Existing studies report that social media influencers’ number of followers is a determinant of their influence. However, not every consumer follows an influencer with a high number of followers. Therefore, differences in individual characteristics should be considered in the effectiveness of influencer marketing. This study draws on the cultural dimensional theory to examine the moderating role of consumers’ cultural values at the individual level in the effects of social media influencers with many followers. The results show that the relationship between social media influencer follower count and brand reputation depends on the cultural values of individual consumers. This study makes certain contributtions to the advancement of research on influencer marketing and cultural values by identifying the different impact of follower account of social media influencers with many influencers.

Previous research has suggested that celebrity advertisements have negative impacts on consumers’ perceptions of the advertised brands or products. Such negative impacts are called “eclipsing”, which occurs when the celebrity overshadows the endorsed brands and products. It has been found that eclipsing occurs when the celebrity and the brand image do not match and/or when consumer attachment to a celebrity is low. However, since two conditions are related to individual characteristics, marketers cannot operate the conditions under which the eclipsing occurs. Moreover, previous research has focused on only consumer attitudes. What is essential for consumers’ actual purchase is that they can remember the advertised brands and easily recall them. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of eclipsing on brand memory and to identify the suppressed conditions which can be easily operated by marketers or advertisers. In particular, we focus on the facial expression of celebrity and examine the effect of smile and rest on brand attitude and brand recall. To test proposed hypotheses empirically, this study conducted a laboratory experiment based on a 2 (eclipsing: high vs. low) × 2 (facial expression: smile vs. rest) × 2 (sex of celebrity endorser: male vs. female) between-subjects factorial design. The results showed that the interaction effects of eclipsing and facial expression on brand recall were significant. It suggests that the effects of eclipsing on brand recall are suppressed when the celebrity endorser has the resting expression. The finding of this study implies that marketers or advertisement creators should consider carefully the celebrity endorsers’ facial expression not to prevent consumers’ memory of the advertised brand.

In the context of the consumption of luxury goods, WOM generation seems to be an important way for individuals to express their identity. It has long been implied that luxury goods should be “conspicuous” because, generally, individuals are motivated to consume particular goods to communicate their social identity (cf. Belk, 1988; Berger & Health 2007). However, once individuals send positive messages about a luxury good, that item may be adopted by others whom they dislike. Thus, individuals may use moderation in generating positive WOM and prevent use of their favorite luxury brands from trickling down (Berger & Ward, 2010). In this regard, recent research has examined the effects of need-for-uniqueness (NFU) on consumers’ intention to generate word-of-mouth (WOM) and suggested that high-NFU consumers are unwilling to generate (positive) WOM because WOM results in the adoption of the product and would harm the consumers’ unique image (Cheema & Kaikati, 2010). However, they have focused on only one (avoidance-of-similarity) of the three types of NFU: avoidance of similarity (AS), unpopular choice counter-conformity (UCC), and creative choice counter-conformity (CCC) (Tian, Bearden, & Hunter, 2001). The purpose of this study is to examine how different types of NFU affect consumers’ willingness to generate WOM, considering the moderating role of product domain in the relationship between NFU and WOM. We examined the effects of types of NFU and product domain on positive WOM generation using a 3 (WOM sender type: high-AS/high-UCC/high-CCC consumers) × 2 (product domain: more identity-relevant, luxury vs. less identity-relevant, ordinary goods) between-subjects experimental design. The participants were 80 university students. We selected a high-quality coat as a luxury item and a high-end flash drive as an ordinary product. The former was represented as more identity-related than the latter. The results of ANOVA showed that three types of NFU have different effects on consumer’ willingness to generate positive WOM. High-AS consumers, as well as high-UCC consumers, are more unwilling to generate positive WOM, whereas high-CCC consumers are more willing to generate WOM; moreover, these effects are more pronounced when the consumers were referencing a more identity-relevant, luxury good. The implications of this study may help firms understand the factors that elicit or prevent WOM generation.

With the advent of the Internet in the United States, Japan, and other developed countries, electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) consumer reviews have come into vogue. While most studies have shown that negative e-WOM has negative effects on consumer attitude, some recent studies implied that the existence of negative e-WOM on a single website can enhance consumer attitude toward the website. However, no research has not identified the conditions for the positive effects of negative e-WOM. Thus, we investigate the moderating effects of the types of receivers, reviews, and products. Also, we investigate the moderating effects of the order of positive and negative e-WOM reviews posted in a single website. The effects of four factors are investigated —product characteristic (utilitarian vs. hedonic), review characteristic (attribute- vs. benefit-centric), receiver characteristic (expert vs. novice), and the orders of negative e-WOM (top vs. bottom) when the ratios of positive to negative e-WOM reviews are 10:0, 8:2, and 6:4. A laboratory experiment with virtual e-WOM sites is utilized. Four hundred twenty students participate in the experiment. All hypotheses are supported in at least 5% levels. The results of ANOVA show that negative e-WOM has positive effects on consumer attitudes towards products in the case of hedonic products and expert consumers reading attribute-centric review. Moreover, negative e-WOM has a greater positive effect when it is at the top of the website as opposed to at the bottom. This study contributes to our current understanding of e-WOM effects on consumer behavior.