This paper explores how luxury brands can utilize Weibo in order to create an effective marketing strategy that appeals to millenials. China accounts for 47% of global online retail sales (eMarketer, 2016) and it is predicted that millenials (born 1980-1995) and Generation Z will make up two-fifths of luxury spending by 2025 (eMarketer, 2017). However, due to political constraints, popular western social media sites cannot be used to target this vast market of online Chinese consumers. Weibo is one of the most popular social media sites in China, with 97.2% using the site (Yu et al., 2017). In order to target them effectively brands need to gain an indepth understanding of Chinese consumers and what would appeal to them on Weibo. The majority of social media research uses quantitative methodologies on popular social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. There are limited qualitative studies exploring consumers’ feelings and attitudes towards brands’ social media activities on Weibo. Due to different cultural backgrounds Chinese consumer behavior is likely to show a different trend to Western countries. Semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 12 participants were conducted. Findings showed that convenience, immediacy, social standing/status and entertainment were key drivers for using Weibo. Fashion information, latest product releases and videos were the most popular type of posts. Consumers read comments and tagged their friends, emphasising the importance of e-word-of-mouth (e-wom) and the influence that it can have on purchasing behaviour. This also facilitated the creation and feeling of a brand community. Consumers were very receptive to celebrity collaborations which influenced purchasing behavior. The main criticism of luxury brand’s Weibo was that it was not updated enough and Weibo did not have an influence on trust. This study provides a clear insight into what Chinese millenials want from luxury brands’ Weibo and how it can influence their purchasing behaviors and e-wom. The findings are novel, contributing to the academic literature through the conduction of a qualitative study exploring an under-researched area. This research has practical implications for luxury brands, as they should provide regular, up-to-date content consisting of videos and celebrity collaborations. A limitation could be the limited number of participants, yet, findings provide an interesting insight into consumers’ perceptions of Weibo and how it influences their attitudes and behaviors towards luxury brands.

다양하게 변화하는 재난양태와 기후변화로 인한 빈번한 재난발생뿐 아니라 생활수준 향상 등의 이유로 재난안전에 대한 국민적 관심이 증대되고 있다. 이와 연계하여 재난안전 산업에 대한 요구도 증가하고 있다. 그 동안 다양한 재난안전산업 육성 및 활성화 정책이 수립되었지만, 국가주도의 정책이 대부분이었고, 민간분야와 국민관심도가 반영된 정책은 부재한 상황이다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 국민관심도를 고려한 재난안전산업 육성방안 수립을 위하여 소셜미디어 분석을 활용하는 방안을 제안하고자 하였다. 재난안전분야의 국민관심도를 분석하기 위하여 최근 3년간의 소셜미디어를 대상으로 분석을 실시하였다. 분석 결과, 국민은 실제 발생했던 재난에 대한 내용, 즉각적으로 실생활에서 필요한 분야에 대해 관심도가 높은 것으로 나타났다. 또한 실제로 경주 지진발생 당시 재난 관련 소셜데이터가 급증하는 것으로 나타났고, 뉴스에서는 피해상황 등에 관한 내용이 많은 반면, 트위터와 블로그에서는 구호물품, 대피요령 등에 관한 내용이 주를 이루고 있는 것을 확인하였다. 본 연구의 결과로 국민적 관심도를 분석하기 위한 방법으로 소셜미디어 활용방안에 대한 가능성을 확인하였고, 재난안전산업의 민간분야 확산 차원에서 국민관심도를 반영한 재난안전산업 정책 수립방안을 제안한다.

The global apparel market is estimated to increase from US$1,105 billion in 2012 to US$2,110 billion in 2025 (Statista, 2014), with women’s wear accounting for approximately 55% of the total within the United Kingdom (UK) (Verdict, 2015). In 2013 and 2014 market research performed by Mintel identified the ‘shopping experience’ as one of the key factors in women’s shopping habits, noting that consumers aged 16-24, in particular, tended to browse online but to buy in-store, still seeing shopping for clothes as a day out with friends (Mintel, 2013). Nevertheless, the growing influence of social media was noted, and by 2015 this age group had overtaken the 25-34 year olds to become the main online clothes shoppers. Despite this, young people aged 16-24, all of whom potentially qualify as digital natives, still show a preference for shopping in-store (Mintel, 2015), although preliminary research indicates that more of them are now shopping alone than with friends. This suggests that there has been a shift in consumer shopping habits within the youth sector, with less importance being placed on the shopping experience. Given that, this study aims to explore the social media behaviours of the youngers aged between 18-24 with a particular focus on fashion consumption. Crowd sourcing has been identified as an emerging practice found in several sectors including fashion (Yeomans, 2013). Preliminary research suggests that the shift is just a perceived one and that technology savvy young fashion consumers are using smart-technology to upload ‘chelfies’ (‘selfies direct from the changing rooms’) to crowd source opinion about proposed purchases (Soar and Torn, 2015), using social media to replace ‘physical friends’ with ‘digital friends’. To explore this phenomenon further, this study employs qualitative research method and uses semi-structured interviews. The result of this research provides evidence of crowd sourcing behaviours via social media, as well as indicates the complex communication mechanism that embeds within fashion consumption among the generation of the youth.

Recently, marketing researchers have started to explore the impact of Social Media Brand Communities in digital marketing strategies. However, in spite of this interest, scant attention has been paid to the micro-mechanisms stimulating electronic word of mouth (E-WOM) within social media brand community. In this sense, this exploratory research aims to explore how consumers‟ engagement is related with positive E-WOM.

