Getting the word out on Twitter: the role of influentials, information brokers and strong ties in building word-of-mouth for brands

Using a sample of over 5300 tweets from top global brands, this study investigated how different types of users can influence brand content diffusion via retweets. Twitter users who influenced followers to retweet brand content were categorized as (1) influentials, because of their above average ability to influence others to retweet their tweets (in general), (2) information brokers, because of their position connecting groups of users or (3) having strong ties, because of their high percentage of friends in common and a mutual friend–follower relationship with the influenced follower. The results indicate that influentials and information brokers are associated with larger number of retweets for brand content. In addition, although information brokers have a larger overall influence on retweeting, they are more prone to do so when influentials are mentioned in the brand tweet, providing support for the strategy that aims to associate the brand with influential users

Advertising and Marketing Strategies to Gain Top of Mind

Technological progress and competition between companies in the globalization era are increasing. New media plays an increasingly important role in advertising and marketing. In addition, companies’ survival depends on the presence of audiences/ consumers. Therefore, it is important and interesting to study how to utilize this new media/technology; how effective and efficient digital advertising and marketing strategies are in appealing to the audience; and how to ensure the products offered are acceptable to the target audience. This study carried out a literature review using a qualitative approach to obtain a framework of important concepts and strategies for effective marketing and advertising. It is important to pay attention to the objectives, audience and distribution / media of advertising and marketing. The use of various media such as social media, online advertising, digital signage and endorsers are also important factors in advertising and marketing success. Advertising and marketing strategies help to better understand consumers and how best to engage and empower them. Here technology has created a new environment, where power has shifted from advertisers to consumers. This research produced a variety of important strategies to attract audiences, obtain the AIDA (Attention Interest Desire Action) effect of the audience and finally reach the Top of Mind. Keywords: communication, advertising, marketing, endorse

A lockdown’s pause of the present: nostalgia proneness on customer behavior dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Marketing IntelligenceThe aim of this thesis is to investigate nostalgia and its influence on customer behavior and its decision process on anxious times. More specifically, it examines the impact that the prior memories of a joyful past can have on an anxiety inducing present, started by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It will provide insights on whether nostalgia proneness benefits an individual on dealing with an apprehensive time like the prior lockdown – as a coping mechanism towards the present. Moreover, it analyzes if this nostalgia towards pre-pandemic times influences a consumer’s purchase intention of products and services that are considered nostalgic through the eyes of a pandemic present – if a customer prefers a product that broadcast nostalgia (because presently they cannot be purchased/performed due to the imposed restrictions by COVID-19) or if it will be reticent as a result of the fear of contamination. Additionally, a link between nostalgia and loneliness is going to be analyzed, as loneliness can influence a predisposition towards nostalgia. The investigation was conducted adopting a quantitative approach by way of an online questionnaire. The participants were people over 18 years old that were Portuguese and have been confined in Portuguese territory. In order to analyze and investigate the defined hypotheses, the collected data was quantitatively analyzed and treated, using statistical procedures. As a conclusion, we verified the tendency of nostalgic individuals being more predisposed towards evoked nostalgia, where nostalgic respondents preferred nostalgic products in terms of purchase intention. Moreover, individuals seem to employ this feeling of nostalgia as a coping mechanism towards the anxious and uncertain present related with the pandemic. However, no solid link was found between nostalgia and loneliness, meaning our hypothesis regarding lonely respondents feeling more nostalgia was not supported by the data

Examining Individuals’ Ads Click Intention in the Wechat Moments: A Lens of Elaboration Likelihood Model

Drawing upon elaboration likelihood model (ELM), we compared the dual routesin determining users’ ads click intentions and examined the mediation mechanism of cognitive vs. affective trust on the influence processesin the Wechat Moments. A scenario-based survey was conducted in a university of China, and 183 data was collected. Structural equation modelling analysis was used to test the research model. The empirical results suggestedthat content personalization and social recommendation weresignificant antecedents of ads click intention, and their effects weremediated by cognitive trust and affective trust. Moreover, amulti-group analysis indicatedthat the two influence processes weremoderated by prior product experience. Theoretical and practical implications areillustrated in the final section

Social media advertising: The role of personalization in Performance expectancy and customer purchase intention

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Statistics and Information Management, specialization in Marketing Research and CRMSocial media is being widely used as a platform to manage marketing and advertising activities. Organizations are always having a challenge in how they can design social media advertising by spending a lot of time, money, and resources on social media ads to successfully fascinate customers and motivate them to purchase their brands. This study aims to evaluate the impact of personalization on purchase intention and also investigating the role of personalization moderating the relation between Performance expectancy and customer purchase intention. The conceptual model will be based on the extending Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2). This study will be expected to provide several theoretical and practical rules on how personalization can successfully impact customer purchase intention over social media platforms

MARKETING AND ADVERTISING STRATEGY IN ACHIEVING THE TOP OF MIND (SAMSUNG BRAND CASE STUDY)

