Determinants of effective SoLoMo advertising from the perspective of social capital
| Date | 16 May 2016 |
| Pages | 326-346 |
| Published date | 16 May 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-10-2015-0155 |
| Author | Ya-Ching Lee |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval |
Determinants of effective
SoLoMo advertising from the
perspective of social capital
Ya-Ching Lee
Institute of Marketing Communication, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors affecting attitudes toward social-local-
mobile (SoLoMo) advertising from the perspective of social capital.
Design/methodology/approach –There were 422 respondents filling out the survey instrument.
The research model in this study is tested using SPSS 20 software.
Findings –The results show that structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions of social capital
have impacts on consumer attitudes toward SoLoMo advertising.
Originality/value –It contributes to the literature by advancing our knowledge about determinants
of effective SoLoMo advertising from the perspective of social capital. It also provides constructs
that constitute the three dimensions in advertising. The author expands the understanding of the
social relations under the context of business to consumer by adding substantial nuances to
the understanding of the role of social capital in advertising. Finally, this study provides
practical suggestions.
Keywords Capital, Advertising, Social, Mobile, Self-disclosure, SoLoMo
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Researchers have developed various persuasion models to examine the effects of media
advertising (e.g.Petty et al., 1983). Yet, heterogeneous responses of targeted customers in
a fragmented and diversified market still pose uniquechallenges to marketers to engage
in effective persuasion. Social-local-mobile (SoLoMo) marketing becomes a tactic that
advertisers use to communicate with targeted and potential customers in a semi-open
rhetorical style to allow the customers to generate advertiser-intended messages
(eMarketer, 2013). SoLoMo advertising, which refers to advertising information tailored
for a user based on the location of that mobile user on social media. For example, when
Alice is on Facebook with a smartphone or other mobile computing device, SoLoMo ad
messages and/or deals of local companies based on Alice’s location are displayed on her
social media.
SoLoMo advertising has become a vital way to promote products, develop brands,
and stimulate direct purchases because it offers more interpersonal connectivity,
intimacy, and sociability that contemporary mobile users value (Szewczyk, 2013).
However, marketers have difficulties to make decisions for the determination of
effective SoLoMo advertising.
This research makes several contributions to current advertising research: first,
empirical studies have seldom examined factors influencing attitudes toward
SoLoMo advertising. Few researchers (e.g. Chang et al., 2015) explored relationships
between various kinds of persuasive messages and message popularity. To fill the
research gap, this study explores these influencing factors. More importantly, we
focussed on factors that are crucial in social media: self-disclosure, self-presentation,
brand bonds in the investigation. Second, assessments of social media promotion
Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 68 No. 3, 2016
pp. 326-346
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-10-2015-0155
Received 1 October 2015
Revised 15 February 2016
Accepted 14 March 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2050-3806.htm
326
AJIM
68,3
have typically ignored the perceived value of social capital (Bourdieu, 1986).
Marketing scholars usually apply the social capital theory to examine marketers’
coordination and customer knowledge sharing activities. As a consequence, the
values of the structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions of social capital in
the current context remain ambiguous. In this study, we propose a theory rooted
in the social capital to address this gap. We propose that the targeted consumers
should be understood as a social community who can promote product and related
knowledge in a speedy and efficient way. The purpose of this study is to help
advertisers generate effective advertising with a customer focus. As social capital is
not a uni-dimensional concept (Putnam, 1995), we investigate different facets of social
capital in terms of three dimensions in this research; examine how each facet
influences consumer attitudes toward SoLoMo advertising; integrate the three
dimensions; and argue that consumers can develop high level of social capital. As a
whole, the constructed model of this study demonstrates the values of the structural,
relational, and cognitive dimensions of social capital in SoLoMo advertising.
The results reveal a discrepancy in determinants and paths of SoLoMo advertising
attitudes. The substantial nuances of each dimension offer insights for marketing
practitioners to improve effectiveness of SoLoMo advertising for amplifying or
suppressing advertising attitudes.
Because Facebook has become the most popular and frequently used social media
option in the world (David, 2013), this study used Facebook to investigate factors
affecting attitudes toward advertising. The results of this study can also provide
practical suggestions for advertising on mobile environments.
Conceptual framework
Mobile advertising
Researchers have dedicated their efforts to improve consumer attitudes toward mobile
advertising. Short message service (SMS) advertising has been mostly studied. For
example, Cortes and Vela (2013) especially focussed on factors that lead to negative
attitudes toward SMS advertising. They reveal that irritation, privacy concerns, and
intrusiveness are main antecedents of negative attitudes. They also clarified that the
latter two factors precedes the former. Tsang et al. (2004) reveal utilitarian and
experiential factors affecting consumers’positive attitudes toward SMS advertising in
permission marketing. Such attitudes would lead to acceptance behavioral intentions.
Most SMS mobile advertising research has demonstrated that entertainment (Lin et al.,
2014; Tsang et al., 2004), informativeness (Lin et al., 2014; Xie et al., 2013), credibility
(Lin et al., 2014; Tsang et al., 2004), and social relation are important drivers of
consumer attitudes in mobile advertising research. Irritation (Tsang et al., 2004),
privacy concerns, and intrusiveness (Cortes and Vela, 2013), on the other hand,
decrease the attitudes. Intrusiveness refers to the degree to which advertisements
interrupt an audience’s cognitive processes to reach a goal (Cortes and Vela, 2013). As
intrusiveness is a cause of irritating ads (Becker, 2008), we examine effects of irritation
and privacy concerns only.
Then, a specific type of mobile advertising, “location-based advertising”(LBA),
emerged. LBA involves the application of “location-based services”(LBS) to enable
content providers to offer the most customer-focussed local information at the right
time and in the right place (Kuo et al., 2009). LBS make use of mobile
tracking techniques to provide mobile device users with more relevant information
based upon their current position (Wu, 2008). LBA refers to advertising information
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Determinants
of effective
SoLoMo
advertising
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