The concept of „Sustainability‟ has become as major concern and it used by consumers and corporations to convey the concept of taking care of the environment. Environmental concern has led to sustainable consumption in a variety of product categories, such as electricity, textiles, apparel, food, and grocery products (Chan, 2001; Harrison, Newholm, & Shaw, 2005; Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006a, 2006b). Interest of the negative environmental impacts are rapidly increasing in present fashion business and consumer behavior has become a rising concern of the consumption and fashion supply chain to apply sustainable consumption (Birtwistle & Moore, 2007; Fineman, 2001). The environmental and social concern recognized in fashion industry from 1990‟s. However, the complexity of conceptual definition of sustainability and ecologically responsible consumer generates different and mistaken perception to consumer. In addition, in fashion industry, the terms of „eco-fashion‟, „environmentally friendly fashion‟,„green fashion‟, „ethical fashion‟, and „sustainable fashion‟ are frequently used interchangeably to describe the same concept. These interchangeable terminology is leading to confusion of the readers by the non-unified terminology (Choi et al., 2012). Also, consumers seem to have narrow scope and little understanding of sustainable fashion. In general, consumers focuses on environmental aspect not the wide-range of complexity of environment, social, and economical concern (Cervellon, Hjerth, Ricard, & Carey, 2010). The growing number of fashion brands are leveraging on green branding initiatives. Green marketing is increasing rapidly in corporate aspects and for a consumer perspective, global consumers are recognizing a personal accountability to take responsibility for social and environmental issues. Despite the fact many of individuals‟ willingness to purchase green products has increased in the last few years, however, there is limited studies suggest that purchase of green or sustainable products. Consumer research on sustainable fashion has mainly focused on consumer behaviors towards sustainable fashion products (SFPs); however, relevant studies that examined the whole process of the predicting proenvironmental behavior cross nationally value and the eWOM are still scarce. The purposes of research model are 1) to identify the determinants of eWOM intention on consumers' purchase intentions, 2) to examine the information adoption process as precursors of purchase intention of sustainable fashion, and 3) to testify different message types effects to information adoption process.

Many fashion brands have established brand pages or accounts in social media platforms as a vehicle to promoting brand and managing customer relationship. Customers’ interaction in social media with other customers and brand page maintainers could attract their attention of the brand and inform their purchase decision. Despite the significance of the interaction in social media, there has limited attention on the social media using experience specified in fashion brand area. Drawing on theories and concepts from diverse areas including social media marketing, consumer psychology, and fashion brand management, this study propose four dimensional of social media using experience to understand how the experience with fashion brand page could enhance customers’ fashion consciousness and status consumption behavior. Data collected from customers who following main fashion brand pages in Instagram and used to test the hypotheses. Implications for research on social media marketing of fashion brand are discussed.

Introduction In the contemporary business environment, fashion companies ought to cope with fundamental changes marketing communication has conventionally been performed. In response to shifting socio-demographic, environmental and market-related conditions, gradually new forms of fashion promotion have evolved (Fill, 2006). Nowadays, the global fashion industry experiences a reduced dependence on mass media advertising and an enlarged reliance on dialogic, relationship-oriented and digitally grounded communication methods (Chitty, Barker, Valos & Shimp, 2012). Against this backdrop, it is irrefutable that social media technologies have been remarkably transforming the ways in which modern-day fashion communication is practiced (Brennan & Schafer, 2010; Funk et al., 2016; Dillon, 2012; Saarinen, Tinnilä & Tseng, 2006). The competitive and widely saturated apparel market is facing an era of intensive proliferation of brands, an epoche of awe bombardment of advertisements, which makes a well-though-out communicational strategy ever more imperative, particularly in a cross-cultural context (Dillon, 2012). Yet, studies that analyze the importance of social media in relation to traditional means of fashion communication are scarce. Even though, empirical introductions start being made to this explicit issue, considerable research deficiency subsists in the realm of cross-cultural fashion communication and social media optimization. Therefore, the rationale of this paper at hand is to contribute to balance out this research gap by providing evidence from four countries.

The market for luxury is changing with new competitors to the market, more modest growth, and new types of customers (Kim and Ko 2012, Ko, Phau and Aiello 2016) as well as the ubiquity of digital marketing channels (Okonkwo 2009). Moreover, social media has transformed the logic of fashion marketing by providing new ways of engaging, interacting, and connecting with customers (Dhaoui 2014) as well as enabling consumers to participate in branding process (Burman 2010). As a consequence, also luxury brands need to develop experience-based marketing strategies that emphasise interactivity, connectivity and creativity (Atwal and Williams 2009). What is more, despite of growing importance of social media marketing in luxury industry, extant research on the topic still remains quite limited (Ko and Megehee 2012). While the previous studies have well documented the benefits of luxury marketing on social media (Kim and Ko 2012, Kim and Ko 2010, Brogi et al. 2013, Kontu and Vecchi 2014, Godey et al. 2016), and their implications on luxury brand management (Dhaoui 2014, Larraufie and Kourdoughli 2014), and even co-creative marketing practices (Choi, Ko and Kim 2016, Tynan, McKehnie, and Chuon 2010), no studies to this date have looked at co-creation from consumer-perspective. This article provides a novel perspective on luxury branding, by following the resource-based theory of consumer (Arnould, Price and Malshe 2006) to study the brand identity as co-created in social media. To do this, visual frame analysis (Goffman 1974, Luhtakallio 2013) is applied on consumer generated images downloaded from Instagram feed of brand exhibition staged by luxury brand Louis Vuitton. Based on the analysis, a typology of co-created brand identities is proposed. The findings indicate that in the branded exhibitions, consumers co-create brand identity by utilising resources available in the experiential brandscape by taking and posting these objectifications of brand on social media (Presi et al. 2016) and in so doing create symbolic/expressive, and experiential/hedonic value (Tynan et al. 2010). Theoretically, this article provides a novel perspective on luxury brand as co-created and in so doing, demonstrates the dynamics of firm-consumer co-creation. What is more, to extend the emerging stream of visual analysis of luxury (Kim et al. 2016, Freire 2014, Megehee and Spake 2012), an application of novel is demonstrated in the article. Managerially, this explorative study provides new insights on luxury marketing in social media by suggesting that branded experiences should be designed in a manner that engages the consumer to actively use the resources available to them. The financial implications of this shift are also significant as according to McKinsey study, three out of four luxury purchases are influenced by social media (Hope 2016)