Technological progress and competition between companies in the globalization era is increasing. New media plays an increasingly important role in advertising and marketing. In addition, the companies’ survival depends on the presence of audiences/consumers. Therefore, determining how to utilize this new media/technology and determining how effective and efficient digital advertising and marketing strategies so that advertising has an appeal to the audience and the products offered are acceptable to the audience and right on target, and in accordance with the specified target is important and interesting to study. To obtain a framework of important concepts and the best strategy of effective marketing and advertising, the author utilizes the literature review method with qualitative approach. In doing advertising and marketing, it is important to pay attention to the objectives, audience, and distribution / media of advertising and marketing. The use of various media such as social media, online advertising, digital signage, and also endorsers are also important factors in advertising and marketing success. Advertising and marketing strategies help to better understand consumers and see how best to engage and empower the audience / consumers to get what they want. Here technology has created a new environment, where power has shifted from advertisers to consumers. This research produced a variety of important strategies and the best media which can succeed advertising and marketing, attract audiences, obtain the AIDA (Attention Interest Desire Action) effect of the audience and finally reach the Top of Mind

Mobile advertising effectiveness versus PC and TV using consumer neuroscience

This Doctoral Thesis, entitled Mobile Advertising Effectiveness versus PC and TV, Using Consumer Neuroscience, while analyzes both the evolution of mobile advertising and its current situation, also discusses, how effective is mobile advertising when compared against advertising in other digital devices, such as PC and TV. The last few years have been characterized by an increase of the time that consumers spend on their mobile phones and as a result, by an increase in the expending on digital mobile advertising. Brands are already demanding models that measure digital advertising effectiveness, and consumer neuroscience technology may help, not only to measure it, but also to understand its impact on consumers. Considering this environment, this research proposes various recommendations for advertisers that may be considering using consumer neuroscience technology to measure mobile advertising effectiveness, as well as recommendations on how to design mobile ads that increase advertising effectiveness

Ask Your Doctor About Exposure Therapy!: Direct-To-Consumer Marketing Of Empirically Supported Psychological Treatments For Anxiety

Despite efforts to disseminate Evidence-Based Psychological Interventions (EBPIS) to mental health practitioners, most individuals with psychological disorders do not receive any form of treatment, and many others who do seek treatment do not receive EBPIS. The success of the pharmaceutical industry in effectively marketing prescription drugs directly to consumers is considered as a model for advancing dissemination of EBPIS. Utilizing undergraduate students as participants, the current study examined how potential consumers of mental health services respond to internet-based marketing information about EBPIS. Participants vieinformation about anxiety disorders and a specific type of treatment (i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy) in both text and video formats, with appeal type and tone as the independent variables. Dependent measures assessed consumer attitude and evaluation, intent to try or recommend, and recall. Multiple analyses of variance (anovas) on these measures indicated that no one type of approach to advertising is universally preferred, but respondents tended to respond more favorably in terms of positive affect to emotional- and directive-based advertisements, and they were more likely to report an intent to try cbt with text-based advertisements when compared to corresponding video-based information. The results of the current study provide an important foundation for future research in direct-to-consumer marketing of psychological treatments

The Varieties of Counterspeech and Censorship on Social Media

The year 2020 was without a doubt a remarkable and unprecedented one, on many accounts and for many reasons. Among other reasons, it was a year in which the major social media platforms extensively experimented with the adoption of a variety of new tools and practices to address grave problems resulting from harmful speech on their platforms — notably, the vast amounts of misinformation associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and with the 2020 presidential election and its aftermath. By and large — consistent with First Amendment values of combatting bad speech with good speech — the platforms sought to respond to harmful online speech by resorting to different types of flagging, fact-checking, labeling, and other forms of counterspeech. Only when confronting the most egregiously harmful types of speech did the major platforms implement policies of censorship or removal — or the most extreme response of deplatforming speakers entirely. In this Article, I examine the major social media platforms’ experimentation with a variety of approaches to address the problems of political and election- related misinformation on their platforms — and the extent to which these approaches are consistent with First Amendment values. In particular, I examine what the major social media platforms have done and are doing to facilitate, develop, and enhance counterspeech mechanisms on their platforms in the context of major elections, how closely these efforts align with First Amendment values, and measures that the platforms are taking, and should be taking, to combat the problems posed by filter bubbles in the context of the microtargeting of political advertisements. This Article begins with an overview of the marketplace of ideas theory of First Amendment jurisprudence and the crucial role played by counterspeech within that theory. I then analyze the variety of types of counterspeech on social media platforms — by users and by the platforms themselves — with a special focus on the platforms’ counterspeech policies on elections, political speech, and misinformation in political/campaign speech specifically. I examine in particular the platforms’ prioritization of labeling, fact-checking, and referring users to authoritative sources over the use of censorship, removal, and deplatforming (which the platforms tend to reserve for the most harmful speech in the political sphere and which they ultimately wielded in the extraordinary context of the speech surrounding the January 2021 insurrection). I also examine the efforts that certain platforms have taken to address issues surrounding the microtargeting of political advertising, issues which are exacerbated by the filter bubbles made possible by segmentation and fractionation of audiences in social media platforms