This is a summary of the article "Watch your tone: how a brand’s tone of voice on social media influences consumer responses" of Barcelos, Dantas and Senecal (2018)
On social media, the brand’s tone of voice can be important during inital encounters, when
consumers form opinions about new and unfamiliar brands. Non-verbal cues (communicaton style)
are important in reducing uncertaintes and infuencing assessments of the brand’s trustworthiness.
Human voice in online brand communicatonn
Human voice: a more natural, close and human style of online communicaton.
Corporate voice: a more distant and formal style of communicaton traditonally used by companies.
Since a company’s choice to use a human voice aims to foster the consumer’s percepton of the
company or brand as being closer and more real, using a human tone of voice has a greater social
presence.
The role of hedonic value and connumer goaln
Types of consumer goals:
Hedonic goal: the emotonal benefts and experience of consumpton. Look for enjoyment.
Subjectve evaluaton of products.
o Hedonic value: emotonal benefts and experience of the consumpton.
Utlitarian goal: focus on solving ratonal needs. Objectve evaluaton of products.
o Utlitarian value: the ratonal and instrumental atributes of online channels.
Consumers may get both utlitarian and hedonic value in a consumpton actvity regardless of the
type of goal.
Hedonic value, in partcular on social media, is related to feelings of enjoyment and sociability
provided by the connecton with the brand or other consumers. A brand using a human voice should
be able to transmit more emotons than one using a corporate voice.
Hypothenin 1: the more human (corporate) the voice used by a brand on social media, the higher
(lower) is the hedonic value of the online experience for the consumer.
Pleasant feelings in retail environment are linked to positve consumer attude and more favourable
behaviour towards the brand. For example, positve associatons between hedonic motvatons in
online brand communites and purchase intentons.
Hypothenin 2: the infuence of the use of a human or corporate voice on purchase intenton is
mediated by the hedonic value of the consumer’s experience with the brand on social media.
The infuence of a human voice on consumer responses on social media should be increased when
the consumer is looking at the brand page with a hedonic goal in mind because the benefts of a
human voice are emotonal in nature (more congruent with a hedonic goal). The infuence of a
human voice on consumer responses on social media should be decreased when the consumer is
looking at a brand page with a utlitarian goal in mind.
Hypothenin 3: the infuence of the use of a human or corporate voice on social media on consumer
responses is moderated by the type of consumer goal, such that the infuence is stronger (weaker)
when the consumer goal is hedonic (utlitarian).
, The presence of negatve comments about a brand on social media should weaken the infuence of a
human voice of consumer feelings. The use of human voice might increase the transference of
emotons between partcipants in online communicaton. In situatons of positve posts and
comments, the use of a human voice should increase the transmission of positve feelings.
Hypothenin 4: the infuence of the use of human voice on consumer responses is moderated by the
overall valence of posts, such that the positve infuence of human voice on purchase intentons is
weaker (stronger) when posts are mostly negatve (positve).
The role of perceived rink and nituatonal involvement
In the presence of a risky consumpton situaton, consumers may engage in behaviour to reduce
either the severity of negatve consequences or their uncertainty. The use of human voice may be
considered as unusual or atypical if most companies in the industry do not communicate in this way.
Risk-averse consumers may avoid such situatons.
Situatonal involvement: a state in which the consumpton problem gains relevance and the
consumer allocates cognitve resources to make beter decisions.
In consumpton contexts of high situatonal involvement, the consumer is more sensitve to the
outcomes and the uncertainty associated with the brand. Since human voice is not typical or
congruent with the consumer’s expectatons of a company trying to solve a serious mater, this may
result in higher risk. In contexts on low situatonal involvement, the consumer is not concerned about
the outcomes and the uncertainty associated with human voice should not result in higher risk
perceptons
Hypothenin 5: the consumer’s perceived risk towards the brand mediates the relatonship between
tone of voice on social media and purchase intenton.
Hypothenin 6: the level of situatonal involvement moderates the relatonship between a brand’s
tone of voice and the consumer’s perceived risk, such that the use of a human voice leads to higher
(lower) perceptons of risk and lower (higher) purchase intentons, in contexts of high (low)
situatonal involvement. Conversely, the use of a corporate voice leads to lower (higher) perceptons
of risk and higher (lower) purchase intentons, in contexts of high (low) situatonal involvement.
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