– The purpose of this paper is to understand how consumers may be segmented with respect to their reactions to social network marketing.
– Consumers are segmented on the basis of attitudes toward social network marketing and the association among psychological, economic, and socio-demographic covariates are explored using data from 883 consumers and latent-class analysis.
– A total of five segments are identified – Passive, Talkers, Hesitant, Active, and Averse – along with significant covariates, such as information search, convenience, entertainment, age and gender that predict membership.
– Evidence was found of two segments that are highly impacted by social network marketing in terms of brand engagement, purchase intention and WOM referral intention. The most engaged – the Active – representing approximately 10 percent, is most open to interacting with brands in social networks, likely to make a purchase as a result of the campaign, and likely to spread WOM. The second group – Talkers – representing 28 percent, is also high on all outcomes, but not impacted as greatly in terms of purchase intentions.
– There is a sizable share of the market (38 percent) that can be positively impacted through social network marketing. This paper reinforces that it is problematic to collapse all users of social networks.
– The paper offers a more nuanced understanding of how consumers engage with social media by focusing on how consumers engage with social network marketing and by employing three segmentation bases: brand engagement, purchase intention, and WOM.
