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Publication date: 12 December 2024

Xingang Wang, Wu Huang, Maiju Guo and Zhitong Liu

Brand interaction on social media increasingly involves brands openly praising their competitors. This paper examines the impact of selecting a praising target based on company…

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Abstract

Purpose

Brand interaction on social media increasingly involves brands openly praising their competitors. This paper examines the impact of selecting a praising target based on company size in brand-to-brand praise, such as praising a smaller competitor versus a larger competitor, on consumers’ evaluations of the praiser.

Design/methodology/approach

Three online survey experiments using Sina Weibo as the stimuli were conducted to analyze the brand evaluation of brand-to-brand praising. Data were collected via Credamo.

Findings

Praising a smaller competitor leads to an increased evaluation of the praiser brand compared to praising a larger competitor. The perceived competence mediates the influence of relative brand size on praiser brand evaluation. Additionally, the praiser brand’s gender moderates the influence of relative brand size on the praiser brand evaluation, with a notable enhancement observed only for the masculine praiser brand.

Research limitations/implications

This paper suggests several avenues for future research. First, future research can examine how companies tailor praise content based on the recipient size. Second, future studies can consider the role of competition type, brand development potential and the perceptual differences between competitor sizes. Third, we encourage future research to examine whether certain brand personalities benefit more from praising smaller competitors and extend our study’s scope to non-food industries to generate more generalizable results. Lastly, future studies can look into the conditions where a praised brand should respond to public praise and the potential of such interactions to boost consumer favorability.

Practical implications

This study offers valuable insights for brand managers to boost customers’ perception of brand competence and brand evaluations through interactive marketing on social media. Brand managers are recommended to direct their praise towards smaller competitors to maximize the positive impact. Additionally, our study highlights the pivotal role of brand gender in effective brand-to-brand communication strategies. Notably, masculine brands can particularly benefit from praising smaller competitors. Overall, considering factors like company size and brand gender is crucial for crafting effective brand-to-brand praise strategies that can enhance brand competence perceptions and evaluations, ultimately fostering loyalty and sales.

Social implications

This study offers rich social implications regarding customers’ attitudes toward brand-to-brand praise on social media. Zhou et al. (2022) showed that brands praising competitors can significantly enhance consumer preference compared to other communication forms. Furthermore, this paper investigates how observing different types of brand-to-brand praise impacts consumer brand evaluations, such as praising larger or smaller competitors. We found that consumers preferentially evaluate brands that praise smaller (vs larger) competitors, and this effect is particularly salient for masculine brands.

Originality/value

This study provides valuable insights about enhancing customer evaluations of praiser brands through brand-to-brand praising on social media, points out the underlying mechanism and identifies a boundary condition.

Details

Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7122

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 12 August 2021

Xiaodan Zhang and Maiju Guo

As globalization promotes mobility and tourism around the world, the substitution effect of outbound tourism on domestic tourism becomes increasingly apparent. Knowing how to…

471

Abstract

Purpose

As globalization promotes mobility and tourism around the world, the substitution effect of outbound tourism on domestic tourism becomes increasingly apparent. Knowing how to increase customers' loyalty toward domestic tourism is an urgent and critical question for policymakers and tourism managers, especially from the perspective of customer segmentation. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether and how consumer expertise affects domestic tourism loyalty. This paper also provides comprehensive research for understanding differences between married and unmarried consumers in responses to the impact of expertise on loyalty.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on a survey of 384 individuals. We use Partial least squares (PLS), a variance-based structural equation model, and statistical comparison to test research hypotheses.

Findings

Results suggest that consumer expertise has a “double-edged sword” effect on domestic tourism loyalty. On one hand, it increases the perceived benefit of domestic tourism and reduces consumers' motivation to switch to outbound tourism, resulting in a higher level of domestic tourism loyalty. On the other hand, consumer expertise improves consumers' switching ability and switching opportunity to travel abroad, leading to a lower level of domestic tourism loyalty. Furthermore, this paper documents that married and unmarried customers present heterogeneous attitudes in the decision process. We found that married customers are less sensitive to the impact of consumer expertise on the perceived benefit and the impact of consumer expertise on switch ability. However, married customers are more sensitive to both the impact of perceived usefulness on the switch motivation, and the impact of switch motivation, switch opportunity and switch ability on domestic tourism loyalty.

Research limitations/implications

Our findings enrich the literature on consumer expertise and loyalty. Future studies may consider examining similar relationships by utilizing multiple research methods as well as testing the research findings and mechanisms in different contexts.

Practical implications

This research provides practical guidance for cultivating and maintaining domestic tourism loyalty, such as consumer segmentation in terms of tourism knowledge and information.

Originality/value

This paper examines the relationship between consumer expertise and loyalty in the context of tourism and uncovers the mechanism behind it. More importantly, to our knowledge, this paper is the first to identify consumers' marital status as a key factor that influences the process of how consumer expertise affects domestic tourism loyalty.

Details

Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 39 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-4503

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