Social media play a role in the value that sneakerheads, individuals who collect, wear, and trade sneakers with extraordinary effort and resources, place on specific brands and models of sneakers. In-depth interviews with 25 sneakerheads, recruited through sneakerhead online communities and snow-ball sampling, were conducted to explore how social media contribute to emotional and monetary value creation of sneakers, as well as how social media is used across the Inventory Ownership Cycle (IOC) which includes pre-acquisition, acquisition, physical possession, and disposal of sneakers (Boyd & Mcconocha, 1996). Finding shows that during the pre-acquisition stage, emotional and monetary value is constructed when brands post images of celebrities wearing new models on various social media sites. Hype initially created by the brand is perpetuated by posts and conversations among sneakersheads. Perceived higher levels of hype lead one to believe demand surpasses supply, and therefore, monetary values of specific models increase. Through social media, consumers research and gauge the value not only of soon to be released sneakers, but also previously released sneakers only available on the resale market. During the acquisition stage, the online environment has become increasingly important. To avoid issues associated with selling high-demand/low-supply sneakers in- store, such as violent incidents and dishonest employees, many retailers have shifted sales of such product to online formats (Dunne, 2014). Social media serves as a platform for sneakerheads to learn about dates and locations of new releases and to locate resellers from whom they can purchase previously released sneakers. During the physical possession stage, sneakerheads engage with community members via social media; they show off their sneaker collections, as well as to obtain and share information regarding sneaker customization and maintenance to preserve aesthetics and value. It is through the engagement with fellow sneakerheads and the sneakers within their personal collections that emotional value can be further constructed. During the disposal stage, social media is used by resellers to determine monetary value, identify and communicate with potential buyers across the nation, and complete resale transactions. In summary, this research demonstrates how sneakerheads use social media throughout the IOC, as well as the role social media plays in the construction and identification of sneaker value.

The aim of this exploratory research is to investigate whether luxury brands social media activities (Kim & Ko, 2012) – which are online activities that could potentially engage customers in digital environment (Sashi, 2012) – are capable of transmitting the sense of heritage of such brands to the customers. Moreover, the authors will observe whether the aforementioned activities are capable of transmitting the sense of exclusivity, which will be measured through the customers’ perceptions of the brand prestige (Hwang & Hyun, 2012), to the latter. In order to explore such a phenomenon, the authors have selected structural eqation modeling (SEM) as the main methodology of the research (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988). The theoretical foundations of the present research are related with three streams of marketing literature, namely (1) luxury brands social media marketing activities (Kim & Ko, 2010; Kim & Ko, 2012), (2) luxury brands heritage (Ciappei, Zollo, Boccardi, & Rialti, 2016; Hudson, 2011; Rialti, Zollo, Boccardi, & Marzi, 2016) and, finally, (3) luxury brands customer-based prestige (Napoli, Dickinson, Beverland, & Farrelly, 2014). In particular, building on the concept of social media marketing activities (Kim & Ko, 2010), we aimed at observing how the latter could influence customers’ perceptions of the brand by engaging them in online activities and conversations (Sashi, 2012; Zaglia, 2013). Specifically, we investigated if engagement in online activities or in online communities is related with a positive perception of luxury brands’ heritage and prestige. Hence, customers’ online engagement deriving from social media activities has been considered as an antecedent of customer perceived heritage and prestige (Phan, Thomas, & Heine, 2011; Hamzah, Alwi, & Othman, 2014; Riviezzo Garofano, & Napolitano, 2016). Luxury brands have been selected as the context of research since heritage and prestige have emerged as relevant strategic marketing levers for luxury brands’ brand strategist. As a proof of that, recently, luxury brands’ strategist and product managers are increasingly focusing brands’ strategies on the history of the brands in order to transmit customers a feeling of exclusivity and elitism (Hudson, 2010; Balmer, 2011). Thus, luxury brands heritage perceived by costumers emerged as a fundamental component of brand identity and, in addition, it may be considered as a form of competitive advantage increasing brand equity (Van Riel & Balmer, 1997). The main findings of the present research are related with the fact that social media marketing activities may engage customers online (Sashi, 2012). Moreover, it emerged how social media strategies are capable to engage customers and transmit them the sense of heritage and prestige. Hence, social media marketing strategies focused on developing a relationship with customers emerged as crucial in order to enhance customers’ perceptions of a brand heritage and prestige. Finally, the development of such a kind of social media marketing strategies is the principal implication for marketing managers. Due to the aforementioned results, this exploratory research contributes to online luxury brand management literature (Kim & Ko, 2010). In particular, due to our results it is possible to assess that social media activities, which are capable to engage customers online, are able to transmit the sense of heritage and of prestige. Future researches should explore better this phenomenon. In particular, on the one hand we suggest scholars to investigate through qualitative methodologies which kind of communications are capable to transmit sense of heritage and prestige. On the other hand, we suggest scholars to compare traditional form of communications with online form in order to understand which one is more capable to influence customers’ perceptions. The principal limitation of this research is related with its exploratory nature and with the traditional limitations of SEM methodology.

