The Social Network System (SNS) has possesses unique characteristic which distinguish it in important ways from traditional communications environment because the social network system allows a fundamentally different environment for communication marketing activities. The traditional marketing communications model was uni-directional, due to the fact that mass communication is a one-to-many process whereby a company transmits content through a medium to a large group of people. Today, communication paradigm has shifted online and is many to many, known as a bi-directional strategy. Bi-directional strategy mediates communications model in which 1) consumers can interact with the medium and with each other, 2) companies can provide content to the medium and interact with each other, 3) companies and consumers can interact, and in the most radical departure from traditional marketing environments to determine how brand relationship is affected. In this paper, we use the social network system as a new marketing communication medium. We use the key Mohr & Nevin’s communication strategies: frequency, direction, content, and modality to measure communication quality, and then implement communication quality by using the attitude and e-WOM intentions. Rich understanding of SNS communication quality can help focus the managerial efforts on vital communication factors, which stimulate positive assessments of communication behaviors. Furthermore, practitioners may better understand which dimensions of communication facets/aspects are more appropriate
Given the pervasive use of brand personification by marketers, it is surprising that there has been extremely limited research directly examining the effects of brand personification. In this article, we attempt to fill this gap in part by exploring how personified brand, in contrast to an objectified brand, might affect consumers’ response. Also, previous research have studied mainly on the visual or combined (visual-verbal) brand personification without differentiating the two types of brand personification. Therefore, this study tries to focus on the verbal brand personification which has not been studied extensively. And there are two types of verbal brand personification: external and internal image. So this study validates the effect of internal (kind) or external (looking good) verbal brand personification separately in the series of two experiments.
Study 1 tests the effect of internal verbal brand personification on the consumer evaluation using product brand. Specifically, we test the moderating effect of brand knowledge between verbal brand personification and consumer evaluation and explore the underlying mechanisms (brand intimacy, psychological discomfort) about how the interaction effect of personification level and brand knowledge occurs. Study 2 tests the effect of external verbal brand personification on the consumer evaluation using service brand. Specifically, we test the effect of need-for-cognition on attitude towards personified brand ad and additionally explore the underlying mechanisms (perceived novelty, cognitive resistance) about how need-for-cognition influences. This research could provide useful guidelines for the marketers to utilize personification method when planning the head copy or slogan for advertisement. Therefore, marketers are better able to make an effective brand personification strategy through understanding the boundary conditions and mechanisms about the impact of brand personification based on the findings of this study.
The cross-sexual movement in ads implies that a gender role stereotype that was not easily changed in society has been steadily changed lately. In general, changes happen after a phenomenon. If the cross-sexual trend in ads brings about changes in the society of eastern culture where a gender role stereotype is relatively stronger than western culture, the social impact of cross-sexual advertising will be quite influential. From such perspective, this study attempted to empirically validate the effect of cross-sexual advertising which many companies are now utilizing increasingly. Specifically, this study was intended to identify the boundary conditions for the effect of cross-sexual advertising. This study validated the moderating effect of consumers' self-construal and need-for-uniqueness on the relationship between the ad type and the consumer evaluation. Furthermore, it clarified what the underlying cognitive mechanism was for the effect of cross-sexual ads.
Studies looking at many aspects of SNS addiction have dramatically increased in recent years. Most of the SNS addiction research has focused on individual behaviors. There is little academic research about SNS addiction in the workplace. This study, therefore, plans to examine the organizational behaviors related to SNS addiction in the workplace. We investigate whether negative behaviors in the workplace induce SNS addiction, and how SNS addiction influences the organizational or social attitudes of employees. We also explore the possible mediating effect of SNS addiction. We use an online survey and collected 285 responses from office workers in South Korea. The results tested by a structural equation modeling indicate, first, that both abusive supervision and workplace bullying have aroused SNS addiction among employees; second, employees’ SNS addiction increases both from work-to-family-conflicts and family-to-work-conflicts; and third, SNS addiction fully mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and workplace bullying, as well as the relationship among abusive supervision, workplace bullying, and work-family conflicts. The study finds that abusive supervision and workplace bullying are important antecedents of SNS addiction, and that SNS addiction affects conflicts in both work-to-family and family-to-work situations. Therefore, companies should be cognizant of potential mediating influences in monitoring employees’ SNS usage in order to improve their work environments.