Effects of social responsibility labelling and brand on willingness to pay for apparel

This study examined changes in consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for apparel products as labour‐related information and brand were added. Tobit analysis of auction bids from 121 university students for t‐shirts showed men, Hispanics and consumers who believe in social responsibility and fair trade had significantly higher WTP once labour‐related labelling was added. The amount and complexity of information did not matter, leaving substantial leeway to companies in crafting their message. Adding brand significantly increased WTP for two better‐known brands while not changing WTP for the social responsibility messages. Results suggested brands can benefit from stressing social responsibility‐related attributes of products.     

Bridging the online offline gap: Assessing the impact of brands’ social network content quality on brand awareness and purchase intention

Social media is shaping the way companies and brands engage and interact with consumers, particularly Millennials. In light of this growing trend, this study aims to understand the influence of content quality and brand interactivity within social media on consumers' brand awareness and purchase intentions by proposing an empirical model which is tested using structural equation modeling. The study also explores whether the relation between social media stimuli and offline purchase intention is mediated by hedonic motivation, consumer engagement and brand awareness. Results reveal that the quality of content provided by brands on social media and company-users' interactivity are of major importance to Millennials. They increase the hedonic motive derived by these users from social media, strengthen their online engagement and intensify their brand awareness. This heightened online consumer engagement coupled with an increased online consumer brand awareness leads to an increase in the purchase intention of these brands offline. Consequently, companies are encouraged to invest in producing high-quality content on their social media pages, deploy all possible strategies to enhance brand users’ interactivity given the important role these variables play in entertaining, engaging users online, building brand awareness and influencing their offline purchase intentions.     

Tweet this,not that: A comparison between brand promotions in microblogging environments using celebrity and company-generated tweets

Despite the popularity of social media in general and Twitter specifically, little empirical research exists to assist marketers in how to successfully connect with consumers in these environments. The purpose of this study was to identify the ways in which brands can connect with consumers through Twitter and to examine how the category of Tweet impacts brand engagement. Findings reveal that whereas celebrity Tweets may be successful at capturing attention and disseminating brand information, they have minimal impact on changing brand opinions. What influence celebrities do have may be best served with unfamiliar brands rather than familiar ones – results suggest that not unlike in traditional offline media, in social media celebrities may be influential in drawing attention to unfamiliar brands. Our results also suggest that companies with established familiar brands should be cautious about paying to seed their own Tweets using Twitter's ‘Promoted by’ option, particularly if the brand is one that consumers have a neutral opinion of, as this can lower consumers' opinion of the brand. Instead, these companies should encourage consumers to follow them on Twitter as this will enable the brand to interact directly with consumers.     

Fostering Consumer–Brand Relationships in Social Media Environments: The Role of Parasocial Interaction

As brands solidify their place in social media environments, consumers' expectations have amplified, thus spurring the development of technologies to assist with the engagement process. Understanding the ways in which brands can preserve the one-to-one characteristics and intimate relationship qualities offered by social media while still meeting consumer expectations amidst the escalating volume of interactions has become essential. Drawing on the communications literature, this research proposes that parasocial interaction (PSI) theory may be used as a theoretical lens for designing successful social media strategies. Three studies, using a multi-method approach, provide evidence of PSI's role in the development of positive relationship outcomes. Mediation analysis reveals that this sense of feeling connected with the brand goes beyond the interaction itself and drives increased feelings of loyalty intentions and willingness to provide information to the brand. Evidence from this research suggests that these effects may not hold when consumers are aware of the possibility that the brand's social media response may be automated. These findings offer marketers theoretical guidance for fostering relationships in social media environments.     

