Identifying consumer-based digital content marketing consumption motives: a qualitative study

Purpose - This study attempts to enrich the digital content marketing (DCM) literature by identifying consumer-based DCM consumption motives and the preferable content dissemination platforms and formats to fulfil these motives exclusively in the context of beauty brands. Design/methodology/approach - Thematic analysis has been used as the qualitative technique for the study. In-depth interviews in a semi-structured format were conducted with 30 consumers who were mandated to be active followers of at least one beauty content creator on digital/social media platforms. Utilising NVivo 11.0, transcripts were analysed. Findings - The findings reveal seven consumer-based DCM consumption motives: authenticity, economic, exploration, functional, hedonic, suitability and purchase decision. Further, the findings also demonstrate the most preferred content dissemination platforms and formats, namely digital channels of content creators, customers' reviews and social media (Instagram and YouTube) to fulfil these motives. Research limitations/implications - The study advances the existing literature by exploring novel consumer-based DCM consumption motives postulated as “antecedents to digital content marketing”. Moreover, it also enriches practical knowledge as the efficient and effective application of the research findings can prove fruitful to beauty brands employing DCM as the primary marketing tool. Originality/value - This study makes a distinctive contribution by promoting work on unexplored areas of digital content marketing. It proposes content strategies for beauty brands and digital content creators to augment the digital content creation, dissemination and evaluation process. Furthermore, it also outlines the research topics that future scholars can focus on to advance the DCM literature.