Brand-related User-generated Content Research Articles

How does brand-related user-generated content differ across social media? Evidence reloaded

In light of the relevant changes in the social media environment in recent years, this paper extends the theoretical framework of user-generated content (UGC) dimensions and updates evidence on how brand-related UGC characteristics vary across social media. Using content analysis and statistical analysis of frequencies, we compare how different social media (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) shape twelve important UGC dimensions. Our findings suggest that, by flattening the differences on visual and richer content, the recent trends have made Facebook and Twitter more similar to YouTube on certain brand-related UGC dimensions (e.g., self-presentation, brand centrality, brand recommendation). Moreover, by amplifying the differences related to the real-time and ubiquitous sharing of increasingly richer content, the recent trends have favored the emergence of other brand-related UGC characteristics (e.g., location sharing, sharing while purchasing/using the brand, brand connection with personal experience, response to advertising campaign) more prominently on Facebook and Twitter than on YouTube.

Extracting brand information from social networks: Integrating image, text, and social tagging data

Images are an essential feature of many social networking services, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Through brand-related images, consumers communicate about brands with each other and link the brand with rich contextual and consumption experiences. However, previous articles in marketing research have concentrated on deriving brand information from textual user-generated content and have largely not considered brand-related images. The analysis of brand-related images yields at least two challenges. First, the content displayed in images is heterogeneous, and second, images rarely show what users think and feel in or about the situations displayed. To meet these challenges, this article presents a two-step approach that involves collecting, labeling, clustering, aggregating, mapping, and analyzing brand-related user-generated content. The collected data are brand-related images, caption texts, and social tags posted on Instagram. Clustering images labeled via Google Cloud Vision API enabled to identify heterogeneous contents (e.g. products) and contexts (e.g. situations) that consumers create content about. Aggregating and mapping the textual information for the resulting image clusters in the form of associative networks empowers marketers to derive meaningful insights by inferring what consumers think and feel about their brand regarding different contents and contexts.

Brand-related user-generated content on social media: the roles of source and sponsorship

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how the source of brand-related user-generated content (UGC) (a close friend vs a celebrity) interacts with content sponsorship (organic UGC vs sponsored UGC) to influence consumer causal attributions, brand attitude, and intention to comply with the recommendation.Design/methodology/approachIn all, 285 college students participated in a two (source: a close friend vs a celebrity) by two (content sponsorship: organic vs sponsored) between-subjects online experimental design.FindingsResults showed that recommendation from a close friend generated more information-sharing attributions and less monetary-gain attributions than did recommendation from a celebrity when the brand-related UGC was organic. In contrast, source type did not influence causal attributions differently when the UGC was sponsored. Further, this study demonstrated that both information-sharing and monetary-gain attributions mediated the effects of source type and content sponsorship on brand attitude and intention to comply with the recommendation.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to examine the effectiveness of celebrities as a source of brand-related UGC. Also, this research extends the existing knowledge about source effects by examining the relative effectiveness of two sources of product information, close friends and celebrities, who have both been found to be individually effective in the traditional marketing context. Additionally, the findings of this study that the relative effectiveness of source type depends on whether brand-related UGC is sponsored or not add a further insight into how source type influences the effectiveness of brand-related UGC.

When brand-related UGC induces effectiveness on social media: the role of content sponsorship and content type

ABSTRACTWith the growing power of brand-related user-generated content (UGC) on social media, marketers have begun incorporating UGC into the marketing mix as part of word-of-mouth marketing. Drawing upon the Persuasion Knowledge Model, this study examines how content sponsorship interacts with content type to influence consumer responses toward brand-related UGC (inferences of manipulative intent, brand attitude, and intention to click on a URL). The results of an experiment with an online panel in the United States show that when the content is organic (i.e. unpaid), experience-centric content is more likely to induce favourable consumer responses than promotional content. When the content is sponsored (i.e. paid), however, promotional content yields more effective results than experience-centric content. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that consumer inferences of manipulative intent serve as a mediator for the interaction effects between content sponsorship and content types on consumer responses.

An Investigation of Brand-Related User-Generated Content on Twitter

The big data of user-generated content (UGC) on social media are laden with potential value for brand managers. However, there are many obstacles to using big data to answer brand-management questions. This article presents a framework that automatically derives latent brand topics and classifies brand sentiments. It applies text mining with latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) and sentiment analysis on 1.7 million unique tweets for 20 brands across five industries: fast food, department store, footwear, electronics, and telecommunications. The framework is used to explore four brand-related questions on Twitter. There are three main findings. First, product, service, and promotions are the dominant topics of interest when consumers interact with brands on Twitter. Second, consumer sentiments toward brands vary within and across industries. Third, separate company-specific analyses of positive and negative tweets generate a more accurate understanding of Twitter users' major brand topics and sentiments. Our findings provide brand managers with actionable insights in targeted advertising, social customer relationship management (CRM), and brand management.