Not all celebrity endorsements have been successful on social media. However, our understanding of the effectiveness of luxury brand celebrity endorsement advertising are limited. On the basis of Self-Congruity Theory (Sirgy, 1985), Meaning-Transfer Model (McCracken, 1989), and Match-Up Hypothesis (Kamins, 1990; Kamins & Cupta, 1994), this study investigates whether three components of image congruity (i.e., brand-celebrity, brand-self, celebrity-self) would influence brand attitudes, ad attitudes, and self-brand connection, and subsequently, influence consumer engagement and purchase intentions. This study also tests the moderating role of consumer type (followers vs. unfollowers of the social media brand page) in these relationships. After conducting a series of pretests to select a focal brand and celebrities, responses from 219 US female adults were used to data analysis. The results of structural equation modeling showed that brand-celebrity congruity was positively related to ad attitudes and brand attitudes. Brand-self congruity was positively related to ad attitudes, brand attitudes, and self-brand connection. Self-celebrity congruity was positively related to ad attitudes and self-brand connection but was negatively related to brand attitudes. Ad attitudes were positively related to brand attitudes and engagement intentions but were not related to purchase intentions. Brand attitudes were positively related to engagement intentions and purchase intentions. Self-brand connection was positively related to engagement intentions, and engagement intentions were positively related to purchase intentions. Finally, the results of a multi-group analysis showed that for unfollowers (n=125), ad attitudes were positively related to engagement intentions but brand attitudes were not. On the contrary, for followers (n=94), brand attitudes were positively related to engagement intentions but ad attitudes were not. This study highlights that self-brand connection is the key to cultivating consumer engagement on social media, along with the consumer’s positive attitudes toward the celebrity endorsement ad and the brand per se. If luxury brands wish to interact with their followers and increase their engagement, they need to focus their efforts on improving brand attitudes and self-brand connection through their brand pages. Our findings suggest that celebrity endorsed advertising contributes to creating self-brand relationships (Dwivedi et al., 2016) but it should be considered as a long-term investment.

Recent research has pointed out the emergence of new online actors, especially in the domain of fashion and lifestyle—“social media influencers” or SMIs (Etter, Colleoni, Illia, Meggiorin, & D’Eugenio, forthcoming). SMIs are defined as “people who possess greater than average potential to influence others due to such attributes as frequency of communication, personal persuasiveness or size of—and centrality to—a social network.” As SMIs become professionals, with a mass audience of followers, they gain competence in generating sophisticated content such as creation of stories, videos, visuals, etc. (McQuarrie, Miller, & Phillips, 2013). As such, SMIs are tempted to leverage their online influence to partner with brands. One of the reasons brands collaborate with SMIs is that they are considered trustworthy and “one of the few forms of real, authentic communication” (Scott, 2015, p. 295). Authenticity is recognized in the marketing literature as an important attribute, as consumers increasingly desire authenticity in their products and brands (Chronis & Hampton, 2008). A notion of authenticity which has been gaining acceptance revolves around whether an individual or brand expresses their true self (Moulard, Raggio, & Folse, 2016). Holt (2002, p. 83) notes, “To be authentic, brands must be disinterested; they must be perceived as invented and disseminated by parties without an instrumental economic agenda, by people who are intrinsically motivated by their inherent value”. However, collaborating with brands may question SMIs authenticity as their inner desires to focus on products they are passionate about are challenged by commercial opportunities to showcase brands that they would not ordinary like. Their credibility might be questioned as the persuasive effect of their messages is often attributed to their perceived noncommercial nature as compared to branded advertisements. Despite growing research on influencers and acknowledged pressure of pursuing financial gains (Abidin & Ots, 2015), past research has overlooked the challenges to remain authentic when collaborating with brands. As such, our research focuses on the question: what are the strategies of SMIs to maintain authenticity while they are under commercial pressure? To answer it, we conducted a research in the context of fashion, beauty and lifestyle, as it is one of the most successful and visible domains of digital production. We analyze posts from 49 influencers participating in 9 brand campaigns that employed multiple SMIs simultaneously. These observations are complemented with 27 interviews with SMIs to understand “behind the scene” goals pursued to project this authenticity. Results suggest that SMIs implement two potentially complementary strategies expressing authenticity under commercial pressure: 1) passionate authenticity, which refers to one’s expressing of his/her inner self and being passionate even when involved in a collaboration, and 2) informational authenticity, which refers to being consistent with the facts and not lying about the partnership, the influencer or the products promoted. From a theoretical standpoint, the notion of passionate authenticity has been established in the previous literature (Moulard, et al., 2016), but we identify a new form of authenticity that we name informational authenticity. It thus extends the literature and builds on previous research to reframe the concept of authenticity (Grayson & Martinec, 2004; Morhart, Malär, Guevremont, Girardin, & Grohmann, 2015; Napoli, Dickinson, Beverland, & Farrelly, 2014). From a managerial standpoint, our findings should help SMIs manage their authenticity under threat as it suggest that they can either use Passion or Information. SMIs should be cautious to report the reality of the partnership and the product in their WOMM contents. Similarly, they should keep producing noncommercial messages about brands they are really passionate about. In the same vein, managers should be attentive to let SMIs select products in order to increase enthusiasm for the brand and minimize constraints to give room for personalized communication aligned with SMI’s style and opinions.

