IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v117y2020icp19-28.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

It pays off to be authentic: An examination of direct versus indirect brand mentions on social media

Author

Listed:
  • Hu, Miao
  • Chen, Jie
  • Chen, Qimei
  • He, Wei

Abstract

Brand mentions on social media platforms are prevalent phenomena today as consumers increasingly share their daily consumptions and experiences online. However, how brand mentions on social media impact evaluations of social media posters or the brands involved remain largely unknown. The current research identifies a novel distinction between two types of brand mentions—direct versus indirect—and explores their influence on audiences’ evaluation of the poster as well as the focal brands. Four experiments demonstrate that direct brand mentions lead to significantly more favorable evaluations of both posters and brands compared with indirect brand mentions and this relationship is mediated by perceived authenticity. Furthermore, we demonstrate that these effects are moderated by tie strength of the social network. The current work makes theoretical contributions to literatures in interpersonal communication, social influence, and social media marketing, and offers practical implications in understanding and managing brand-related social discourse on social media platforms.

Suggested Citation

  • Hu, Miao & Chen, Jie & Chen, Qimei & He, Wei, 2020. "It pays off to be authentic: An examination of direct versus indirect brand mentions on social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 19-28.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:117:y:2020:i:c:p:19-28
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.05.032
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296320303246
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.05.032?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chen, Yubo & Fay, Scott & Wang, Qi, 2011. "The Role of Marketing in Social Media: How Online Consumer Reviews Evolve," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 85-94.
    2. Seraj, Mina, 2012. "We Create, We Connect, We Respect, Therefore We Are: Intellectual, Social, and Cultural Value in Online Communities," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 209-222.
    3. Koch, Oliver Francis & Benlian, Alexander, 2015. "Promotional Tactics for Online Viral Marketing Campaigns: How Scarcity and Personalization Affect Seed Stage Referrals," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 37-52.
    4. Thompson, Craig J & Tambyah, Siok Kuan, 1999. "Trying to Be Cosmopolitan," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 26(3), pages 214-241, December.
    5. Zoey Chen & Jonah Berger, 2013. "When, Why, and How Controversy Causes Conversation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 40(3), pages 580-593.
    6. Money, R. Bruce, 2004. "Word-of-mouth promotion and switching behavior in Japanese and American business-to-business service clients," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 297-305, March.
    7. Bruno Godey & Aikaterini Manthiou & Daniele Pederzoli & Joonas Rokka & Gaetano Aiello & Raffaele Donvito & Rahul Singh, 2016. "Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands : Influence on brand equity and consumer behavior," Post-Print hal-02313434, HAL.
    8. Koch, Oliver Francis & Benlian, Alexander, 2015. "Promotional Tactics for Online Viral Marketing Campaigns: How Scarcity and Personalization Affect Seed Stage Referrals," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 76494, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    9. Chang, Yu-Ting & Yu, Hueiju & Lu, Hsi-Peng, 2015. "Persuasive messages, popularity cohesion, and message diffusion in social media marketing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 777-782.
    10. de Vries, Lisette & Gensler, Sonja & Leeflang, Peter S.H., 2012. "Popularity of Brand Posts on Brand Fan Pages: An Investigation of the Effects of Social Media Marketing," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 83-91.
    11. Rutter, Richard & Roper, Stuart & Lettice, Fiona, 2016. "Social media interaction, the university brand and recruitment performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 3096-3104.
    12. Deborah A. Small & Uri Simonsohn, 2008. "Friends of Victims: Personal Experience and Prosocial Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(3), pages 532-542, December.
    13. Keith Wilcox & Andrew T. Stephen, 2013. "Are Close Friends the Enemy? Online Social Networks, Self-Esteem, and Self-Control," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 40(1), pages 90-103.
    14. Koch, Oliver Francis & Benlian, Alexander, 2015. "Promotional Tactics for Online Viral Marketing Campaigns: How Scarcity and Personalization Affect Seed Stage Referrals," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 75347, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    15. Shen, George Chung-Chi & Chiou, Jyh-Shen & Hsiao, Chih-Hui & Wang, Chun-Hsien & Li, Hsin-Ni, 2016. "Effective marketing communication via social networking site: The moderating role of the social tie," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 2265-2270.
