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By Emily Klein

When you think of a brand, does it have a certain personality? How about a certain gender? The answer to this is almost certainly yes.

Customers make perceptions based on a brand’s attributes, history, and values. All these qualities can add up to represent the brand in a certain manner, whether masculine or feminine. Brand gender is the masculine and feminine personality traits that are both appropriate and applicable to brands.  Most brands are interpreted as either masculine or feminine by their consumers. Research studies have revealed that brand gender, a key aspect of brand personality, might influence customer responses to brands. Mixed-target brands with strong gender identities, whether feminine or masculine, struggle to reach both men and women, especially in symbolic product categories (Azar, Aimé, & Ulrich, 2018).

Brand Gender v.s Brand Sex

Brands are divided into two distinct and universal dimensions, masculine brand personality traits and feminine brand personality traits. Brand gender must be separated from brand sex. Brand sex is a demographic attribute that refers to the human sex-linked to a brand, seeing a brand as a man or a woman. Brand gender is a collection of behavioral qualities that can be described as a collection of human personality attributes associated with masculinity and femininity that are applicable and relevant to brands. For example, Dr. Squatch is a hygiene brand that is seen as a mal when referring to brand gender. They market mainly towards men and use advertisements that are adventurous, aggressive, brave, daring, dominant, and sturdy. However, Dove is seen as a feminine brand even though they sell products for both men and women. Dove uses advertisements that are fragile, graceful, sensitive, sweet, and tender.

(Photo from Unsplash – Tim Mossholder)

Gender and Brand Loyalty

Customers’ gender identities are often created, enhanced, or realized through the brands they select, according to research, and brand gender has a positive impact on consumers’ affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses to brands. According to a previous study, brand personality has a substantial impact on affective responses to brands and encourages emotional commitment to them (Vacas de Carvalho, Azar, & Machado, 2020). There is proof that a clear gender positioning of a brand has a direct effect on brand love and explains the brand effect, preference, and loyalty. A recent study from Science Direct showed that women are more likely to buy from an unknown brand than men.  

Gender and Loyalty on Social Media

Both a more favorable view about a brand and recurring patronage are examples of loyalty. Consumers’ feelings, preferences, and dedication to a brand are referred to as attitudinal loyalty. Customer loyalty on social media is very important as it is a huge marketing factor for businesses. Potential customers are more likely to trust other customers’ testimonials rather than a paid advertisement by the brand. The previous study has demonstrated that brand gender, a key aspect of brand personality, might influence consumer–brand responses, regarding social media. Companies have been pouring more time and money into social media, particularly Facebook, in recent years in order to build stronger relationships with customers and influence relevant behavioral outcomes (Vacas de Carvalho, Azar, & Machado, 2020). However, the topic of how social media brand strategies might help consumers create and strengthen crucial responses, including brand loyalty, is continuously being explored. This study was meant to explore this further and see if brand gender had an impact on loyalty in general and on social media.

The Study

Following the research, it was discovered that feminine brand personality qualities had no significant impact on social media contribution. Consumer contributions to brand-related content on social media were significantly influenced by just male brand personality attributes (Vacas de Carvalho, Azar, & Machado, 2020). As a result, just one dimension of brand gender, namely masculine brand personality qualities, was found to have an impact on consumers’ contributions to brand-related material. This method has a detrimental influence on customer perceptions of master brands, with a greater negative impact on feminine master brands than masculine master brands (Azar, Aimé, & Ulrich, 2018). This is important to know because it can help brands to portray themselves as masculine in order to increase brand loyalty.

Why it Matters

Before you start a brand, you may want to consider a few things. What will be your colors? Do you have a symbol? How will you market yourself? These elements may seem simple but all of them will associate your brand with a certain gender. All these points can be wrapped into the idea that consumers often perceive brands as a certain gender. This can be important to remember as you enter the professional world, particularly in regard to advertising decisions. This study can help you know how to appeal to their target market and what gender characteristics their consumers would like to see.