The Impact of Competitiveness on Consumer Responses to Comparative Advertisements

We examine the impact of consumers' competitive tendencies on responses to comparative advertising appeals and the underlying role of schadenfreude: pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. Consistent with our theory that the depiction of others' misfortunes is compatible with more-competitive consumers' concerns for distinguishing themselves via competition, our studies show that comparative ads are associated with greater schadenfreude, as well as more favorable attitudes and a greater willingness to pay (WTP), among more- (versus less-) competitive consumers. Further results indicate that such relatively more favorable responses among consumers with greater competitive tendencies are limited to comparative ads depicting misfortunes involving brands whose choice is more deserving of failure (i.e., lower-quality brands). Importantly, even less-competitive consumers are revealed to respond favorably to comparative ads and to experience more schadenfreude when they are assured that they will not suffer the depicted misfortune.     

The impact of pronoun choices on consumer engagement actions: Exploring top global brands' social media communications

To enhance the understanding of consumer engagement with brand content on social media, this study examines how pronoun choices affect different types of consumer engagement (e.g., likes, comments, shares) by simultaneously exploring five different pronoun types (first-person singular, first-person plural, second person, third-person singular, and third-person plural). Furthermore, this study explores how the effects of these linguistic (pronoun) choices vary across two brand classifications: characteristics (hedonic vs. utilitarian) and offerings (goods vs. services). The proposed multivariate Poisson regression model, analyzing 15,788 unique brand posts from Facebook over an 8-month period, reveals differences in engagement due to pronoun usage across brand classifications. These results offer a deeper understanding of how the way brands talk to consumers on social media platforms influences consumers' attitudes (likes), propensity to engage with the brand (comments), and willingness to share branded content with their social networks (shares) across different brand classifications.     

Social Media,Social Me: A Content Analysis of Beauty Companies’ Use of Facebook in Marketing and Branding

This paper initiated an investigation on how beauty brands employ social media, particularly Facebook, to increase brand awareness and reinforce brand loyalty. It is no doubt that changes in the consumptive patterns of media have led companies to shift their focus from products to people and from information delivery to information exchange. Few studies, to our knowledge, exist that examine beauty brands and/or beauty companies’ use of social media as a means of engaging with or interacting with their current and potential consumers. Thus, the present study represented findings from a content analysis of Facebook posts from Estée Lauder, MAC cosmetics, Clinique, L’Oreal, Maybelline, and CoverGirl to see what types of social media tools were used more frequently by these brands to connect with their fans and users. Specifically, the study focused on the theoretical and practical implications of viral marketing in the branding strategies of the six beauty and/or makeup brands. Additionally, the study examined the way “high-end” brands used Facebook compared to the department store counterparts. These and other findings are discussed.     

Environmental factors to maximize social media engagement: A comprehensive framework

Social media is a crucial tool for companies to reach their customers as additional touch point and build brand awareness, but effectively using these platforms to engage with customers remains an area of research. Branded social media posts are aimed to deepen the customer-brand-relationship in form of social media engagement. In this study, we aim to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the factors that influence social media engagement by examining the role of environmental factors, including the type of media and content of brand posts, brand involvement of the company, social media channel used, and cross-channel management strategies. We utilize social cognitive theory as our framework and identify three social media environments that must be considered to create social media engagement: (1) the imposed, (2) the selected, and (3) the created environment. We gather more than 7000 brand posts of twenty global brands using Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram giving insights on the driver of social media engagement. By examining these factors, we aim to provide a framework for understanding the drivers of social media engagement and how companies can effectively use social media to engage with their customers.     

How advertising in offline media drives reach of and engagement with brands on Facebook

ABSTRACT

Research investigating the drivers of consumers’ engagement with brands on social media is proliferating. However, little is known about how advertising outside social media drives engagement with brands on social media. This study aims to explore the relation between advertising spend in different offline media (TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, out of home), and reach of and engagement with brand pages on Facebook. The study uses a unique real-life data-set containing information about the Facebook pages of 45 brands for approximately three years combined with Nielsen Advertising Spend data. Results showed that while advertising in offline media influenced organic and viral reach, the number of page likes was directly influenced by advertising on Facebook only. It can be concluded that offline advertising is relevant in driving consumers’ online brand engagement; however, there is a unique set of drivers for organic reach, viral reach and likes.     