    16. Aparna Sundar & Theodore J. Noseworthy, 2016. "Too Exciting to Fail, Too Sincere to Succeed: The Effects of Brand Personality on Sensory Disconfirmation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 43(1), pages 44-67.
    17. Szu-chi Huang & Susan M. Broniarczyk & Ying Zhang & Mariam Beruchashvili, 2015. "From Close to Distant: The Dynamics of Interpersonal Relationships in Shared Goal Pursuit," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(5), pages 1252-1266.
    18. Bernritter, Stefan F. & Verlegh, Peeter W.J. & Smit, Edith G., 2016. "Why Nonprofits Are Easier to Endorse on Social Media: The Roles of Warmth and Brand Symbolism," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 27-42.
    19. Michael B. Beverland & Francis J. Farrelly, 2010. "The Quest for Authenticity in Consumption: Consumers' Purposive Choice of Authentic Cues to Shape Experienced Outcomes," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 36(5), pages 838-856, February.
    20. Napoli, Julie & Dickinson, Sonia J. & Beverland, Michael B. & Farrelly, Francis, 2014. "Measuring consumer-based brand authenticity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 1090-1098.
    21. Brown, Jacqueline Johnson & Reingen, Peter H, 1987. "Social Ties and Word-of-Mouth Referral Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 14(3), pages 350-362, December.
    22. Hamilton, Mitchell & Kaltcheva, Velitchka D. & Rohm, Andrew J., 2016. "Social Media and Value Creation: The Role of Interaction Satisfaction and Interaction Immersion," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 121-133.
    23. Felix, Reto & Rauschnabel, Philipp A. & Hinsch, Chris, 2017. "Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 118-126.
    24. Morgan K. Ward & Susan M. Broniarczyk, 2011. "It's Not Me, It's You: How Gift Giving Creates Giver Identity Threat as a Function of Social Closeness," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 38(1), pages 164-181.
    25. Derek D. Rucker & Miao Hu & Adam D. Galinsky, 2014. "The Experience versus the Expectations of Power: A Recipe for Altering the Effects of Power on Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(2), pages 381-396.
    26. Price, Linda L & Arnould, Eric J & Curasi, Carolyn Folkman, 2000. "Older Consumers' Disposition of Special Possessions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 27(2), pages 179-201, September.
    27. Alice Audrezet & Gwarlann de Kerviler & Julie Guidry Moulard, 2018. "Authenticity under threat: When social media influencers need to go beyond self-presentation," Post-Print hal-01914732, HAL.
    28. Xinshu Zhao & John G. Lynch & Qimei Chen, 2010. "Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: Myths and Truths about Mediation Analysis," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(2), pages 197-206, August.
    29. Holt, Douglas B, 2002. "Why Do Brands Cause Trouble? A Dialectical Theory of Consumer Culture and Branding," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 29(1), pages 70-90, June.
    30. Kim, Angella J. & Ko, Eunju, 2012. "Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion brand," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(10), pages 1480-1486.
    31. Zoey Chen & Jonah Berger, 2016. "How Content Acquisition Method Affects Word of Mouth," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 43(1), pages 86-102.
    32. Yanping Tu & Alex Shaw & Ayelet Fishbach, 2016. "The Friendly Taking Effect: How Interpersonal Closeness Leads to Seemingly Selfish Yet Jointly Maximizing Choice," Journal of Consumer Research, Oxford University Press, vol. 42(5), pages 669-687.
    33. Hu, Miao & Qiu, Pingping & Wan, Fang & Stillman, Tyler, 2018. "Love or hate, depends on who's saying it: How legitimacy of brand rejection alters brand preferences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 164-170.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ghouri, Arsalan Mujahid & Mani, Venkatesh & Haq, Mirza Amin ul & Kamble, Sachin S., 2022. "The micro foundations of social media use: Artificial intelligence integrated routine model," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 80-92.
    2. Gupta, Reetika & Mukherjee, Sourjo & Jayarajah, Kasthuri, 2021. "Role of group cohesiveness in targeted mobile promotions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 216-227.
    3. Reetika Gupta & Sourjo Mukherjee & Kasthuri Jayarajah, 2021. "Role of group cohesiveness in targeted mobile promotions," Post-Print hal-03128025, HAL.
