This paper studies the relationships among consumers’ perceptions of brand personality, consumers’ brand attitudes and brand-owned social media content marketing (SMCM). The moderating effect of the brand content relevancy was also assessed.
A conceptual model was established and examined using two experiments with a total of 363 participants. Hierarchical regression analysis and an analysis of variance were performed to test seven research hypotheses.
Results show that the three forms of brand-owned SMCM, namely: conversation, storytelling and customer interaction and participation, are positively correlated with consumers’ brand personality perceptions and brand attitudes. Also, consumers’ perceptions of brand personality can partially mediate the relationship between brand-owned content marketing and consumers’ brand attitudes. Furthermore, the brand content relevancy does not show a moderating effect on the relationship between content marketing and consumers’ brand personality perceptions or brand attitudes.
First, a framework was established to delineate those paths by which owned social media content marketing (OSMCM) influences consumers’ attitudes towards a brand. Second, the study demonstrates the importance of conversation as a powerful method of OSMCM. Third, with respect to content in marketing strategies, firms do not need to confine themselves to a narrow scope of content or information that is closely related to the brands alone.
