Facebook Marketing for Fashion Apparel Brands

101 Pages·2014·1.53 MB·English

by  Jung, Yeo Jin

FACEBOOK MARKETING FOR FASHION APPAREL BRANDS: EFFECT OF OTHER

CONSUMER POSTINGS AND TYPE OF BRAND COMMENT ON BRAND

TRUST AND PURCHASE INTENTION

Yeo Jin Jung

Thesis Prepared f or the Degree of

MASTER O F SCIENCE

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS

Decemb er 2013

APPROVED:

Jiyoung Kim, Major Professor
Bharath Josiam, Committee Member
Tammy Kinley, Chair of the Department of
Merchandising and Digital Retailing
Judith A. Forney, Committee Member and
Dean of the College of Merchandising,
Hospitality and Tourism
Mark Wardell, Dean of the Toulouse Graduate
School
Jung, Yeo Jin. Facebook Marketing for Fashion Apparel Brands: Effect of Other
Consumer Postings and Type of Brand Comment on Brand Trust and Purchase Intention. Master
of Science (Merchandising), December 2013, 94 pp., 6 tables, 1 figure, references, 112 titles.
Social networking sites are a major networking tool for consumer interactions as they
provide a platform for communication, socialization, and learning activity. Subsequently, social
media has become an important marketing tool for advertising companies’ messages. As a
result, fashion brands such as H&M and Victoria’s Secret started to show more brand ads on
Facebook. Facebook is one of the most powerful social networking sties due to its ability to
reach to broad consumer groups through a brand page. However, research regarding this topic is
limited as the social networking sites is relatively a new phenomenon. Therefore, the purpose of
this research is to examine the effect of the brand’s comments in attenuating (enhancing)
negative (positive) influence of other consumer’s postings on brand trust and purchase intention
of other consumer’s postings on social media.
Findings from this study revealed that there is no moderating effect of brand comments
of the relationship between other consumer’s postings and brand trust, while positive other
consumer’s postings has a significant effect on consumers’ brand trust. Also, there were no
significant differences among other consumer’s postings, brand comments and purchase
intention relationships. These findings add to the previous literature explains that brand should
interact with consumers frequently in order to induce positive other consumer’s postings to
develop brand trust. By using the consumer socialization theory to investigate Facebook
marketing, this study provides insights and information on consumer attitudes and behaviors
related to Facebook brand page.
Copyright 2013
by
Yeo Jin Jung
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to give my greatest appreciation to God for His endless love and guidance in
my life. By His grace, I have the greatest blessing of meetings with my family, Dr. Jiyoung Kim,
Dr. Judith Forney, and Dr. Bharath Josiam as I am studying at University of North Texas.
First, I would like to express my greatest appreciation to my advisor, Dr. Jiyoung Kim for
her continued guidance and caring during all phases of my academia works at University of
North Texas. Her tolerance, support, encouragement, and inspirations helped me to start this
journey of earning Master’s degree. I would also like to extend my appreciation to my committee
members, Dr. Judith Forney, and Dr. Bharath Josiam for their precious guidance, comments and
suggestions which helped me improve my thesis.
Second, I would also like to thank my friends and mentors at churches of Dallas and
Busan, Korea. I thank them for understanding my joy and troubles and for their sincere prayers. I
also express appreciation to faculty and staff members for helping me as I was studying and
working at College of Merchandising, Hospitality & Tourism. The time spent together with them
was an inspirational lesson to me.
My special appreciation was saved for last and it goes to my family, my parents, my
brother, my grandmas and my aunt for their endless love, prayer and support. Especially my
parents, they are my motivation and role model for my life regardless at the time and distance
between us. I also want to thank my brother for being there and for encouraging and making me
laugh whenever I was discouraged and depressed. All this support helped me to complete this
degree.
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13 NKJV)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES.............................................................................................. vi

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Problem Statement .................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Significance of Research ......................................................................................... 5
1.3 Purpose of the Study ............................................................................................... 7
1.4 Hypotheses .............................................................................................................. 7
1.5 Definition of Terms ................................................................................................. 8

CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................... 10
2.1 Overview ............................................................................................................... 10
2.2 Literature Review .................................................................................................. 10
2.2.1 Social Media and Social Networking Site ................................................ 10
2.2.2 Facebook ................................................................................................... 12
2.2.3 Consumer Interaction with Other Consumers and Brands on Facebook .. 15
2.2.4 Brand Trust ............................................................................................... 17
2.2.5 Purchase Intention ..................................................................................... 19
2.3 Theoretical Background ........................................................................................ 20
2.4 Consumer Socialization Theory ............................................................................ 20
2.5 Hypothesis Development ...................................................................................... 22
2.5.1 Other Consumer’s Postings, Brand Comment and Brand Trust ............... 22
2.5.2 Other Consumer’s Postings, Brand Comment and Purchase Intention .... 24

CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................ 28
3.1 Overview ............................................................................................................... 28
3.2 Research Design .................................................................................................... 28
3.2.1 Stimuli Development ................................................................................ 29
3.2.2 Survey Questionnaire ................................................................................ 30
3.3 Pretest .................................................................................................................... 31
3.3.1 Procedure .................................................................................................. 31
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3.3.2 Pretest Analysis ......................................................................................... 32
3.4 Data Collection ...................................................................................................... 32
3.4.1 Main Test Participants .............................................................................. 32
3.4.2 Procedure .................................................................................................. 33

CHAPTER 4. ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................... 34
4.1 Overview ............................................................................................................... 34
4.2 Sample Description ............................................................................................... 34
4.3 Scale Validation .................................................................................................... 35
4.4 Hypothesis Testing ................................................................................................ 36
4.4.1 Other Consumer Postings, Brand Comment and Brand Trust (H1, H2a,
H2b, H3) ................................................................................................... 36
4.4.2 Other Consumer Postings, Brand Comment and Purchase Intention (H4,
H5a, H5b, H6) ........................................................................................... 37

CHAPTER 5. DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................ 39
5.1 Overview ............................................................................................................... 39
5.2 Empirical Findings ................................................................................................ 39
5.3 Implications ........................................................................................................... 43
5.3.1 Theoretical Implications ........................................................................... 43
5.3.2 Managerial Implications ........................................................................... 44
5.4 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research ................................................. 45

APPENDIX A. PRETEST SURVEY .......................................................................................... 48

APPENDIX B. PRETEST ANALYSIS ...................................................................................... 52

APPENDIX C. MAIN TEST SURVEY ...................................................................................... 65

APPENDIX D. MESSAGES FOR MAIN TEST EXPERIMENT .............................................. 69

APPENDIX E. MAIN TEST EXPERIMENT STIMULI............................................................ 76

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 86

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Page
Table 3.1 Factorial Design of Other Consumer’s Postings and Brand Comment ....................... 28
Table 4.1 Sample Description (N = 530) ..................................................................................... 34
Table 4.2 Reliability Scales of Brand Trust and Purchase Intention ........................................... 36
Table 4.3 ANOVA Summary for Other Consumer’s Postings, Brand Comments and Brand Trust
....................................................................................................................................................... 37
Table 4.4 Mean Comparison between the Types of Other Consumer’s Postings and Brand Trust
....................................................................................................................................................... 37
Table 4.5 ANOVA Summary for Other Consumer’s Postings, Brand Comments and Purchase
Intention ........................................................................................................................................ 38
Table 4.6 Hypotheses Results Table ............................................................................................ 38

