community continue to participate in community interactions and to ensure that the quality of user-generated content. High-quality user-generated content not only provides companies with effective information but also but also retains old members and attracts new members. Therefore, this paper also provides suggestions for enterprises from three perspectives: community content, community atmosphere, and platform environment.