Marketing Communication UvA | 1
Summary Marketing Communication
Theory exam II / part D: the Interactions
Master: Persuasive Communication
Overview literature
Week 12: Consumer Empowerment
- Buzeta, C. De Pelsmacker, P., & Dens, N. (2020)
- Eigenraam, A. W., Eelen, J., Van Lin, A., & Verlegh, P. W. (2018)
- Thomas, V. L., & Fowler, K. (2021)
Week 13: eWOM and webcare
- Fournier, S., Avery, J. (2011)
- Van Noort, G., & Willemsen, L. M. (2012)
- Hennig-Thurau, T., Wiertz, C., & Feldhaus, F. (2014)
Week 14: Ethics and privacy
- Boerman, S. C. & Van Reijmersdal, E. A. (2020)
- Boerman, S. C., Kruikemeier, S., & Zuiderveen Borgesius, F. J. (2017)
- Campbell, C., Plangger, K., Sands, S., & Kietzmann, J. (2021)
- Zarouali, B., Ponnet, K., Walrave, M., & Poels, K. (2017)
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Week 12: Consumer Empowerment
Buzeta, C. De Pelsmacker, P., & Dens, N. (2020). Motivations to use different social media
types and their impact on consumers' online brand-related activities (COBRAs). Journal of
Interactive Marketing, 52, 79-98.
Empowered consumers
Information technology accelerated the emergence of empowered consumers. Consumers
today are:
1) Connected (versus atomized);
2) Active (versus passive);
3) Informed (versus ignorant).
User generated content is content produced and uploaded by consumers rather than
companies. Much UGC is brand-related and has the potential to shape consumer brand
perception.
● For example, the red cup contest by Starbuck, where customers could use the cups as
a canvas to create their own unique designs and share this on social media.
Online brand-related activities
Goal of study: explore how social media use motivations drive consumers’ online brand
related activities (COBRAs). COBRAs represent a behavioral measure of consumer
engagement that corresponds to how practitioners measure the effectiveness of their social
media communications effort.
Three stages of engagement with increasing involvement and interaction with brand-related
content:
1) Online brand-related consumption: users are passively exposed to brand-related
content (shared by other consumers or the brand) without further participation or
interaction.
● E.g., viewing a brand-related video, reading product reviews.
● Low-engagement level: can benefit brand awareness and fan acquisition.
2) Brand-related contribution: refers to activities with a moderate engagement level,
where consumers respond to branded stimuli by their peers or the brand.
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● E.g., rating products/brands, engaging in brand-related conversations.
● Medium-engagement level: generating reach or impressions. Provoking an
active brand-related response that increases the organic reach of a campaign
(contribution and creation).
3) Brand-related creation: includes content that is (co-)created by consumers, and that
may stimulate further consumption and contribution by other peers.
● E.g., writing a brand-related article, uploading user-generated brand-related
video.
● High-engagement level: provoking an active brand-related response that
increases the organic reach of a campaign (contribution and creation).
The uses and gratifications theory by McQuail (1983) is a well-known framework of
people's motivations to use media. According to U&G theory, people actively seek out
particular media and content for specific uses and to achieve particular gratifications (or
results).
Six U&G categories are driving motivations of individuals' use of social media platforms:
1) Entertainment: the emotional relief generated by temporarily recreating or recessing
from daily routines.
● Escaping or being diverted from problems or routine; emotional release or
relief; relaxation, cultural or aesthetic enjoyment; passing time, having fun,
and playing.
2) Integration and Social interaction: the users' feeling of connection (to an online
community, for instance) that enables them to increase their knowledge about other
people's circumstances and augment individuals' socializing capabilities.
● The sense of belonging (e.g., connectedness),the supportive peer groups (e.g.,
bandwagon),and the enhanced interpersonal connections associated with
media usage (e.g., community building).
3) Personal identity: the need for shaping one's identity by providing an image of one's
personality and by receiving peer recognition.
● Self-expression, social recognition, self-presentation, self-assurance.
4) Information: individuals' understanding of relevant events and conditions in the
world around.
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● Information seeking, information sharing, obtaining communicatory utility,
gainingsocial information, surveillance (i.e.,knowledge about others), and
self-documentation (i.e., lifelogging).
5) Remuneration: users' intention to obtain some future benefit or external reward that
basically stands apart from the behavior.
● Obtaining economic incentives (e.g., gaining direct discounts and coupons,
accessing sales promotions, taking part in competitions), job-related benefits,
or personal wants (e.g., specific software).
6) Empowerment: individuals' purpose of exerting their influence or power on others'
perceptions (e.g.,consumers, companies, brands), by voicing their opinions and by
demanding improvements in products, services, and corporate policies.
● Attempts to influence institutions, companies,or other social media users;
exertions to enforce service excellence and accuracy.
