Getting more likes: the impact of narrative person and brand image on customer–brand interactions

Yaping Chang (), You Li (), Jun Yan () and V. Kumar ()
Additional contact information
Yaping Chang: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
You Li: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Jun Yan: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
V. Kumar: Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2019, vol. 47, issue 6, No 4, 1027-1045

Abstract: Abstract Although in-feed social ads on social media are rapidly growing worldwide, scarce attention is paid to the content strategy of brands presenting in a human way. The present research examines if and how choosing narrative person (first-person vs. third-person) in the ads to match brand image (warmth vs. competence) can gain more user “likes” in the context of WeChat Moment Ads. Through five studies, we find that first-person narration alongside warm images gain more likes because it boosts the user’s motivation of social belonging, while third-person narration accompanied by competent images earns more likes by stimulating the motivation of self-enhancement. We also confirm predictions that a relevant individual variable (self-monitoring) moderates the effects of different matches on liking intention. This study offers theoretical contributions to research on advertising content strategy and advertising language on social media, and it holds practical implications for marketers launching in-feed social ads on social media.

Keywords: In-feed social ads; Brand image; Narrative person; User likes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11747-019-00632-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:joamsc:v:47:y:2019:i:6:d:10.1007_s11747-019-00632-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer ... gement/journal/11747

DOI: 10.1007/s11747-019-00632-2

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science is currently edited by John Hulland, Anne Hoekman and Mark Houston

More articles in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().