The Role of the Beneficiary in Willingness to Pay for Socially Responsible Products: A Meta-analysis

Many companies have made significant investments in socially responsible production practices for their products. Environmentally safe cleaning products, fair trade coffee, and sustainable seafood are just a few examples. In this paper, we conduct a meta-analysis of over 80 published and unpublished research papers across a large number of product categories to better understand differences in willingness to pay (WTP) for socially responsible products. In particular, we are interested in whether the beneficiary of the social responsibility program—humans, animals, or the environment—affects WTP. We use two dependent variables: the percentage premium people are willing to pay and the proportion of respondents who are willing to pay a positive premium. We find that the mean percentage premium is 16.8 percent and that, on average, 60 percent of respondents are willing to pay a positive premium. Importantly, across both dependent measures, we find that WTP is greater for products where the socially responsible element benefits humans (e.g., labor practices) compared to those that benefit the environment. Implications for retailers, manufacturers, and future research are discussed.     

When and how consumers are willing to exchange data with retailers: An exploratory segmentation

Consumer data is a crucial resource for retailers. Yet accessing this data increasingly requires consumers to willingly participate in data exchange. This paper draws on social exchange theory and privacy calculus to investigate differences in consumer willingness to exchange data with retailers. Consumers are also profiled on their perceptions of retailer's use and abuse of data, along with the antecedents and outcomes of these perceptions. We employ a cross-sectional quantitative survey and collect data from a sample of 463 US consumers. For statistical analysis, we employ a latent class segmentation and identify six consumer segments which differ in their perceptions of the consumer-retailer data exchange. The key drivers of these segment differences include privacy concerns, technology readiness, and general trust of, and engagement with, retail brands. The segments also differ in their subsequent views towards the use and abuse of their data by retailers, including willingness to exchange data. Hence, when accessing and utilizing consumer data, it is important that brands identify different segments, and adapt their approach accordingly.     

Vulnerable consumer engagement: How corporate social media can facilitate the replenishment of depleted resources

Technology may facilitate health and wellbeing consumer engagement. When there is scant public health provision and socio-cultural norms marginalize consumers stigmatized from cancer, we reveal how a brand’s corporate social media campaign can support vulnerable consumers with resource constraints. Drawing from a transformative consumer research lens, we investigate five years of computer-mediated communications facilitated by the Indian brand Dabur Vatika. Through a grounded theory and an abductive reasoning approach, we unveil how vulnerable consumers directly or indirectly affected by cancer leverage brand's social media to replenish resources. First, we identify how vulnerable consumers engage to replenish depleted emotional and social support resources. We further expand consumer engagement scholarship by offering a preliminary definition of “vulnerable consumer engagement”. Second, we provide a nascent classification of vulnerable consumers in a consumer-producer role, Principal Vulnerable Consumers and Associate Vulnerable Consumers, distinguished by their proximity to the vulnerable context. Lastly, we reveal how brands may perform a transformative role, to replenish social, emotional and operant resources at the micro level through the engagement of vulnerable consumers with corporate social media. This insight is informative for policymakers, advertising practitioners and transformative consumer research academics.     

Fan-centric social media: The Xiaomi phenomenon in China

In this highly competitive century, social media offers both opportunities and challenges. The concept of social media is top of mind for many entrepreneurs today. Fans are assuming an increasingly active role in co-creating marketing content with companies and their respective brands. Based on the Xiaomi success story in China, we provide a framework for building the power of the fan base and propose a new fan-centric social media business model. We examine the best practice case study of an emerging company's successful efforts to leverage social media in order to reach an important audience of young consumers. Thereafter, we conclude with several lessons related to the integration of social media into a new firm's operation strategy. We strongly recommend that businesses, and especially startups, make good use of powerful social media to develop a business model with fan demand as the core. This is what we call the ‘fan-centric’ social media business model.     