Despite the positive outcomes of brand-consumer interactions on social media documented in the literature, an important question still remains: Are active brand-consumer interactions always beneficial to luxury fashion brands? This study argues that such interactions may undermine the core perceptions of the brands by making consumers feel too close to the brands. Drawing upon construal level theory of psychological distance, the purpose of this study is to examine the negative effects of brand-consumer interactions on perceptions of luxury fashion brands (i.e., social perception, uniqueness perception, quality perception) in a social media context. Two experimental studies were conducted. The purpose of Study 1 was to test the hypothesis that luxury brands, compared to mainstream brands, will be perceived as more psychologically distant and abstract. Study 1 used a 2 (brand category: luxury vs. mainstream) x 2 (brand replicates) mixed-model design in which the brand category was a between-subject factor and the brand replicates were a within-subject factor. Fifty-nine subjects recruited from Amazon MTurk participated in the study. The results of Study 1 revealed that luxury brands are inherently psychologically distant than mainstream brands. The purpose of Study 2 was to test the impact of brand-consumer interactions (i.e., high vs. low) and the mediating role of psychological distance on the three perceptions of luxury brands (i.e., social perception, uniqueness perception, quality perception) on social media. A single factor between-subjects design was used, and a total of 74 participants were recruited from Amazon MTurk. To manipulate the level of consumer-brand interaction (high vs. low), two versions of a luxury brand’s mock Facebook pages were created. For the high interaction condition, the brand responded to consumers’ posts in a friendly way and displayed the images of user photos. For the low interaction condition, the brand did not respond to consumers’ posts and displayed no images of users. As predicted, the results showed that participants indicated lower brand perceptions when the brand’s social media page displayed a high level of interactions than a low level of interactions. Moreover, formality, a measure of psychological distance, partially mediated the relationship between brand-consumer interactions and all the three brand perceptions. The findings of this study provide empirical evidence that active consumer-brand interactions on social media do not necessarily benefit luxury fashion brands, rather they can damage consumer perceptions of the brands. This study provides important implications that luxury fashion brands should maintain a sacred distance on social media; otherwise it will undermine important perceptions of the brands such as status signaling, exclusivity, and quality.