    4. Feng, Wenting & Yang, Morgan X. & Yu, Irina Y., 2023. "From devil to angel: How being envied for luxury brand social media word of mouth discourages counterfeit purchases," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    5. Thomas, Veronica L. & Fowler, Kendra, 2023. "Examining the outcomes of influencer activism," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sheng, Jie, 2019. "Being Active in Online Communications: Firm Responsiveness and Customer Engagement Behaviour," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 40-51.
    2. Diptiman Banerji & Ramendra Singh & Prashant Mishra, 2020. "Friendships in marketing: a taxonomy and future research directions," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 10(3), pages 223-243, December.
    3. Shakeel ul Rehman & Rafia Gulzar & Wajeeha Aslam, 2022. "Developing the Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) through Social Media (SM): The Modern Marketing Communication Approach," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, May.
    4. Audrezet, Alice & de Kerviler, Gwarlann & Guidry Moulard, Julie, 2020. "Authenticity under threat: When social media influencers need to go beyond self-presentation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 557-569.
    5. Grover, Purva & Kar, Arpan Kumar, 2020. "User engagement for mobile payment service providers – introducing the social media engagement model," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    6. Korzynski, Pawel & Mazurek, Grzegorz & Haenlein, Michael, 2020. "Leveraging employees as spokespeople in your HR strategy: How company-related employee posts on social media can help firms to attract new talent," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 204-212.
    7. Kuo, Ying-Feng & Chen, Fei-Lung, 2023. "The effect of interactivity of brands’ marketing activities on Facebook fan pages on continuous participation intentions: An S–O-R framework study," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    8. Cynthia D. Wiggins, 2022. "Online customer engagement: a practical exploration of antecedents and metrics for new content marketers," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 1-24, February.
    9. Abdulla H. Fetais & Raed S. Algharabat & Abdullah Aljafari & Nripendra P. Rana, 2023. "Do Social Media Marketing Activities Improve Brand Loyalty? An Empirical Study on Luxury Fashion Brands," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 795-817, April.
    10. Zahra MajlesiRad & Abdol Hamid Haji pour Shoushtari, 2020. "Analysis of the impact of social network sites and eWOM marketing, considering the reinforcing dimensions of the concept of luxury, on tendency toward luxury brand," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-19, December.
    11. Ana Babić Rosario & Kristine Valck & Francesca Sotgiu, 2020. "Conceptualizing the electronic word-of-mouth process: What we know and need to know about eWOM creation, exposure, and evaluation," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 422-448, May.
    12. Zollo, Lamberto & Filieri, Raffaele & Rialti, Riccardo & Yoon, Sukki, 2020. "Unpacking the relationship between social media marketing and brand equity: The mediating role of consumers’ benefits and experience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 256-267.
    13. Khan, Imran, 2022. "Do brands’ social media marketing activities matter? A moderation analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    14. Simon, Françoise & Tossan, Vesselina, 2018. "Does brand-consumer social sharing matter? A relational framework of customer engagement to brand-hosted social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 175-184.
    15. Gwarlann Kerviler & Nico Heuvinck & Elodie Gentina, 2022. "“Make an Effort and Show Me the Love!” Effects of Indexical and Iconic Authenticity on Perceived Brand Ethicality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(1), pages 89-110, August.
    16. Manuel Alonso-Dos-Santos & Carmen Zarco & Sardar Mohammadi & Daniela Niño-Amézquita, 2024. "Sponsorship effectiveness on betting intention-unobserved segmentation," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    17. Das, Gopal & Mukherjee, Amaradri & Smith, Ronn J., 2018. "The Perfect Fit: The Moderating Role of Selling Cues on Hedonic and Utilitarian Product Types," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 203-216.
    18. Lena Steinhoff & Denni Arli & Scott Weaven & Irina V. Kozlenkova, 2019. "Online relationship marketing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 369-393, May.
    19. Chen Yang & Jing Hu, 2022. "When do consumers prefer AI-enabled customer service? The interaction effect of brand personality and service provision type on brand attitudes and purchase intentions," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(2), pages 167-189, March.
    20. Ghouri, Arsalan Mujahid & Mani, Venkatesh & Haq, Mirza Amin ul & Kamble, Sachin S., 2022. "The micro foundations of social media use: Artificial intelligence integrated routine model," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 80-92.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:117:y:2020:i:c:p:19-28. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.