Resources

Azar, S., Aimé, I., & Ulrich, I. (2018, May 30). Brand gender-bending: The impact of an endorsed

brand strategy on consumers’ evaluation of gendered mixed-target brands. Retrieved February 07, 2022, from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EJM-04-2017-0278/full/html

Vacas de Carvalho, L., Azar, S. L., & Machado, J. C. (2020). Bridging the gap between brand

gender and brand loyalty on social media: Exploring the mediating effects. Journal of Marketing Management, 36(11-12), 1125-1152. doi:10.1080/0267257x.2020.1740293

By Eva Walton

Going through a global pandemic has been life-changing for every person in the world. It has become so prevalent in our day-to-day lives that it is now the new “normal”; no matter how much we want to escape it. How often nowadays do you go to the store with mask-required signs on the door? How many emails do you receive a day detailing the rising number of cases or the need to get vaccinated? The information regarding the pandemic is surrounding us, but it is especially apparent on all forms of social media.

Social Media VS Corona Virus

An infodemic, which is defined as “an overabundance of information- some accurate and some not- that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it,” has been being tracked on social media to dispel rumors and other misleading information pertaining to COVID-19 (Islam, 2020). Consider all the times you have been on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook in the past two years and have seen crazy rumors such as “drinking bleach may kill the virus” or that “COVID was a biological weapon manufactured by the CIA” (Islam, 2020). These rumors, stigmas, and conspiracy theories may seem outlandish to most people, have created a multitude of real challenges for the public health field.

(Photo from @schluditsch)

What Does This Mean for the Public Health Community?

Health care workers around the world have been deemed as unsung heroes. However, since the beginning of the pandemic, these heroes have been on the receiving end of physical assault, bullying, and discrimination from their neighbors and landlords (Islam, 2020). The people who are responsible for providing care and aid in dangerous situations or when one is sick are the same people who are receiving mistreatment for simply doing their job. This backlash has gone deeper than hatred for healthcare workers and has stemmed into severe stigmatization and blame on specific races and nationalities. In many high-profile social media posts, the Corona Virus was being referred to as the “Chinese Virus”, leading to reports of physical and violent attacks towards healthcare workers of Asian origin. Apart from the mistreatment of healthcare workers, misinformation has also led to organizations practicing false treatments. One of the popular myths that were brought to reality was that the consumption of highly concentrated alcohol could kill the virus. This led to approximately 800 people dying, 5,876 hospitalized, and 60 developed complete blindness (Islam, 2020). This is just one of many examples of how stigmas and rumors among social media have become extremely harmful to the health care industry.

Panic in a Pandemic

It is no secret that public panic and misinformation can lead to catastrophe. If it is rumored that a huge snowstorm or hurricane is coming, ill-prepared people will rush to the stores to stockpile canned goods, water bottles, batteries, and many other necessities. This has also rung true amidst the pandemic. No one was fully aware of what to expect regarding COVID-19 and the quarantines, leading to panic buying of essential healthcare products such as face masks, hand sanitizer, and toilet paper (Islam, 2020). Videos began emerging online via TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter that showed stores completely wiped out of products and prices of hand sanitizers and face masks being jacked up to astronomical prices. The shortages of essential goods contributed to hospital and home transmission of COVID-19 in several countries around the world (Islam, 2020). If you find yourself coming across information regarding the pandemic, make sure you are fact-checking and doing proper research, to ensure the information is factual and safe.

(Photo from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54440662)

What Can We Trust Anymore?

Amid the pandemic, social media became a war zone of “fake news” and a breeding ground for hatred, misinformation, lies, and rumors. It became intoxicating for many users and made many struggles with their ability to trust the medical community, health professionals, and the government. With high-profile officials, such as former President Donald Trump, causing an uproar with their social media habits, it turned a global health crisis into a political battle, with friends turning against friends and family turning against family. The mistrust with these communities of leaders impacted healthcare-seeking behaviors such as seeking COVID-19 testing and motivated people not to get vaccinated or receive antibiotics (Islam, 2020).