Introduction Literally explosive is the growth of social media. The estimated number of monthly active Facebook users by the fourth quarter of 2016 is around 1.86 billion, almost a quarter of the world population, meaning that one in four people on the globe uses Facebook to read news, share gossips, communicate ideas, and build relationships with others. In the United States alone, 72% of all Internet users are reported to use Facebook (Pew Research, 2015), and to many, Facebook is no longer a small part of the Internet, but rapidly becoming the Internet itself. As peer-to-peer information sharing becomes a global mainstream, concerns about the credibility of information shared online is growing fast as well. With no gatekeeper in a traditional sense, rumors and fabricated information lacking reliable evidences (e.g., fake news) may spread wide and fast, and individuals are left alone to assess and judge which among them is likely to be true (Metzger, Flanagin, & Medders, 2010). Unfortunately, we know very little about how individuals assess information fed through online social networks, and how such processing of information in the social media environment differs from those in traditional media environment. In social media like Facebook where individuals and organizations interact through direct or indirect social relationships, what people can give and take is partly determined by with whom they have relationships and their locations in the entire network (Brands, 2014). For example, if one’s network consists mostly of college students, the network may be flooded with gossips, news, and information particularly appealing to them (e.g., how to pull an A from the hideous professor). If the network is made up of people from diverse backgrounds, meanwhile, the information shared therein will be as diverse as heterogeneous are the members’ characteristics and preferences. Network topology may, therefore, be a crucial factor that shapes not only what you encounter in your own network, but also the way you assess the information found therein (Sohn, 2014). An identical message may be construed differently depending on how it has been encountered (e.g., who liked/shared in Facebook) as well as where it originates (e.g., who are the original source of the message). For instance, the news regarding the effectiveness of alternative medicine on curing cancer may be assessed differently depending on whether it is shared by lay people with similar interest or medical experts, which subsequently affects one’s decision to share it. Whereas it is already well-founded that the original source quality plays an important role in communication (Visser & Cooper, 2007), relatively little attention has been devoted to unveiling the role of intermediate social environment lying between the original source and the final recipients. This study is aimed at examining systematically the role of social relations in individuals’ assessment of and decision to share information encountered in social media. More specifically, the focus will be on testing in an experimental setting how social relationship properties, reflecting psychological distance, shape individuals’ assessment of risk/benefit associated with the information received. Psychological Distance and Decision under Risk We are routinely exposed to a myriad of information from our immediate social circles including close friends and acquaintances as well as mass media. Some of them could be about the opportunities for earning extra profits (e.g., stock or real estate investment opportunities), while others about how to maintain better health (e.g., avoiding harmful chemical-intake). Whether it is about money, health or others, the decision to take an action on the information is a function of how to assess the risks involved. According to the prospect theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979), people have an inherent tendency of being more sensitive to the loss than benefit of anything, making them prefer avoiding loss to having an equivalent amount of gain. This loss-aversive tendency also implies that people prefer the possible to sure loss, even if the former is greater than the latter. In other words, people become risk-seeking to avoid any loss with certainty. Suppose, for example, you are given a choice between losing $750 for sure and doing a gamble such that you lose $1000 with 75% chance or lose nothing with 25% chance. Despite the identical expected value ($1000 x .75 + $1000 x 0 = $750), people tend to lean over to the gamble rather than the sure loss. This may work in the opposite way for benefit – you may prefer the sure to possible gain, meaning that you become risk-aversive when benefit is at stake. An interesting question is whether such a risk-seeking or aversion tendency is malleable (Tversky & Simonson, 1993). It is widely known that a message with identical contents can be construed differently depending on whether it is stated or framed in terms of benefit or loss (Slovic, 1995). Then, we might ask whether people construe messages differently depending on where they are from – whether they are from close-knit groups, distant acquaintances or some anonymous others. Prior studies have seldom considered such social contextual influence, which is essential to understanding communication in social media (Sohn, 2014). Suppose you are considering taking an alternative medicine for treating a chronic illness of yours, which will surely get worse with no treatment (i.e., loss with certainty). The alternative medicine’s effectiveness is largely unknown and has never been under rigorous scientific tests. You post your thought about adopting it and have just got replies from two different sources in your Facebook network – a close friend and a mere acquaintance. Your friend says that using the alternative approach can be detrimental to your health (i.e., loss frame), while the acquaintance mentions that s/he trusts the medicine’s benefits (i.e., benefit frame). What would be your choice given the comments? Would your choice be reversed if your friend says its benefit, while the acquaintance warns its side effects? It is posited in construal-level theory that “people use increasingly higher levels of construal to represent an object as the psychological distance from the object increases” (Trope & Liberman, 2010, p. 441). When there are pros and cons with respect to a course of action, people perceive cons (i.e., losses) psychologically closer than pros (i.e., benefits), which provides an explanation of why loss aversion occurs. In addition, it has been found that pros become more salient than cons as temporal distance to the action increases (e.g., buying a computer a year later; Eyal, Liberman, Trope, & Walther, 2004). Taken together, it may be inferred that the cons are salient when the action of interest is thought psychologically proximal, but the pros become more salient as it gets more psychologically distant. This inference can be applied to other distance dimensions including social distance as well. Combining benefit-loss frames and social distance perceptions, we can come up with the following four different conditions as summarized in Table 1. With all other things held equal, people tend to feel loss psychologically closer than benefit. However, the salience of either benefit or loss in a person’s mind may also depend on how the information is presented -- whether a message with the information comes from a proximal or distant source. For example, if a message with emphases on an alternative medicine’s benefit came from a proximal source (BP), further decrease in psychological distance might make salient its potential side effects, and thus lessen the benefit’s influence on decision. Similar inferences can be made to the case when a message with emphases on loss came from a distant source (LD). Due to the increase in psychological distance, it might become difficult to think of the negative aspects of the target (Herzog, Hansen & Wanke, 2007). If the message emphasizing either benefit or loss is aligned respectively with a distal (BD) or proximal source (LP), in contrast, they will become more salient in the person’s mind, which would exert a disproportionate influence on decision. Given the discussion, the following hypotheses can be proposed: H1a. People perceive the benefit more salient, and thus are more likely to make a risky choice when it is supported by socially distant others than when no information of the social distance to the source is given (i.e., control condition). H1b. People perceive the benefit less salient, and thus are less likely to make a risky choice when the benefit is supported by socially close others than when no information of the social distance to the source is given (i.e., control condition). H2a. People perceive the loss more salient, and thus make a risky choice less when the loss is warned by socially close others than when when no information of the social distance to the source is given. H2b. People perceive the loss less salient when the loss is warned by socially distant others than when no information of the social distance to the source is given. Experimental Design A 2 (message frames) x 3 (social distance) between-subjects online experiment will be conducted as follows. Subjects will be given multiple hypothetical risky choice situations with respect to such issues as making an investment, adopting a new medical treatment, purchasing a product. After being exposed to the choice scenarios, they will be asked a series of questions for measuring their issue-involvement levels, attitudes to the issue presented, thoughts related to benefits and losses, and final choices, along with relevant psychological and demographic characteristics. Implications No communication ever occurs in a social vacuum. Just as our everyday behaviors are shaped and often constrained by the physical places in which they are performed (e.g., rooms, streets, buildings), we communicate in a social setting consisting of direct and/or indirect relationships among people (Gifford, 2013). The knowledge of one’s social surroundings becomes more important in social media due to the manifest location dependency—meaning one’s position in a relationship network basically defines what can be seen and done. No matter whether information originally came from a newspaper, television program, or blog, the information is eventually transmitted via one of the network members, highlighting the importance of relationship patterns and qualities in communication processes. That is, in any socially-networked environment, people rely not only on inferences about the original source quality (e.g., authority, expertise), but also on the social contexts through which the information is received and shared. Most previous research has focused mainly on the former (i.e., source quality) while overlooking both the latter (i.e., social contexts) and any possible interactions between the two (Metzger, Flanagin, & Medders, 2010). The current study is believed to bridge the gap so that communication processes in the social media environment could be understood in a more systematic fashion.

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.

