Marijke De Veirman

Marketing through Instagram influencers: the impact of number of followers and product divergence on brand attitude

ABSTRACT Findings of two experimental studies show that Instagram influencers with high numbers of followers are found more likeable, partly because they are considered more popular. Important, only in limited cases, perceptions of popularity induced by the influencers number of followers increase the influencers perceived opinion leadership. However, if the influencer follows very few accounts him-/herself, this can negatively impact popular influencers’ likeability. Also, cooperating with influencers with high numbers of followers might not be the best marketing choice for promoting divergent products, as this decreases the brands perceived uniqueness and consequently brand attitudes.

Using games to raise awareness

Serious mini-games are promising tools to raise awareness. They motivate and enhance players interest in a particular topic, and only require a small time-investment. The games should focus on a single concept or learning goal and should be carefully designed. This study therefore explores the usefulness of informant design when developing such serious mini-games. Informant design is a framework that involves stakeholders at different stages of the design process depending on their expertise, which maximizes the value of their contributions. When developing awareness campaigns, various stakeholders, with different goals, need to be involved. Therefore, this paper suggests the use of informant design to increase the support of every stakeholder. The informant design framework provides an excellent design methodology for games as it is very flexible in time, place and number of participants in the co-design activities. The current study shows a case study indicating the usefulness of informant design when developing serious mini-games to increase advertising literacy among adolescents. Serious mini-games provide an interesting alternative to complex serious games.Informant design can increase the involvement of various stakeholders.A method to use informant design is provided.

Consumers’ Motivations for Lurking and Posting in Brand Communities on Social Networking Sites

Brand communities on social networking sites (SNSs) allow consumers to interact with brands in various ways differing in level of activeness and public visibility, ranging from rather passive and less publicly visible, to active and highly visible behaviors. For brands, brand-related behavior on SNSs is particularly desirable as consumers’ publicly visible interactions strengthen the brand’s online visibility, enhance brand equity, and may lead to better brand performance. This chapter discusses SNS brand communities, and provides an overview of previous research and an empirical study on how people interact with brands on SNSs, and what motivates them to do so.