Where Do We Go from Here?

It is important to keep in mind that while social media can lay the groundwork for lies and deception, it has also created a community of real-time information and solutions to help cope with the pandemic as well. Considering the pandemic, we now have access to virtual doctors’ appointments, reliable information from all over the globe, and a live discussion about symptoms and reactions to ongoing diagnoses. Overall, coming across information on the internet can be proven threatening in some ways however, here are resources to fact check and cancel out the “fake news”:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/how-covid-spreads.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fabout%2Findex.html

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

https://www.who.int/

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

By Davis Upton

In today’s highly connected network environment, the common use of social media is changing the environment for branding. The interactive, participatory, and open natures of social media offer brands the opportunity to connect online content to consumers. This allows brands to catch the consumer’s attention through multiple brand social media strategies in digital.

Some common brand social media response strategies to increase digital customer engagement involve non-verbal and verbal cues generated or created by enterprises on social media. Response strategies consist of three categories:

(1) Affective response identified with emojis, humor, and self-expression as key features that facilitate social interactions.

(2) Interactive response involving asking questions, agreeing, showing appreciation, or supporting others in ways that help form a personalized impression of the interlocutor.

(3) Cohesive response, which serves to maintain or build a sense of community or group commitment, reduce social distance, and enhance brand consensus.

These brand social media strategies in digital help increase the effectiveness of the brand’s digital customer engagement on social media. Consumer social media practices such as browsing, liking, sharing, commenting can be conceptualized as behavioral manifestations of digital customer brand engagement. Digital customer engagement is growing in importance as a source of brand value since it increases consumer loyalty and affects brand performance. 

The effective use of brand social media strategies to improve digital customer engagement remains an ongoing challenge for enterprises. However, with strong brand strategy selection, design, and management based on social media. Great success can occur like in the case of Wendy’s.

Distinctive Brand Personality, Authenticity, and Long-Term Consistency

Wendy’s is a brand that is engaging digital customers successfully. The reason being is because of their approach to engagement with digital customers and their distinct brand voice. Wendy’s voice and brand are unique to them, but even IMC students can learn from their overall strategy and apply those lessons to their own social media accounts.

This article will explore the impact of brand social media strategies on digital customer engagement. This is extremely relevant to the practice of Integrated Marketing Communications and the incorporating practices of advertising, marketing, and public relations into an integrated plan. This article will also help provide a reference for the industry practitioner in his brand social media strategy selection, design, and management.

Here are four big things we can take away from Wendy’s social media accounts.

(1) They have a distinctive brand personality that includes constant zingers to users and competitors alike.

(2) They are extremely authentic. People can tell that their posts are written by an actual person and not some sort of automated curation tool. No computer could come up with the clever, highly entertaining posts that they share.

(3) They are consistent in the long term in their efforts to post often.

(4) Thanks to the immediacy and constant accessibility of the internet. Wendy’s social media team is extremely responsive to consumers interacting with their social media channels.

Nowadays the brand is the message the company wants to communicate to its consumers. So, the response strategies that Wendy’s is utilizing can be defined as “the communication process by which brands generate non-verbal and verbal cues in order to enhance intimacy with (potential) consumers.” People want responses to all their social media interactions with a particular brand, and they want them now. Wendy’s is ready!

Final Thoughts

When brands like Wendy’s reflect their interpersonal or social relationships and actively construct consumer brand relationships through social media. They can gain a competitive advantage against other similar brands. Also, companies with engaging social media branded content, an adoptive responsive approach to consumers, and research on digital customer engagement can do the same. Furthermore, these brands are noticing that creating content and building an online reputation with a particular target audience community is essential. Not only for the company but the brand image as well.