Social media marketing offers a vast array of opportunities for fashion brands to engage with their core customers and the broader digital audience. However, they still struggle with the question of which specific strategies can be successfully applied to enhance the effectiveness social media marketing (Rampton, 2014). This study investigates how a luxury brand’ social media brand page satisfaction and brand love are positively related to desired marketing outcomes (i.e., word-of-mouth and loyalty intentions toward the luxury brand). On the basis of Customer Value Theory (Sweeny & Soutar, 2001) and Brand Love Theory (Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006), this study developed and tested a dual impact model encompassing both brand page value (i.e., information, financial, brand interaction, social interaction, and entertainment value) and brand value (i.e., inner self-and social self-expressive value). Usable responses from 290 U.S. consumers following at least one luxury brand on social media were used for data analysis. The results of structural equation modeling showed that information, brand interaction, and entertainment values were positively related to brand page satisfaction while financial and social interaction values were not. In addition, inner self-and social self-expressive brand values were positively related to brand love. In addition, brand page satisfaction was positively related to WOM intentions but was not related to loyalty intentions whereas brand love was positively related to both WOM and loyalty intentions. Furthermore, mediation analysis showed that brand page satisfaction fully mediated the influences of information, brand interaction, and entertainment values on WOM intentions. In addition, brand love fully mediated the influences of social self-expressive value on WOM and loyalty intentions. Our study suggests that social media brand pages providing unique value propositions can reap benefits in terms of enhanced brand page satisfaction, highlighting the crucial role of “content excellence” in social media marketing (Holt, 2016). Our findings also show that brand followers tend to love a particular luxury brand when the brand helps express their self and when the symbolic meaning of the brand is integrated into their own self-identity. Thus, one of the roles of social media marketing is in elucidating brand followers how to express their inner states guided by the desire to signal their self-identity not to others but to themselves (Berger & Heath, 2017).

Chinese economic develops fast and have became the second economic entity all around the world. The development of economic pushes the popularize of mobile clients. Accordingly, whenever and wherever the consumers are, they can acquire and share information about productions directly, e-word-of-mouth (eWOM) becomes one of the important part of online marketing. Customers prefer to trust opinion leaders and real users’ feedback rather than the advertisements which are made by companies. The choice preference of information source accelerate the development of social media. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association, have grown rapidly and have advocated for the burgeoning new industry. (Robert V. et al., 2010) Marketers and sociologists have recognized the importance of the phenomenon of word of mouth, for more than half a century, proposing, for example, that WOM affects the majority of all purchase decisions (Brooks 1957; Dichter 1966).They find that the “friend who recommends a tried and trusted product” rather than the “salesman who tries to get rid of merchandise” (Dichter 1966, p. 165). Marketing scholars has evolved from a transaction orientation to one based on relationships (Vargo and Lusch 2004) Consumers are regarded as active coproducers of value and meaning, whose WOM use of marketing communications can be idiosyncratic, creative, and even resistant (Brown, Kozinets, and Sherry 2003; Kozinets 2001; Muñiz and Schau 2005; Thompson and Sinha 2008) Therefore, when the behavior is on/off, impact measured as probability of purchase can differ substantially from impact measured as attitude change (Robert East 2015). This study will select significant respondents from Chinese social media users as sample. The WOM communication is send information to marketers from the market-based message interaction community ,gathering consumers with same interests. In this study, not only structural equation modeling (SEM) will be used to test research model. But also using the fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) and SPSS, the first method attempts to find a new configuration to verify the finding and the SPSS can be used to make reliability analysis and validity analysis. WOM of the research model will also be tested by fsQCA and SPSS to obtain the conclusion about what extent do two communication ways influence consumers’ purchase preference. We want to explore different results between opinion leaders and the real users in different communication ways. Based on the results we will give some implication to both marketing scholars and practitioners.

Social media are increasingly becoming a strategic vehicle of modern companies’ way of communicating and interacting with consumers. Actually, social media marketing (SMM) has recently emerged as an effective two-way communication channel able to provide the sharing and exchange of information, ideas, and user-generated content in virtual environments. This is especially true for fashion brands, which are progressively creating interactive platforms such as online brand communities in order to enhance their consumer-based brand equity (CBE), interpreted as the consumers’ assessment of a company brand image, identity, and value. Scholars have widely analyzed the relationship between a company’s SMM and brand equity, thus finding a direct positive impact of the five main constructs depicting perceived SMM activities, namely entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization, and word of mouth, on CBE. Despite this relevant scholarly interest, the consumer behavioral responses linking a company perceived SMM activities and CBE have been largely neglected. Actually, consumers’ benefits from virtual environments and online brand experience may represent significant elements marketing strategists should focus on in order to enhance a company’s brand equity. Building on the uses and gratifications theory and experiential marketing, we develop a conceptual model that unpacks such linkages, by relating SMM activities, perceived benefits of using social media, online brand experience, and CBE. Specifically, we interpret SMM activities as significant brand-related stimuli able to influence consumers’ cognitive, social interactive, personal interactive, and hedonic benefits, which in turn influence consumers’ sensory, affective, behavioral, and intellectual online experience. Moreover, we investigate the experiential responses of consumers that mostly affect a company’s brand equity, which finally impacts on consumers’ purchase intention of the fashion brand. The model is validated using structural equation modeling (SEM) on a sample of real users of online brand communities operating in the fashion industry. Our sample is composed of Millennials, which currently represent the most influential grown-digital generation of consumers. Overall, our findings shed light on consumers’ online behavioral and experiential responses to a company’s perceived SMM activities, thus proposing strategic implications for the management of brand online communities and suggesting interesting possibilities of future research on social media and fashion consumers.

