The use of Twitter on fashion brands. A comparison between luxury and low-cost brands

En este artículo se analizó comparativamente la capacidad dialógica de las marcas de moda de lujo frente a las denominadas low-cost en la red social Twitter. Para ello, se recurrió a la metodología cuantitativa y se realizó un análisis de contenido de 1135 tuits publicados por H&M, Zara, Ralph Lauren y Hugo Boss. Se observó que no existe consenso entre las organizaciones para dirigirse a sus públicos, y si bien las marcas low-cost son las que hacen un mayor esfuerzo por mantener un diálogo, las firmas de lujo reciben más interacciones.In this paper, we made a comparative analysis about the dialogical capacity of luxury fashion brands and low-cost brands in the social network Twitter. For this, we used a quantitative methodology and conducted a content analysis of 1,135 tweets published by H&M, Zara, Ralph Lauren and Hugo Boss. We observed that there is no consensus among brands to address their audiences, and while low-cost brands make the greatest effort to maintain a dialogue, luxury brands receive more interactions.Ciencias de la Comunicació

Content analysis and message characteristics of Twitter: a case study of high-end makeup

En este artículo, se busca comprender el impacto reportado por los usuarios de las redes sociales sobre las estrategias de las marcas de maquillaje de lujo. Para esto, se utiliza una combinación de metodologías: cualitativa para realizar un análisis de contenido mediante Twitter, durante dos meses de 2016 y cuantitativa, en la cual se aplicó el modelo de regresión Poisson inflado con ceros para determinar las características del tweet, relacionadas con la respuesta y un gran volumen de interacción. Este estudio revela que, en el viaje del consumidor, predomina la precompra y poscompra en el reporte del usuario, pero la interacción es mayor en los extremos del recorrido. Además, la interacción de los tweets incrementa con valores hedonistas, específicamente la belleza, pero sorprendentemente los enlaces y videos dentro del contenido del tweet desmejoran su interacción. De manera aplicada, los especialistas en marketing de marcas de maquillaje de lujo pueden utilizar estos hallazgos para mejorar las estrategias de marketing y explorar nuevas oportunidades en el viaje del consumidor.This paper seeks to understand the impact of social media user interactions on luxury makeup brands’ strategies. We used a mix of methodologies. The qualitative method was useful for content analysis on Twitter for two months of 2016. The quantitative method applied a zero-inflated Poisson regression model to determine tweet characteristics related to replies and an extensive interaction volume. This study reveals that the user report was predominant in the consumer journey concerning pre-purchase and post-purchase, but interaction prevails at the extremes of the journey. Also, tweet interaction increases with hedonistic values, specifically beauty, but surprisingly, links and videos within the tweet content undermine interaction. Pragmatically, luxury makeup brand marketers can use these findings to improve marketing strategies and explore new opportunities for the consumer journey

When Does the Influencer Matter?

The purpose of this research is to identify what factors contribute to the effectiveness of social media influencers’ posts. The first phase of this project studied people’s initial feelings towards social media influencers using a focus group. The results indicated that social media influencers are in fact effective and influential. The second phase of this study tested what factors increase and decrease the effectiveness of a social media influencers post, and what factors will get them the most engagement. This was tested through sixteen experimental conditions with different variations of a fake social media influencer post. Five dependent variables were tested, willingness to share the post, willingness to buy, attitude toward the brand, attitude towards the ad, and attitude towards the influencer. Four independent variables were also measured, size of the influencer (micro or macro), picture (present or not), discount (present or not), and level of purchase involvement (high or low), as well as several contributing variables about personality. The results contended that the presence of a picture in a social media influencers ad was had a positive effect on willingness to share the post, willingness to buy, attitude toward the brand, and attitude towards the ad. Discount also was significant to consumers’ attitudes towards the brand and the ad. Level of involvement and size of the influencer only proved to be statistically significant towards the effectiveness of the post when interaction effects were found between one or more of those variables. The research and analysis conducted will provide valuable information regarding the effectiveness of social media influencers and the relevance of them pertaining to technological shifts and advancements in the marketing field