Vale and Fernandes (2017) added brand love as a seventh motivation to interact with brands
in social media.
Type of social media platforms
A matrix classification of social media (based on how each type of social media caters to
human needs). This matrix is based on two defining characteristics of social media platforms:
● The nature of connections: profile-based versus content-based.
● The customization level of messages: customized versus broadcast.
Combining these two characteristics leads to four types of social media platforms:
1) Relationship: profile-based platforms, with customized messages;
2) Self-media: profile-based platforms, with broadcast messages;
3) Collaboration: content-based platforms, with customized messages;
4) Creative outlet: content-based platforms, with broadcast messages.
Pre-test results
Which social media platforms do not match with their theoretical classification:
● Instagram: categorized as a creative outlet, results indicate self-media.
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○ Why? Several changes in Instagram's func-tionality in recent years have
facilitated more profile-based interactions.
● TripAdvisor: categorized as collaboration site, results indicate creative outlet.
○ Why? As the reviews on TripAdvisor are generically written for any user to
see, and not customized to specific users, it is indeed justifiable to consider
these as broadcast. In that sense, the classification of TripAdvisor as a
Creative outlet seems valid.
➔ Based on the results of the pre-test, they chose the four social media platforms that best fit
each quadrant, as the focal platforms to be included in the main study:
● Facebook (Relationship: profile-based connections with customized messages).
● Instagram (Self-media: profile-based connections with broadcast messages).
● Reddit (Collaboration: content-based connections with customized messages)
● YouTube (Creative-outlet: content-based connections with broadcast messages).
Method:
● Participants were social media users over 18 years old, recruited via email from a
US-based online panel (Total: 939).
● They excluded the platform LinkedIn due to its professional nature and added Reddit
and TripAdvisor as they have been suggested to represent the Collaboration type of
platforms.
● The data was self-reported.
Results — motives for COBRAs
Platforms make use of… Customized messages Broadcast messages
Consuming Entertainment, integration and Entertainment, integration and
social interaction, information, social interaction, information,
remuneration, empowerment remuneration, empowerment
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Contributing Integration and social Remuneration, empowerment
interaction, empowerment
Creating (-) Integration and social Remuneration, empowerment
interaction
Remuneration, empowerment
Results — motives for COBRAs
Platforms are … Profile-based Content-based
Consuming Entertainment, remuneration, Information, remuneration,
empowerment empowerment
Contributing Remuneration, empowerment Integration and social
interaction, empowerment
Creating Remuneration, empowerment Remuneration, empowerment
Conclusion:
● Individuals have different motivations to engage with consumer online brand-related
activities on specific platforms types.
● Empowerment and Remuneration motives (two U&G specifically relevant for social
media use) are the most critical drivers for COBRAs across the four studied social
media platforms. At the same time, the traditional set of U&G can hardly explain
COBRAs on these platforms.
● The motivation personal identity did not seem to affect any of the three types of
COBRAs.
Eigenraam, A. W., Eelen, J., Van Lin, A., & Verlegh, P. W. (2018). A consumer-based
taxonomy of digital customer engagement practices. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 44,
102-121.
Customer engagement
Behavioral manifestations of customer brand engagement is defined as a consumer's
positively valenced brand-related cognitive, emotional (or affective) and behavioral activity
during or related to focal consumer/brand interactions.
● Engagement practices are motivated behaviors, which go beyond the mere purchase
and consumption of products and services.
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Relevance of study: quantitative research method with consumer-based data where the
classification is based on the level of practices (instead of motivations).
Research structure:
I. First phase: they made an inventory of all digital customer engagement practices.
They derived the practices from a systematic literature review and refined and
validated the list in consultation with marketing scholars and practitioners. These
practices were the basis for developing the taxonomy in research phase 2.
II. Second phase: they used a recently developed card sorting method to examine how
consumers categorized the practices, which resulted in a consumer-based taxonomy.
● This approach uncovered five meaningful clusters, or types, of digital
engagement practices.
III. Third phase: they aim to (1) validate this taxonomy of digital engagement practices
in relation to customers' motivational engagement state with brands, and (2) illustrate
the applicability of the taxonomy.
Digital customer engagement practices are defined as consumers' online, behavioral
manifestations of brand engagement that go beyond purchase. They consider these practices
as manifestations of consumers' motivational states of brand engagement (i.e., the
intrapersonal dynamics of brand engagement), namely:
● Cognitive brand engagement: i.e., how much consumers think about a brand.;
● Emotional brand engagement: i.e., what people feel about a brand;
● Behavioral brand engagement: i.e., how much energy, effort and time consumers
spend on using a
brand.
Five pile solution of
digital engagement
practices
Consumers experience
differences between digital
engagement practices that
prior frame-works had not
yet detected.
