The effect of consumer-generated media stimuli on emotions and consumer brand engagement
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-11-2018-2120 |
| Date | 16 October 2019 |
| Published date | 16 October 2019 |
| Pages | 387-408 |
| Author | Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro,Ricardo Godinho Bilro,Arnold Japutra |
The effect of consumer-generated media stimuli
on emotions and consumer brand engagement
Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro and Ricardo Godinho Bilro
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Business Research Unit (BRU-IUL), Lisboa, Portugal, and
Arnold Japutra
University of Western Australia Business School, Perth, Australia
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to explore the relationships between website quality –through consumer-generated media stimuli-, emotions and
consumer-brand engagement in online environments.
Design/methodology/approach –Two independent studies are conducted to examine these relationships. Study 1, based on asample of 366
respondents, uses a structural equation modelling approach to test the research hypotheses. Study 2, based on 1,454 onlineconsumer reviews, uses
text-mining technique to examine further the relationship between emotions and consumer-brand engagement.
Findings –The findings show that all the consumer-generated media stimuli are positively related to the dimensions of emotions. However, only
pleasure and arousal are positively related to the three variables of consumer-brand engagement. The findings also show cognitive processing as the
strongest dimension of consumer-brand engagement providing positive sentiments towards brands.
Practical implications –The findings provide marketers with an understanding of how valid, useful and relevant content (i.e. information/co ntent)
creates a greater emotional connection and drive consumer-brand engagement. Marketers should be aware that consumer-generated media stimuli
influence consumers’emotions and their reaction.
Originality/value –This study is one of the firsts to adapt and apply the S-O-R framework in explaining online consumer-brand engagement.This
study also adds to the brand engagement literature as the first study that combines PLS-SEM approach with text-m ining analysis to provide a better
understanding of these relationships.
Keywords Text mining, Website quality, Emotion, Consumer brand engagement, Pleasure-arousal-dominance, S-O-R framework
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The world is becoming progressivelycomplex and disruptive by
the day, which consorts to organisations new daily challenges
for both brand managers and chief marketing officers. Today’s
consumers are moredemanding, more aware of their needs and
want, and increasingly difficultto satisfy. Nevertheless, they are
also willing to build meaningful relationsand to better relate to
brands and their products (Boyle, 2007;Cova et al., 2011;
Sprott et al., 2009).Inthe present study, we seek to address this
impetus from consumersto relate and interact with brands.
The external changes in the sphere of brands make it no
longer possible for firms to only evoke positive emotional
responses or to create instant calls-to-action (Schultz and
Block, 2012;Veloutsou and Guzman,2017). Instead, it forces
brands to conceive more significant investments, with more
prominent efforts, spontaneously and in a credible manner, to
portray to others a genuine ability to approach consumers in a
meaningful way and that takes into account what consumers
view as essential and close to them (Brodie et al., 2011;
Hollebeek and Chen, 2014). Firms need significant efforts for
consumers to engage with their products or brands fully. Such
efforts have the goal of regaining consumers’brand loyaltyand
prevent the firms’profitability from suffering the inescapable
attrition of the current price war (Schultz and Block, 2012;
Taylor et al.,2004;Veloutsou et al., 2013).
More than just mere names, brands can capture and deliver
experiences related to the usage of a product, providing the
ground for consumer-product connections (Liu et al.,2018;
Sprott et al.,2009). So, brands serve as the basis for firms to
achieve competitive advantages and offer a means for growth
(Andreassen, 2000;Franzaket al., 2014;Keller and Lehmann,
2009;Veloutsou et al., 2013). Also, brands can personify
consumers’experiences with the product or service that
empowers involvement, which ultimatelyleads to dispositional
and situational approaches to brand engagement - brand
engagement exists when consumers connect with brands in a
meaningful way (Keller,2013;Sprott et al., 2009).
Scholars and marketing professionalshave been putting their
focus into comprehendingand increasing engagement between
brands and consumers,as it is viewed as the ultimate expression
of the consumer-brand connection (Brodie et al.,2011;Sprott
et al., 2009). Study on engagement is not new to the literature,
Thecurrentissueandfulltextarchiveofthisjournalisavailableon
Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
29/3 (2020) 387–408
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-11-2018-2120]
Received 15 November 2018
Revised 1 June 2019
18 August 2019
28 August 2019
Accepted 7 September 2019
387
as it has been discussed throughout several fields of study,such
as in psychology (Garczynski et al., 2013), sociology
(Morimoto and Friedland, 2013) and marketing(Brodie et al.,
2011;Hollebeek,2011a, 2011b). Research on Consumer
Engagement (CE) has advanced rapidly in the marketing field
(Bowden, 2009;Brodie et al.,2011;van Doorn et al.,2010).
Significant contributions comprisethedevelopment of specific
CE conceptualisations, as well as the study of theoretically
related constructs, such as Consumer Brand Engagement
(CBE) (Hollebeek,2011b, 2011a;Hollebeek et al., 2016,
2019). CBE has been considered astherecent “hot-topic”in
the realm of branding and marketing strategy (Gambetti et al.,
2016), and has been expanded from the field of relationship
marketing, particularly in the domain of consumer-brand
relationships (Graffigna and Gambetti, 2015;Vivek et al.,
2012). According to the literature, consumer brand
engagement refers to the extentto which consumers are willing
to invest their resourcesas away of showing loyalty towards the
brands (France et al., 2016;Hollebeek, 2011b;Keller, 2013).