The Perception of LGBTQ Influencers on Social Media

Social media brand influencers have become one of the biggest marketing and public relations trends of 2017, especially those who promote lifestyle brands (Glucksman, 2017). While many social media users are capitalizing on the “brand influencer” trend, people who identify as the LGBTQ, still struggle to connect with the heterosexual audience as brand influencers source. YouTube and Instagram are visual mediums that allow brand influencers to craft their expertise verbally and visually to communicate their expertise and enhance credibility. Using the source credibility theory, which posits that persuasiveness of the message is based on the perceived credibility of the source (Hovland et al, 1951), this study investigates how the LGBTQ and heterosexual influencers were perceived by the followers on the YouTube and Instagram platform. Using a Netnography approach, (n=4,646) comments were analyzed from YouTube and (n=16,683) from Instagram to identify positive, negative, and neutral sentiment. Findings demonstrate the LGBTQ community have a higher level of engagement, but at the same time, a high interest from followers on the sponsored posts. The commenters responding to the heterosexual influencers focus more on the influencer appearance rather than the content presented by them. Comments on Instagram are more explicit compared to YouTube

New Media, New Influencers and Implications for Public Relations

Marketers and public relations professionals today are confronted with an astounding array of new communications channels. Internet-based social media tools like blogs, podcasts, online video and social networks are giving voice to the opinions of millions of consumers. While mainstream media continues to play a vital role in the dissemination of information, even these traditional channels are increasingly being influenced by online conversations. The "new influencers" are beginning to tear at the fabric of marketing as it has existed for 100 years, giving rise to a new style of marketing that is characterized by conversation and community. Marketers are responding to these forces with a mixture of excitement, fear and fascination. They're alarmed at the prospect of ceding control of their messages to a community of unknowns. Yet at the same time they're excited about the prospect of leveraging theese same tools to speak directly to their constituents without the involvement of media intermediaries.The Society for New Communications Research set out to conduct an examination of how influence patterns are changing and how communications professionals are addressing those changes by adopting social media. The goals were to discover how organizations:Define new influencers;Communicate and create relationships with them;Use social media to create influence; andMeasure the effects of these efforts.Another goal of the study was to use these discoveries to offer a set of recommendations to professional communicators

Spillover Effects of Management Companies in the Vtuber Market

학위논문(석사) -- 서울대학교대학원 : 경영대학 경영학과, 2021.8. 윤혜리.Increasing usage of social media has given subsequent birth to micro-celebrities, or social media influencers (SMIs). Despite the fact that SMIs function as key opinion-leaders in society and the market, little is known about what traits make an SMI popular in the first place. While SMIs are generally considered to gain popularity from rock-bottom through individual endeavors alone, we find an exceptional media sector consisting of virtual YouTubers (vtubers). A vtuber, unlike the usual human YouTuber, is an artificially created figure strictly managed by sponsoring companies from the beginning of his/her debut. Finding a similarity between sponsor-vtuber relationships and parent-child relationships within brand extensions, we ran a random effects model against 560 company-owned vtubers to check whether similar spillover effects can be observed in a social media context as well. Our research yielded positive results, suggesting the existence of persistent spillover effects based on parent-brand popularity. An additional time series analysis was conducted against the weekly changes in the size of management agency influence on their affiliated vtubers. An ARIMA(1,2,0) model demonstrates a high fit with our data, and we find that the model confirms a constantly decreasing size of influence along with the passage of time.소셜미디어의 확산은 마이크로셀레브리티와 소셜미디어 인플루언서(SMI)의 등장을 초래했다. 이미 사회적, 경제적으로 SMI들이 오피니언 리더로서 큰 영향력을 행사하고 있음에도 불구하고 이들이 정확히 어떤 근본적 요인으로 인해 대중적 인기를 얻게 되었는지에 대해 알려진 바는 많지 않다. 많은 경우에 SMI들이 순수하게 자력으로만 팬덤을 구축하는 것으로 간주되는 것에 반해, 필자들은 버츄얼 유튜버(vtuber) 업계로부터 예외적인 상황을 목격했다. 일반적인 인간 유튜버와 달리, vtuber는 데뷔 이전부터 소속사로부터 엄격하게 관리당하고 통제 받는 가상의 디지털 캐릭터들이다. 본 연구에서는 소속사 대 vtuber의 관계가 브랜드 확장 상태의 모브랜드 대 신규 브랜드의 관계와 유사하다는 점에 착안하여, 후자의 경우에 관찰되는 스필오버 효과가 전자에서도 발현되는지 검증하기 위해 소속사와 계약을 맺고 있는 총 560 명의 vtuber에 대해 임의효과 모형을 적용시킨다. 그 결과, 소속사의 영향력이 vtuber의 인기에 대해 긍정적 스필오버 효과가 있음이 확인되었다. 또, 주차별 스필오버 효과 크기의 변화에 대한 시계열 분석을 통해 추세를 예측하는 데 적합한 모형으로 ARIMA(1,2,0) 모델을 특정해내어 시간이 지남에 따라 스필오버 효과가 감소하는 경향성을 지님을 검증했다.Chapter 1. Introduction 1 Chapter 2. Literature Review 3 Chapter 3. Research Model and Hypotheses 14 Chapter 4. Data Analysis and Methodology 18 Chapter 5. Results 21 Chapter 6. Discussion and Conclusion 29 Bibliography 32 Abstract in Korean 41 Appendices 42석