“Today I was persuaded to spend more than $200 on a lotion in Barneys. The price difference (between online and store) is $75. However, the store salesman told me that it is only few dollars way! I felt humiliated by the upscale society.” Lawrence, a 22 years old male Chinese who is an international undergraduate student studying marketing in a public U.S. university, posted the above status on his WeChat moments. With its fast growing economy and huge population, China has become one of the most lucrative markets for luxury brands (Zhan and He 2012). In fact, China has surpassed Japan and become the No.1 luxury products’ spender in the world, accounting more than one-quarter of the global luxury brand expenditure (Yousuf 2012). According to Bian & Company’s study (2016), $ 17.6 billion were spent on Chinese luxury market in 2015. In the past, the core Chinese luxury consumers are female middle-class and up-class consumers (Zhan and He 2012). In recent years, the faces of Chinese luxury consumers have gradually changed: more and more Chinese luxury goods buyers are males, and they actually spend more money on average than women do (Chen, 2016). In addition, the Chinese culture is different from the Western culture (Li, Li and Kambelle 2012). Accordingly, Chinese luxury consumption follows its own patterns and trends, which may not always resemble those of the Western world (Li, Li and Kambelle 2012). Previous studies have revealed unique characteristics of Chinese luxury consumers, in terms of motivations, for example, Mianzi (prestigious face) (Li and Su 2007; Wang and Ahuvia 1998), subcultures (Wang, Sun and Song 2011), public meaning (Wang, Sun and Song 2011), gift giving (Li and Su 2007), and reference groups (Li and Su 2007). All of those studies emphasized the cultural and social dimensions of luxury brands’ consumption. Given these distinctive characteristics of the Chinese market, Western luxury brands have made use of all possible communication methods to connect with Chinese consumers. One of the seemingly promising channels is the Internet. The Internet breaks down geographical and temporal boundaries (Kozinets 1999), and enables Western luxury brands to connect with overseas markets. Among all the digital advertising tools, social media have become increasingly important in the Chinese market (Kim and Ko 2012). In 2015 alone, there were 574 million active mobile social media users in China (Kemp 2015). Due to the large number of social media users, Western luxury brands, like Burberry (Phan, Thomas, and Heine 2011), have started practicing social media advertising (Okonkwo 2009). Accordingly, several challenges emerge. With the rising popularity of social media, Chinese consumers increasingly demand Western luxury brands’ social presence online. Looking at the bright side, social media allows Western luxury brands to show a desirable brand image (Okonkwo 2009; Tynan, McKechnie, and Chhoun 2010) and maintain customer relationship (Kim and Ko 2012). However, concerns about negative consumer comments and their potential impact on brand images (Britten 2013; Macnamara and Zerfass 2012; Singer 2014) loom large. Thus, it remains a question whether and to what extent Western luxury brands embrace the interactive media. Moreover, it is unclear how Chinese consumers perceive their social media advertising effort. In particular, how Chinese young males, the new market segment, interpret luxury brands’ social media advertising presence is an untapped research field. Thus, the purpose of this study is to fill the research gap by exploring how Chinese young male consumers understand and interpret luxury brands’ social media advertising. Given the exploratory nature of the study, a qualitative research approach is adopted (Creswell 2013).

Despite its innovative and avant-garde reputation, the luxury industry initially began showing a very low commitment to new online marketing tools and it held a conservative approach to selling when compared to other sectors. Nowadays, the context has dramatically changed and luxury brands are approaching with an increasing interest social networks as well as the online selling. This research aims to clarify the current strategic approaches of the players in the different luxury markets towards the social commerce phenomenon, from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view. The purpose is to test a framework that can be used to classify luxury companies’ strategies regarding social media adoptions based on actual theories on social media. Four strategies related to the social media adoption by luxury brands have been identified: the Social brand ambassadors strategy class (low promotional content percentage and low social commerce score) includes those brands that use social media for entertainment and user engagement; the Social showcases strategy (high promotional content percentage and low social commerce score) includes those brands that use their social accounts as online catalogues; the Social infotainers strategy (low promotional content percentage and high social commerce score) includes those brands that scored high in social commerce, mainly because of the provision of informative content and brand–consumer interactions, but they were linked to more entertainment-oriented actions rather than product-related ones. Finally, the Social sellers strategy (high promotional content percentage and high social commerce score) includes those brands that have integrated social commerce into their online strategies and have subsequently exploited the potential of social media to drive online and offline sales. The database is built using original data from a content analysis of 100 luxury brands’ postings on five different social media platforms – namely Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest. The total final sample included 12,132 Facebook posts, 21,216 tweets on Twitter, 1,105 YouTube videos, 10,138 Instagram pictures/videos, and 117,359 Pinterest pictures. The main findings are the following: luxury brands adopt at this stage the Social brand ambassadors and Social showcases approaches; brands belonging to the perfumery, cosmetics, jewelry and watches markets show a more developed attitude towards the social commerce; in other luxury markets, such as wine and spirits, brands still adopt a Social Brand Ambassador strategy, while managers should increase the promotional content in order develop the social commerce. The Fashion & Accessories brands show a positive relationship between the percentage of promotional content and social commerce score. This means that social commerce adoptions depend on the single brand’s strategic choices, ranging from low adoption to best practices. In general, social commerce is still not widespread; many luxury fashion brands, while presenting new collections during fashion weeks, focused on fashion shows, backstage events, and celebrities, rather than really promoting the new product lines with materials, availability, and purchasing indications. This social media approach is mainly focused on increasing brand awareness rather than increasing social commerce. If managers aim at increasing social commerce they should add direct call to action and link the contents to e-commerce market place. Automotive brands are concentrated in the Social showcases area; This sector encounters natural limitations in the introduction of social commerce due to the difficulty of selling products through the digital channel; many brands have, however, devised strategies to approach their users during the purchasing process prior to the actual transaction to take advantage of the increasing ROPO phenomenon. Conversely, the Perfumes & Cosmetics sector shows a highly fragmented approach to social commerce. The content analysis based on single post contents has shown that actually the contents are based on pictures of the products, or the brand, information on events, and a large and increasing presence of video posts based storytelling about the history of the product and the brand heritage; the most social commerce oriented posts are picture or video focused on the product. The commercial contents that aim at developing the see now, buy now approach are mainly based on video shows.