Figure 2.1. Proposed research framework. ................................................................................... 27
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Problem Statement
As the Internet evolved into a platform for communication, socialization, and learning
activity, social media and social networking sites have gained popularity as the major networking
tool for consumer interactions (Purnawirawan et al., 2012; Seraj, 2012). Social media has
become a medium that connects people with increasing numbers of digital media
options (Edosomwan et al., 2011), and often functions as an important platform not only for
strengthening friendship but also for advertising messages (Coulter & Roggeneen, 2012; Pinto &
Mansfield, 2011; Vallor, 2012; Yousif, 2012). The number of social media users around the
world has rapidly increased in the last few years with approximately 60% of Americans were
estimated to use social media in 2010 (Patterson, 2012).
Social networking sites, “especially friendship-oriented sites like Facebook,” support and
strengthen friendships as they reach not only common interests groups but also heterogeneous
population through the process of sharing lives (Vallor, 2012, p. 196). At 901 million users,
Facebook is often referred to as a “Friend-Network” and has the highest number of active
internet users (Coulter & Roggeneen, 2012; Wallace et al., 2012). On Facebook, users create
individual profiles where they can share personal information, such as messages and photos, with
people who they add as their friends (Coulter & Roggeneen, 2012; Edosomwan et al., 2011).
Facebook marketing refers to the process of gaining consumer’s attention through a
Facebook site. It has become a popular tool for public relations and advertising brands to reach
thousands or millions of people at once (Bushelow, 2012). Neff (2010) suggested Facebook has
become “the biggest relationship-marketing provider” for some brands. This has developed from
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brands developing relationships with consumers by interacting through consumers’ user
generated contents on Facebook. Neff (2010) also implied Facebook has a larger web-presence
for brand marketers when compared to official websites and e-mail marketing because the sheer
number of users on Facebook exceeds those who visit the official websites and read promotional
emails (Neff, 2010).
According to Zastrow (2013), 51% of Americans age of 12 and up use Facebook, and
they spend average 6 hours 35 minutes on Facebook per month. In addition, 80% of U.S. social
networking users indicated Facebook is their most preferred network site for connecting with
brands (Zastrow, 2013). More consumers are migrating to Facebook while consumer traffic in
official websites is slowing down for various reasons (Neff, 2010; Zastrow, 2013). A basic
principal of Facebook marketing is that “people share, read, and generally engage more with any
type of content when it’s surfaced through Friends and people they know and chose to trust”
(Zastrow, 2013). These social connections enhance the ways marketers reach consumers (Delo,
2013).
A Facebook brand page refers to a public profile of the brand, operating in similar
manner to individual user profile, and allowing the brand to create a community of consumers
who collectively share information (Bushelow, 2012). This is an important venue for marketing
as it allows brands to communicate with both current and prospective consumers. It also builds
relationships when users find unique brand pages through Facebook’s internal search engine
(Zhang, 2010). A fundamental rule to increase consumer’s traffic on a Facebook brand page over
a brand’s official website is to increase the frequency of content updates and communication
with consumers (Neff, 2010).
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Many fashion brands, including fashion apparel and retail brands started to use Facebook
brand pages as part of their promotion. Their common approach to attracting consumers is to
create a brand page that consumers can join when they click the “Like” button. Michaelidou et al.
(2011) found brands which use Facebook brand pages as their marketing tool for advertising, do
so by posting announcements about new collections, events, and promotions, and communicating
with consumers. For fashion brands, a Facebook brand page is a helpful marketing tool as it can
reach multiple audiences across the social media platform; increase brand awareness through
various promotional events and offerings with an exclusive price; and collect comments and
reviews from consumers regarding their products through a brand page wall (Indvik, 2010;
Pagani et al., 2011). These consumer postings provide valuable insight such as quality of
products and services, brand page contents and data for the brands from the consumer’s
perspective on (Harris & Rae, 2009). Among the top 50 pages in Facebook, Victoria’s Secret
was ranked 18 among brand pages over all categories and the number 1 as a fashion brand
(Tobin, 2013).Victoria’s Secret is an example of a company uses their Facebook brand page
effectively by facilitating consumer discussion on recent product lines, sharing related photos,
and the viral spreading of the promotional campaigns and events through its 22 million fans
(Facebook.com, 2012; Tobin, 2013).
While Facebook marketing is a popular strategy for brands, there is a debate over its
effectiveness due to a lack of control and its associated cost. A difficulty observed with
Facebook marketing, the difficulty to act quickly and decisively to avoid the risk of losing
money and consumers compared to traditional promotions (Social media marketing university,
2012). There also is a possible risk of damaged brand image due to uncontrollable consumer
posts which can be very difficult to undo (Social media marketing university, 2012). Delo (2013)
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