Private-label branding and willingness to pay: evidence from an auction experiment

The competitive pricing of private-label brands is a strategy used to gain a competitive advantage. Notwithstanding the introduction of many private-label brands – i.e. private-label brands with a name identical to that of a firm (own-name brands) and private-label brands with a name distinctive from that of a firm (other-name brands) – that compete with national brands, identifying equitable prices that reflect brand value remains difficult. This study aims to determine the appropriate price of private-label brands by measuring consumers’ willingness to pay. An experimental auction method measures ‘actual’ willingness to pay in a non-hypothetical setting. The study was conducted in Thailand, which has the lowest price discrepancy between national brands and private-label brands. The results show that the willingness of consumers to pay for both types of private-label brands is higher than that for un-branded products. However, there is no significant difference in the premium between own-name and other-name private-label brands. Unlike leading and second tier national brands, consumers are willing to pay a discounted price for both own-name and other-name private-label brands; for the latter, they are willing to pay a more steeply discounted price. The finding of this study regarding the amount that consumers are willing to pay for an own-name private-label brand is consistent with the current market price strategy, whereas the current market price strategy for other-name private labels is inconsistent with the amount participants are willing to pay. The study shows that to appropriately price their products in a manner that yields the highest returns, retailers must determine how much consumers are willing to pay.     

Consumer intentions to engage in s-commerce: a cross-national study

Social media has reached global proportions; yet, little is known about how consumers engage with firms in ways that lead to social commerce (s-commerce) – an emerging area of importance in the literature. This study addresses this gap and extends previous research by examining factors that influence consumers’ intentions to engage in s-commerce in four countries: Chile, Spain, South Africa and Australia. Specifically, this study develops and tests a model of consumers’ intentions to engage in s-commerce through brands’ Facebook pages incorporating personal variables (involvement in brands’ products and services, satisfaction with brands’ Facebook page), trust variables (message credibility of Facebook posts, trust in firms’ Facebook) and social variables (peer communication, social media dependency, online social interaction propensity) on predicting intentions to purchase products and services through brands’ Facebook pages if s-commerce was available to them. The findings show that the main drivers of s-commerce engagement are message credibility, trust in the brands’ Facebook, involvement, peer communication and online social interaction propensity, as influencers of consumer satisfaction with brands’ Facebook and social media dependency, which in turn drive intentions to engage in s-commerce. Contributing to theory and practice, these relationships are discussed for the four countries involved in the study.     

Brand and consumer engagement behaviors on Facebook brand pages: Let's have a (positive) conversation

This paper examines consumer-brand engagement on social media, focusing on the dynamic interplay between brands and consumers as well as among consumers themselves. In addition to liking and sharing behaviors, we look at what influences consumers to provide feedback to brands by commenting on brand posts, connect with other consumers by replying to their comments and agree with other consumers by liking their comments and replies. Drawing on a large longitudinal dataset from 2740 Facebook brand pages across 25 industries, a multilevel multivariate autoregressive zero-inflated negative binomial model is used to examine how brand post and response behaviors are related to specific consumer engagement behaviors. Results show that the amount of brand posts indirectly affects consumer comments through increased liking and sharing, but with diminishing returns. Liking is key as it increases positive and attenuates negative feedback, whereas sharing is associated with both positive and negative consumer-brand comments. Posting photos and videos encourages liking, with photos having increasing returns. Videos are the only format with a direct positive influence on consumer-brand comments, though with decreasing effect. Brand replies to consumer comments, even delayed ones, have little effect on negative conversations but prompt replies would be more beneficial as they bolster positive consumer comments. Moreover, our findings provide evidence for both a “positivity spiral” and “negativity spiral”, with the negativity spiral stronger than the positivity one. Taken together, these findings shed light on how marketers can stimulate positive conversations between brands and consumers on social media.     