Heterotopian selfies: how social media destabilizes brand assemblages

PurposeDigital technologies are changing the ways in which the meanings and identity of both consumers and brands are constructed. This research aims to extend knowledge of how consumer-made “selfie” images shared in social media might contribute to the destabilization of brands as assemblages.Design/methodology/approachInsights are drawn from a critical visual content analysis of three popular champagne brand accounts and consumer-made selfies featuring these brands in Instagram.FindingsThis study shows how brands and branded selves intersect through “heterotopian selfie practices”. Accentuated by the rise of attention economy and “consumer microcelebrity”, the authors argue that these proliferating selfie images can destabilize spatial, temporal, symbolic and material properties of brand assemblages.Practical implicationsThe implications include a consideration of how selfie practices engender new challenges for brand design and brand management.Originality/valueThis study illustrates how a brand assemblage approach can guide investigations of brands at multiple scales of analysis. In particular, this paper extends knowledge of visual brand-related user-generated content in terms of how consumers express, visualize and share selfies and how the heterotopian quality of this sharing consequently shapes brand assemblages.

Power of consumers using social media: Examining the influences of brand-related user-generated content on Facebook

This study examined the influences of positive brand-related user-generated content (UGC)1 shared via Facebook on consumer response. The model tested was derived from the S–O–R consumer response model (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974) that depicts the effects of environmental/informational stimuli on consumer response. Specific research objectives were to investigate whether brand-related UGC acts as a stimulus to activate consumer behavior in relation to brand and examine the processes by which brand-related UGC influences consumer behavior. Using the S–O–R model, brand-related UGC was treated as stimulus, pleasure and arousal as emotional responses, and perceived information quality as cognitive response. Information pass-along, impulse buying, future-purchase intention, and brand engagement were treated as behavioral responses. Participants (n = 533) resided in the U.S. and had a Facebook account. Mock Facebook fan pages including brand-related UGC were developed as visual stimuli and presented via an online self-administered questionnaire. SEM was used to analyze the data. Brand-related UGC activated consumers' emotional and cognitive responses. Emotional and cognitive responses significantly influenced behavioral responses. Positive brand-related UGC exerts a significant influence on brand as it provokes consumers’ eWOM behavior, brand engagement, and potential brand sales.

Analysis of Brand-Related User Generated Content Antecendents Influence on Brand Equity to Increase Purchase Intention (Case Study: Yamaha Motor Indonesia)

The global development of information technology, especially social media, brings a lot of revolutionary changes in many facets of life, including the development of User Generated Content (UGC). Besides, the number of Internet users in Indonesia reaches 63 million people in November 2013. So, Indonesian marketers should start to consider how to take benefit from UGC development and understand its subsequent impact on brand equity and purchase intention. Yamaha Motor Indonesia (YMI) as the second largest player in Indonesia who wants to increase its market share, should do effort to increase its brand equity and consumers’ purchase intention through its virtual community. The objectives of this research are to analyze the influence of Brand-Related UGC on Brand Equity of YMI, and to analyze the influence of Brand-Related UGC and Brand Equity on Purchase Intention of YMI. The data collection technique used is questionnaire disseminated to the members of YMI online community, using Likert scale. While the data analysis technique used is Path Analysis. The result of Path Analysis shows the structural equation Y = 0,525X + 0,8509ε1 where Brand-Related UGC significantly contributes to Brand Equity at 27,6% and Z = 0,435X + 0,256Y + 0,7925ε2 where Brand-Related UGC and Brand Equity simultaneously and significantly contributes to Purchase Intention at 37,2%.

How Does Brand-related User-generated Content Differ across YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter?

This study tests hypotheses regarding differences in brand-related user-generated content (UGC) between Twitter (a microblogging site), Facebook (a social network) and YouTube (a content community). It tests them using data from a content analysis of 600 UGC posts for two retail-apparel brands (Lululemon and American Apparel), which differ in the extent to which they manage social media proactively. Comparisons are drawn across six dimensions of UGC; the dimensions were drawn from a priori reading and an inductive analysis of brand-related UGC. This research provides a general framework for comparing brand-related UGC, and helps us to better understand how particular social media channels and marketing strategies may influence consumer-produced brand communications.

Memo to Marketers: Quantitative Evidence for Change

ABSTRACT Developed in response to the new challenges of the social Web, this study investigates how involvement with brand-related user-generated content (UGC) affects consumers9 perceptions of brands. The authors develop a model that provides new insights into the links between drivers of UGC creation, involvement, and consumer-based brand equity. Expert opinions were sought on a hypothesized model, which further was tested through data from an online survey of 202 consumers. The results provide guidance for managerial initiatives involving UGC campaigns for brand building. The findings indicate that consumer perceptions of co-creation, community, and self-concept have a positive impact on UGC involvement that, in turn, positively affects consumer-based brand equity. These empirical results have significant implications for avoiding problems and building deeper relationships between consumers and brands in the age of social media.

Advertising as Information

This paper tries to show how the major features of the behavior of advertising can be explained by advertising's information function. For search qualities advertising provides direct information about the characteristics of a brand. For experience qualities the most important information conveyed by advertising is simply that the brand advertises. This contrast in advertising by these qualities leads to significant differences in its behavior. How does advertising provide information to the consumer? The producer in his advertising is not interested directly in providing information for consumers. He is interested in selling more of his product. Subject to a few constraints, the advertising message says anything the seller of a brand wishes. A mechanism is required to make the selling job of advertising generate information to the consumer. [Авторский текст]