The study investigates the effects of influencer on advertising effectiveness compared to traditional celebrity endorser. Results of an experiment shows that the use of influencer have a better fit with hard-sell appeal and well-known brand to have more favorable brand attitude and higher intention to purchase. The findings provide ample contribution to theory and practice.

The recent addition of Instagram feature, ad labels for sponsored posts, enables users to explicitly identify sponsored posts, increasing the level of transparency of posts (O’Brien, 2017). In sponsored posts in social media, followers are aware the marketing efforts that go on behind the user generated contents and message threads. Thus, the impact of postings on the followers’ behavioral response may vary depending on the levels of trust that followers have with the brand sponsored Instagram posts. In that regards, retailers implementing Instagram platform have faced creating more persuasive postings that can build the posting credibility and generate positive responses toward the brand. Grounded upon the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986), this study attempted to identify determinants of persuasive postings that build the message credibility of brand sponsored Instagram posts and positive responses toward the brand and to examine how the levels of trust followers have with the brand sponsored Instagram moderate the persuasion process when followers elaborate the postings. Data was collected via online survey and a total of 263 responses were determined to be usable in this study. Structural equation modeling was used to test the study hypotheses. The study results showed that post popularity and the argument quality of the post were determinants of the persuasive posting, increasing message credibility and yielding positive response towards the sponsored brand. Interestingly, post attractiveness was not a persuasive post characteristic. The results implied that post popularity and argument quality of post increased Instagram post credibility. These characteristics of posts have persuasive power to increase the post credibility, leading to a positive response toward the sponsored brand. Consumers’ levels of trust on the Instagram post sponsored brand moderated the persuasive process. The result supported that consumers with a low level of trust on the Instagram post sponsored brand carefully read a wide range of information and pay more attention to argument quality of posts, which consisted of the post content and other followers’ input regarding the product. Through the lens of Elaboration Likelihood Model, this study suggests that retailers should pay particular attention on the argument quality of a post and post popularity. The argument quality of a post is the influential factor determining persuasive and credible posts, further leveraging post credibility for consumers with a low level of trust on the sponsored post.

Despite of its strategic role in shaping corporate image, Instagram predicts that 70% of its contents are not seen by users due to content overload and saturation problems. As more than 95 million photos are shared on Instagram on daily basis, when accessing Instagram, users are bombarded with a lot of visual information and consequently tend to selectively choose photos to pay attention to. Therefore, it is important for marketers to design an ads that has the ability to stop consumers and hold their attention for enough time to be processed cognitively before they scroll up or down to see other photos. This study investigates how visual aesthetic, vividness, and message type of pictures posted on Instagram affects customer responses. A content analysis of 3,952 brand content posted between July and December 2017 was conducted from the official Instagram accounts of seven global luxury brands. The top-listed brands on the Luxury Fashion Social Index namely Burberry, Calvin Klein, Chanel, Gucci, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, and Prada; were investigated as they were considered as good representatives of luxury brands with good social media presence. The coding guide in this study included the numbers of consumer responses (likes and comments), visual aesthetic (classical and expressive), vividness (high and low), and message type (literal and symbolic). For the independent variables, binary coding was used. ANOVA was used to test the hypotheses. Findings suggest that brand posts using expressive aesthetic image received more likes and comments on Instagram than the ones with classical aesthetics. Brand posts with high level of vividness receive more likes and comments than the ones with low level of vividness. Brand posts adopting using symbolic message receive more likes and comments than the ones implementing literal message. The results also suggest that there was a significant interaction between visual aesthetics, vividness, and message types in generating likes Brand content on Instagram using a combination of expressive aesthetic, high vivid, and symbolic message generates more likes and comments than any other combinations. Instead, the content adopting a combination of classical aesthetic, low vivid, and literal message produced the least responses. From theoretical perspective, findings can extend and modify media richness theory to luxury brand and social media contexts. Instagram can be used to display brand contents with various levels of vividness. This study imply that luxury consumers favor expressive aesthetics and symbolic message more positively indicating that they tend to have high level of need for cognition in consuming brand messages. Luxury brand marketers can increase their cognitive load by increasing the level of information complexity increasing the number of colors or patterns, using metaphoric statements, or crafting symbolic messages when creating brand posts on Instagram.

Authenticity is an important topic in business activities and society at large. Sustainability management and marketing activities are required as consumers become more interested in society. The consumer evaluation of brand authenticity is a crucial factor in a brand’s reputation and long-term growth, which affects brand loyalty, electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and purchase behavior. With this latest trend, luxury brands are paying attention to sustainability activities, but consumer confidence in the sustainability of luxury brands is still low. Experts emphasize that building trust with customers by promising authenticity is a key challenge. Meanwhile, luxury brands are actively communicating with consumers through SNS, such as Instagram. Social media marketing directly and indirectly influences brand authenticity, as well as purchase intentions and eWOM. Nevertheless, there is little exposure to sustainability activities in the social media accounts of luxury brands. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the sustainability activities on the social media of luxury brands and brand authenticity, as well as the effects of brand authenticity on eWOM and purchase intention. For this study, we conducted an online survey targeting individuals with ages of 20–30 years and who are highly interested in society while actively using social media. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS 21.0 software package. The main finding of this study reveals that consumers are more aware of brand authenticity when they see an Instagram post that includes messages about sustainability rather than a post without any such messages. In addition, brand authenticity has positive effects on eWOM and purchase intention. These findings suggest that sustainability marketing by luxury brands leads to positive consumer response, and the broadcasting of messages about sustainability via social media is effective for the marketing strategy of luxury brands.