Wendy’s has a professional witty team supporting the brand, that we can mimic, and all adapt to the strategies they use. They’ve created and maintained a distinct voice that relies heavily on authenticity, and are now known for their exceptional responses, both customer service and otherwise. While most brands desire exchanges that lead the consumer to the purchase or consumption of their products or services. Wendy’s attempts to go beyond that and consistently show their customers that they care about what they want. So that an active relationship with the brand can develop into something that goes beyond the core transaction and turns into a longtime customer with a stable brand relationship to Wendy’s.

References

Anon, (2022). Nimble.com. https://www.nimble.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/1_g-cLxDjYRVjVjaWM54holA.jpeg

Gotter, A. (2017, April 11). What Wendy’s Twitter Account Can Teach Us about “Doing Social.” Agorapulse. https://www.agorapulse.com/blog/wendys-twitter-account/

Liu, Y., Liu, X., Wang, M., & Wen, D. (2021). How to Catch Customers’ Attention? A Study on the Effectiveness of Brand Social Media Strategies in Digital Customer Engagement. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.800766

By: Seth Hunter

(Photo by Kim Kardashian)

How many of your favorite celebrities promote a new product daily on their social media accounts? Social media influencers (SMIs) are becoming more prevalent in marketing practices and are changing marketing in all areas. The digital age has introduced a new career field for social media whether it’s being an influencer with millions of followers or a small business using these platforms to promote their brand. Companies that partner with SMIs have to understand the risks of it, how to disclose their sponsorship, and also reflect their brand’s image in the advertisement.

Risks of Influencer Marketing

            Partnering with SMIs is an effective strategy that many brands have started to use over the past few years. These sponsorships can be seen on every social media platform, but they first gained popularity with celebrities like the Kardashians posting SugarBearHair vitamins on their Instagram accounts. Now anyone with a social following can be sponsored by brands whether it’s in exchange for free products or being paid for their exposure.

Having SMIs sponsor a brand comes with risks because if they do not have a good relationship with the public it can lead to the downfall of brands. “Cancel culture” has caused many social media influencers to leave the internet and lose any profit they previously received from social media. Cancel culture is when a person on the internet is exposed for things from their past and in turn receives hate from people on the internet, ultimately ending their social media careers. If a brand sponsors an influencer who becomes involved in a scandal leading to them being “canceled” has the risk of leaving a negative view on the brands that sponsored them. This can be seen with beauty guru James Charles who was dropped from brand sponsors after being “exposed” on social media.

Sponsorship Disclosure

            When a SMI is sponsored by a brand they must disclose that they are being sponsored by the brand they are promoting. Disclosing a sponsor is an easy way to tell their followers that anything they say is being paid for and to take this opinion with a grain of salt. These disclosures protect the influencers from lawsuits if a consumer sues a brand for selling products that don’t do what is promised.

The reason influencer marketing is so popular is because they are real people speaking positively about a product or a brand and their followers have a high level of trust in them. When this new marketing strategy began to rise on social media it was mainly celebrities advertising products and their followers had issues trusting whether they enjoyed the product or not. It was revealed that many of these celebrities didn’t use the products they advertised. Since then, some people refuse to trust influencers and the products they support. This is only a small percentage though because you can see hundreds of sponsorships daily even from small influencers who only reach a few thousand compared to millions.

Brand Image

            Many brands have realized the effectiveness of using influencers to promote their products hence why small influencers are now seen doing sponsorships without having millions of followers. Brands want to choose people that reflect the image they have created for their brand. Every brand has values that are important to them, and they would never purposely choose to do something that will diminish these values or their image. As indicated by the risks above, brands must be careful to avoid being caught in controversy when reaching out to SMIs. Hence the increase in brands partnering with small influencers who tend to have no controversies surrounding them and their followers support them fully. This is unlike large creators who have a large follower base but a lot of them are bot accounts or “haters.”

Smaller influencers tend to have a closer relationship with their followers, and this is a prime marketing opportunity for smaller companies. By paying for sponsorships with small influencers, which are more affordable compared to trying to get a television commercial or asking a popular influencer to sponsor their product, they can grow exponentially. This can be seen on the social media app TikTok which has launched many brands from small startups to multi-million-dollar companies.