Abstract
Brands are increasingly using emoji in their computer-mediated communication (CMC). However, research on how consumers perceive such use, and the determinants of those perceptions, is scarce and results may be inconsistent. In a cross-sectional study ( N = 540 ) we examined how appropriate participants considered to be the use of emoji by brands, across five brand-consumer communication contexts. We additionally examined whether these perceptions were determined by demographic and individual variables (e.g., gender and frequency of emoji use), as well as individual views about emoji use in written CMC. Overall, perceptions toward the use of emoji by brands depended on the context, with participants considering more appropriate for brands to use emoji when publicizing on social media and less appropriate when making callbacks of defective products. Results further showed that such perceptions were more favorable among younger participants and those who used emoji more frequently, but also among those who considered emoji use more useful and formal. These findings contribute to the CMC field by highlighting how perceptions of emoji use by brands are shaped, while also informing how brands can enhance CMC with consumers.
Highlights
The development of internet services and technology has provided new ways for people to communicate, including instant messaging (e.g., Gmail and WhatsApp), social media (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter), discussion platforms (e.g., Reddit), and video hosting and live streaming services (e.g., Youtube and Twitch)
No differences were found for rational advertising messages. These findings suggest that not all contexts/types of messages benefit from emoji use
Previous studies showed that people who perceive emoji as more useful, interesting, fun, easy, informal, and good are more likely to use emoji more frequently in their CMC [3, 38] and to perceive a message with emoji as more efficient [3]. These findings indicate that individual variables, frequency of emoji use in CMC, and the attributions people make to emoji might shape the perceptions and patterns of emoji use
Summary
The development of internet services and technology has provided new ways for people to communicate, including instant messaging (e.g., Gmail and WhatsApp), social media (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter), discussion platforms (e.g., Reddit), and video hosting and live streaming services (e.g., Youtube and Twitch). These platforms rely on computer-mediated communication (CMC; [1]) and allow users to communicate using different formats (e.g., video, image, and text). Because some of these platforms rely solely on text-based communication, the availability of (conventional) nonverbal cues may be limited [7] This may hinder communication outcomes, making it difficult to understand the emotion and/or intention of a written message (see [8, 9]). We examined how appropriate people perceive emoji use across different contexts of brand-consumer communication and explored the determinants of such perceptions
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