There has been an emerging interest in the effective luxury advertising, which has been conducted within and across national borders. Unlike earlier studies on luxury brands that focused on the behavior and opinions of luxury consumers (e.g., luxury motivations, value perceptions, etc.), this nascent stream of research queries an important role that advertising exerts on luxury consumers (Freire, 2014). Informed by these developments, our study examines how luxury brand marketers can design effective social media messages for their consumers. In particular, we draw on recent research in consumer psychology to shed new light on (1) how consumer feelings about the psychological distance of luxury consumption may influence their evaluation of different types of message appeals on social media and their intention to share these messages with others; and (2) we address how this process varies depending on (a) the perceived tie strength between consumers on social media, the functional attitudes of luxury brands, and across different cultural milieus.

This paper examines advertising images of fashion brands in vertical social network site (SNS) from the viewpoints of message strategies. Vertical social network sites are types of social curation systems applied to social networking, where information is selected, organized, and maintained. Fashion brands communicate with consumers by presenting images on vertical SNSs, anticipating improvements in brand image, popularity, and loyalty. Those images portray content for particular brands and seasonal concepts, thus creating paths for product sales information. Marketing via SNSs corresponds to relationship marketing, which refers to long-term interrelationship and value augmentation between the company and consumer, and viral advertising, which relies on word of mouth distribution via social network platforms. Taylor’s six-segment message strategy wheel, often used for analyzing viral ads, was applied to conduct a content analysis of the images. A total of 2,656 images of fashion brands advertised on Instagram were selected and analyzed. Results indicated that brand values were somewhat related to the number of followers. Follower rankings and comment rankings were also correlated. In general, fashion brands projected sensory messages most often. Acute need and rational messages were less common than other messages. Sports brands and luxury brands presented sensory messages, whereas fast fashion brands projected routine images most often. Fashion brands promoted on vertical SNSs should portray advertising images that combine message strategies.

Internet brand community's message makes significant contributions for fashion industry. Therefore, if we understand and implement the characteristics of the message on the Internet brand's community, it can be useful for future marketing strategy. This study was to classified the internet community and to examine messages with regard to direction, write motive and prior knowledge. The messages were taken from February, 20th, to August, 7th in 2008. Content analysis method was used for this study. The results were as follows: First, Fashion brand community divided into user initiative type and enterprise establishing type. Second, User initiative type had positive direction message more than enterprise establishing type had. Third, User initiative type had large volumes of information searching or sharing related message, but enterprise establishing type had large quantities of personal experience related message about write motive. Fourth, There was no difference numerical prior knowledge between user initiative type and enterprise establishing type, and then both had a high rate of prior knowledge.

최근 패션 산업에서는 사진과, 동영상, 텍스트를 이용해 메시지를 간편하게 전달할 수 있는 인스타그램을 적극적으로 활용 하고 있다. 특히 시각적인 콘텐츠를 추구하는 패션 브랜드의 효율적인 마케팅 플랫폼으로 활용 가능성이 크다. 국내 패션 산업에서 인스타그램의 실질적인 운영 방안의 토대가 되어줄 로컬 계정 콘텐츠에 관한 연구가 필요하다. 이에 본 연구의 내용은 첫째, 스포츠 브랜드의 인스타그램 로컬 계정의 콘텐츠 활용 현황을 살펴보았으며, 이를 바탕으로 콘텐츠의 메시지 전략의 특징을 분석하였다. 둘째, 스포츠 브랜드 인스타그램 로컬 계정 콘텐츠 구성의 특성을 파악하였다. 셋째, 테일러의 메시지 전략 관점에서 인스타그램 로컬 계정 콘텐츠의 메시지 특성을 도출하였다. 연구 결과, 스포츠 브랜드는 인스타그램 로컬 계정 콘텐츠를 이용해 제품 정보 및 이벤트 홍보, 브랜드 컨셉을 전달하려는 목적으로, 제품 사진이나 비 스포츠 스타 를 모델로 기용해 이미지와 텍스트가 결합된 형태의 콘텐츠를 주로 활용하는 것으로 나타났다. 이 때 브랜드명을 해시태그 로 걸어 콘텐츠의 핵심어를 쉽게 전달하고 있었다. 이런 구성 요소들이 모여 이뤄진 인스타그램 콘텐츠의 메시지는 수용자의 감성을 자극하여 제품에 대한 정보나 특징을 편안하게 받아들일 수 있도록 하는 메시지 전략을 가장 많이 활용하고 있었다.