LITERATURE REVIEW
Runmo, Greene, Ibrahim, Cruz & Lee, Read, Aaker JL
CONTEXT
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Rummo et al. (2020):
o findings demonstrate that food and beverage brands had a higher percentage of adolescent
followers compared to adolescents who followed any account on Twitter
 Therefore, selecting fast food and restaurant brands specifically.
o Findings found unhealthy brands maintain millions of adolescent followers, concerning as it
is linked with higher consumption of junk food
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Greene et al. (2022):
o More than 152 million people use Twitter daily, brands rely on Twitter to grow fanbase.
Ibrahim et al. (2017):
o Brands encouraged to leverage power of social media to drive consumer engagement
o Justification for picking twitter:
 Encourages real time conversation,
 Immediacy of information
 Spontaneous and “authentic”
 Co-promotion
Cruz & Lee (2014)
o Growth of Twitter marketing shows how social network usage have moved from being an
activity for advanced economies to a common activity around the world
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THEORY
Social Cognitive Theory
 Greene et al. (2022):
o Brands attract followers by creating human personality, reflecting desirable lifestyle and
attitudes
 Agrees with Rummo – associated with higher consumption of fast food
o Visibility, instilling of norms of brands interacting, users mutual engagement and intimacy
with brands
Brand Personality
 Cruz & Lee (2014)
o Twitter brand communities convey distinctive brand personalities online and its influence on
the communities
o (Plummer, 1984) – Brand personality as an inanimate object associated with personality’s
lines which results from interactions of the consumer with it or through its marketing
communication
o (Levy 1959, McCracken, 1989) – Associations can be transferred directly through the
personality traits of people related to the brand - Brand’s user imagery or self-concept,
demographic characteristics like gender, age and class
o Therefore, mangers need to create brand strategies that reinforce brand’s personalities and
image to the consumer
o Consumers join brand communities to identify themselves with brands to meet their social
need of being identified as persons with appropriate self-identity is fulfilled
 Laroche et al, 2012 Consumers search for symbols in communities that help
interpret who they want to be and how they want to be seen by others
People prefer products that match their self-concept – set of beliefs and attitudes towards
self (Rosenberg 1979)
 Purchase is self-expression of image/personality
o Doyle (1990): Successful brands create strong brand personality by encouraging customers
to perceive attribute to which they aspire as being strongly associated
 Consistency in expression?
 Aaker J L (1997)
o Brand personality: The set of human characteristics associated with a brand
o Brand personality tends to serve as a symbolic or self-expressive function
o Sincerity, excitement, competence – innate human personality, sophistication and
ruggedness is a dimension that individuals desire but do not necessarily have
 Ruggedness tends to glamorize American ideals of Western, strength and
Masculinity.
 Ali & Sharma (2014)
o People seek associations with brands that portray images similar to self-concept, use brand
to express personality
o Ruggedness dimensions no relevance to food sector in four other dimensions Musente et al
(2008) suggested excitement, sincerity, sophistication and competence
Brand Intimacy
 Read et al. (2019)
o Positive relationship between brand engagement with consumer on Twitter. Consumer
interactions with brand increases as brand engages on individual level
o Brand intimacy refers to how well consumers understand a brand (Aaker et al, 2004; Guese
and Haelg, 2009)
 Intimacy is reflected via knowledge which consumers gather from brands – sharing of
personal info, images, etc.
 Twitter is where personal disclosure and intimacy are normative (Marwick & Boyd,
2011)
o
ARGUMENTS/FINDINGS
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Greene et al. (2022):
o Young people particularly susceptible to brand personalities on social media due to
witnessing of norms of brands interacting and other users engagement
o Brands form an identity that is on an intimate level, forming positive and authentic
associations with the brand
o Brands have the ability to produce norms
o Interactions with everyday Twitter users via niche targets, current events, memes etc.
increases intimacy with young users
o Brands which have distinct personalities on Twitter are uniquely powerful and spread
awareness to peers, reaching a global audience
o Personality tweets appear to appeal to consumers more
 Refining what “personality” tweets are further in my analysis
Read et al (2019)
o Attempting to define consumer engagement – the state that reflects consumers towards
context specific engagement focus – highly debated, especially due to digital sphere
 Uni-dimensional and multi-dimensional (affective, cognitive and behavioural)
o Brand customer service is public – not only on focal customer but to other consumers
o The more intimate their brand knowledge, facilitated via the unique info on brand’s Twitter
account, along with info from other sources, the more engaged the consumers will be
 Due to co-promotion and co-creation with brand
o
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When brands help to resolve consumer problems and respond to enquiries, they strengthen
consumer engagement and encourage consumer co-promotion.
Cruz & Lee (2014)
o First study to compare Twitter marketing across organisations using brand personality
concept, discuss benefits of these strategy
 Applies brand personality concept on online brand communities to test well-accepted
marketing theories to online marketing and to the platform of Twitter
 Investigate the sentiment quality of consumer messages
o Brand personality-related keywords of ruggedness, sincerity, competence and excitement
get the most attention/engagement
 Engagement help show self-concept as competent and outgoing
Ali & Sharma (2014)
o Sincerity - Subway scored higher in original/friendly/wholesome/real due to “warmth” and
healthy product lines, achieved more honest and cheerful than McDonald’s or KFC
o Excitement- McDonald’s and Subway scored similarly on being trendy, while KFC was
considered not to be as trendy
 Subway more unique than other two, KFC least unique
o None of the brand stood apart on personality dimensions – close averages
o The age group variance in perceptions was significantly wide, young age group had different
and contrasting approach towards a brand than those over age of 50
LITERATURE LIMITATIONS
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
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How do the Twitter marketing strategies of McDonald’s and KFC, build brand personality?
What subjects and themes are recurring in their brand messaging that target a youth audience?
Do certain themes receive more positive consumer engagement?