Influencer Marketing: Consumer Responses to Instagram Influencers

Influencer marketing is the promotion of services and products through individuals with a large social media following. The research contained within this thesis will discuss the topic of influencer marketing and the responses of the consumers targeted. This study observed the different types of responses and comments that followers of Instagram influencers left on their posted content. The themes and characteristics of responses of Instagram influencer followers will be found through a qualitative content analysis. The study is supported by self-presentation theory, which suggests that individuals, in this case social media influencers, present themselves in a way that results in others’ perception of them

Big five personality and influencer marketing related behaviors and attitudes : an exploration

With social media deeply rooted into individual’s lives, influencer marketing has become one of the most used marketing tools by brands. However, it is still necessary to conduct more empiric research to understand the factors involved in consumer’s answers to influencer market. This study aims to explore relations between consumers’ personality, supported by the Big Five personality theory, and influencer marketing related attitudes and behaviors. To do so, data was collected through an online survey targeted at Millennials and Generation Z. Results were tested for covariance and significante mean differences. Findings indicate correlation between extraversion and active engagement with influencers, and between conscientiousness and previous purchases made by influencer recommendation. When it comes to platform utilization, there was evidence of higher conscientiousness in users of LinkedIn, while Twitter users showed a lower score in this personality trait. Meanwhile, TikTok users demonstrated higher neuroticism and Twitch users demonstrated lower extraversion. Higher conscientiousness and openness to experience were found in followers of influencers on LinkedIn, lower openness to experience was found in followers of influencers on YouTube, and lower extraversion when it comes to followers of influencers on Twitch. Additionally, higher agreeableness was found in followers of celebrities, higher conscientiousness in fashion and beauty followers, lower conscientiousness was found in gamming followers and lower extraversion in humor followers. Lastly neuroticism was lower in users preferring travel content, conscientiousness was higher in users preferring fashion and beauty content and extraversion was lower in users preferring lifestyle content. This research intends to complement and extend the literature in influencer marketing and consumer behavior, and to provide relevant guidelines to the definition of brands’ influencer marketing strategy.Com as redes sociais enraizadas na rotina das pessoas, o influencer marketing tornouse uma das ferramentas de marketing mais utilizadas pelas marcas. No entanto, é ainda necessário desenvolver estudos empíricos para compreender melhor os fatores que afetam a resposta dos consumidores ao influencer marketing. Este estudo pretende contribuir para esta lacuna na investigação, ao explorar as relações entre a personalidade dos consumidores, suportada pela teoria de personalidade dos Cinco Fatores, e as suas atitudes e comportamentos face ao influencer marketing. Nesse sentido foram recolhidos dados através de um questionário junto de uma amostra de consumidores das gerações Millennial e Z. Os resultados foram testados para a covariância e diferenças significativas de médias. As evidências indicam que existe uma correlação entre a extroversão e o envolvimento ativo com influenciadores e entre a conscienciosidade e as compras passadas, feitas devido a recomendações de influencers. No que diz respeito às plataformas, os utilizadores do LinkedIn, revelaram uma conscienciosidade mais alta, enquanto os do Twitter registaram um valor mais baixo nesta dimensão da personalidade. Por outro lado, os utilizadores do TikTok demonstraram um neuroticismo mais elevado e os do Twitch uma menor extroversão. Indivíduos que seguem influencers no LinkedIn denotam uma maior conscienciosidade e abertura a novas experiências, aqueles que os seguem no YouTube caracterizam-se por uma mais baixa abertura a novas experiências e os que o fazem no Twitch apresentam valores mais baixos de extroversão. Relativamente às categorias de conteúdo, os seguidores de conteúdos de celebridades revelaram valores mais altos de amabilidade, os de moda e beleza uma maior conscienciosidade, os de gamming uma menor conscienciosidade e os de humor uma menor extroversão do que não seguidores destes temas. Por último, o neuroticismo registou valores mais baixos em indivíduos que preferem conteúdo de viagens, a conscienciosidade foi mais elevada em quem prefere conteúdo de moda e beleza e a extroversão foi mais baixa em quem prefere conteúdo de estilo de vida. Os resultados deste estudo contribuem para completar e alargar a literatura sobre influencer marketing e comportamento do consumidor, e trazem contributos relevantes para a definição da estratégia das marcas que recorrem a esta ferramenta