Genuine brands or high quality counterfeits: An investigation of luxury consumption in China

This study examines the effects of different marketing and manufacturing factors on the perceived quality gap and willingness to pay (WTP) for genuine luxury brands. Using the survey data of 786 Chinese consumers, the results show that three marketing factors (product innovation, price promotion, and sales environment) and two manufacturing factors (production in country of brand origin and difficulty in producing the products) all indirectly influence WTP through a perceived quality gap between originals and counterfeits. These effects differ significantly among consumers with different counterfeit and genuine brand purchasing experiences. For consumers with counterfeit purchasing experience, it is important to emphasize the manufacturing factors in the marketing strategies; however, for consumers who only buy genuine brands, marketing factors play a more important role. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

We’re all connected: The power of the social media ecosystem

Consumers are adopting increasingly active roles in co-creating marketing content with companies and their respective brands. In turn, companies and organizations are looking to online social marketing programs and campaigns in an effort to reach consumers where they ‘live’ online. However, the challenge facing many companies is that although they recognize the need to be active in social media, they do not truly understand how to do it effectively, what performance indicators they should be measuring, and how they should measure them. Further, as companies develop social media strategies, platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are too often treated as stand-alone elements rather than part of an integrated system. This article offers a systematic way of understanding and conceptualizing online social media, as an ecosystem of related elements involving both digital and traditional media. We highlight a best-practice case study of an organization's successful efforts to leverage social media in reaching an important audience of young consumers. Then, we conclude with several insights and lessons related to the strategic integration of social media into a firm's marketing communications strategy.     

On the Edge of Buying: A Targeting Approach for Indecisive Buyers Based on Willingness-to-Pay Ranges

Targeting the “right” consumers is a core part of marketing. Whereas existing techniques to identify these consumers use demographic or psychographic variables or behaviors such as response probabilities, a proposed new targeting approach builds on consumers’ incremental responses to identify them by their willingness-to-pay (WTP) ranges. These WTP ranges reveal a consumer as a definite buyer, a definite non-buyer, or an indecisive buyer. The proposed theoretical framework indicates that indecisive buyers offer the highest incremental responses to targeted marketing mix activities and thus should be the most preferred targeting group. A sequence of three laboratory experimental studies validates the proposed approach for targeted price discounts and non-price tactics. In addition, a large-scale field experiment involving a consumer engagement campaign that includes observed purchase behavior demonstrates the high external validity and applicability of this approach.     

Why Nonprofits Are Easier to Endorse on Social Media: The Roles of Warmth and Brand Symbolism

Brands often seek endorsements by consumers on social media (e.g., likes on Facebook). But is this marketing strategy feasible for all brands? To answer this question, this research investigates in seven studies the processes that underlie consumers' intention to endorse brands on social media. We suggest that consumers aim to signal their identity by endorsing brands online. Based on the Brands as Intentional Agents Framework and related research in (social) cognition and consumer behavior, we argue that consumers on social media primarily want to emphasize their warmth rather than their competence. Experimental studies 1, 2, and 3 distinguish between nonprofit and for-profit brands and show that brand warmth (and not competence) mediates the effect of brand type (nonprofit vs. for-profit) on consumers' intentions to endorse brands and branded content on social media. Experiment 4 demonstrates that this process is moderated by brand symbolism (moderated mediation). A high level of brand symbolism increases the positive effect of warmth on consumers' intention to endorse brands online, but only for for-profit brands. The fifth experiment shows that these effects are conditional upon the public vs. private distinction in consumer behavior: consumers prefer to publicly affiliate with nonprofit (vs. for-profit) brands but with regard to private affiliations, there is no difference between both types of brands. In experiment 6, the causal role of warmth (vs. competence) is further examined. Finally, we demonstrate that perceptions of brands' warmth and not competence reduce the efforts that brands need to make to achieve consumers' endorsements on their real brand pages on Facebook.