Consumers create the ability to engage with brands, given the
emotional, symbolic, and unique connections they tend to
create with specific brands (Goldsmith and Goldsmith, 2012;
Noguti, 2016;vander Westhuizen, 2018).
However, most of these studies on engagement are often
conceptual rather than focussing on providing empirical
support for the consequences or benefits of such construct
(Hollebeek et al., 2019;Wong and Merrilees, 2015). Past
conceptual research is calling for empirical studies exploring
motivational drivers for consumerengagement, particularly for
the online environment (Graffigna and Gambetti, 2015;
Groeger et al., 2016;Hollebeek et al., 2019;Noguti, 2016).
This study responds to these calls by empirically exploring the
drivers of onlineconsumer-brand engagement based on already
establishedconceptual frameworks.
The present paper conducts two distinct but complementary
studies aiming to analyse the role of stimuli (i.e. website
quality) and emotions on consumer brand engagement. A
conceptual framework is proposed based on the stimulus-
organism-response (SOR) framework (Eroglu et al., 2003;
Roschk et al.,2017), initially proposed by Mehrabian and
Russell (1974) in the field of environmental psychology. The
proposed framework represents the role of stimuli (i.e.website
quality characteristics such as information/content, interactive
features and design-visual appeal) in influencing consumers’
emotional and cognitive states (i.e. the organism, analysed
through Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance), which, in turn, result
in approach or avoidance behaviour (i.e. consumer brand
engagement, through cognitive processing, affection and
activation). We also seek to explore the role of emotions on
consumer brand engagement through consumers’online
reviews (consumer-generated media content), for which we
develop a dictionaryspecifically for this purpose.
This paper offers three main contributions.Leading, this is
the first study that investigates the drivers of online consumer
brand engagement by adapting and applying the S-O-R
framework. Notedly, websitequality represents the stimuli (i.e.
information/content, interactive features and design-visual
appeal), and emotions represent the organism (i.e. pleasure,
arousal and dominance).Additionally, this is also the first study
that combines PLS-SEM approachwith text mining technique,
which offers new knowledge about the effects of consumer-
generated media content stimuli on emotions and consumer
brand engagement. Third, this study proposes a conceptual
framework for building a higher consumer-brand engagement
in the online environment.
Theoretical background
Consumer brand engagement
Engagement is viewed as having behavioural, cognitive and
emotional traits, subjective tomotivational drivers (van Doorn
et al., 2010). According to Keller (2013), consumer brand
engagement is focussed on multi-dimensional behaviours and
activities consumers partake,inwhich they are willing to invest
their resources (i.e. time, energy, money) beyond those
resources expended during purchase or consumption of the
brands, as a way of showing loyalty towards the brands. CBE
can build interactive outcomes, such as positive word-of-
mouth, loyalty, and consumer retention through consumers’
value co-creation (Füller and Bilgram, 2017;Liu et al., 2018;
Roberts et al., 2014;Verhoefet al.,2010).
CBE, although related to some other marketing concepts, is
conceptually distinct from them (Hollebeek, 2011b).
According to Brodie et al. (2011), it goes further beyond
concepts like involvement or participation, as it comprehends
an active and interactive consumer connection with a given
focal object (such as a product or a brand). On the other hand,
involvement and participation fail to systematically reflect the
idea of value co-creationexperiences and interactivity (Mitussis
et al.,2006). Consumer satisfaction is also distinct from
engagement. Consumer satisfaction refers to the consumers’
evaluation on brand offering performance (Andreassen, 2001;
Gustafsson et al.,2005). It is construed as a consequence of
engagement (Brodie et al., 2011). Consumer-brand
engagement focusses on consumers’cognitive, emotional and
behavioural activity occurring during specific brand
interactions, while satisfaction may mostly arise after that
(Andreassen, 2000;Hollebeek et al.,2014). Brand experience
is also seen as a different theoreticalentity from engagement, as
brand experience does not presume a motivational state and it
does not include emotional relationship (Brakus et al.,2009;
Hollebeek et al.,2014).
Extant research has conceptually defined CE and CBE.
According to Hollebeek (2011b, p. 790), CBE is described as
“the level of an individual consumer’s motivational, brand-
related and context-dependent state of mind characterised by
specific levels of cognitive, emotional and behavioural activity
in direct brand interactions”. Within the “engagement”
concept, CBE mirrors the central theoretical view of
“interactive experience”. The manifestation of particular
cognitive, emotional, and behavioural dimensions depends on
the engagement actors (i.e. subjects or objects) and contexts
(e.g. media context) (Brodie et al.,2011;Calder et al.,2009).
Mainly, engagement actors may takethe form of individuals or
institutions(Brodie et al., 2011).
A more widely used definition of CE is proposed by Brodie
et al. (2011), where authors define it as a psychological state
that occurs under interactive and co-creative consumers’
experiences with agents (e.g. brands) in focal service
relationships. This view of co-creative consumers’experiences
Consumer brand engagement
Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro et al.
Journal of Product & Brand Management
Volume 29 · Number 3 · 2020 · 387–408
388
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