Running head: Examining Corporate Branded Content
Examining Corporate Branded Content within Social Media to
Uncover Consistent Pentadic Elements and Fantasy Themes
Brian Huonker
School of Communication
Illinois State University
August 11, 2014
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Running head: Examining Corporate Branded Content
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Abstract
Traditional marketing channels are becoming less effective in capturing and engaging the
attention of today’s perpetually connected consumers. Through branded content is built from
engaging narratives, brands are attempting to build trust between organizations and the consumer
in an effort to build brand confidence. In order to understand how communicators develop this
branded content, an understanding of the organization’s apparent motives is needed. Utilizing
Kenneth Burke’s pentad and Ernest Bormann’s fantasy theme analysis as method, an analysis of
8 organizations’ branded content yields insights into these motives and how the predominant
ratios play out through narratives. Armed with this knowledge, communicators can craft branded
messages for use in social media programs to build and establish this trust, thereby increasing
consumer confidence.
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Examining Corporate Branded Content within Social Media to
Uncover Consistent Pentadic Elements and Fantasy Themes
Traditional marketing channels are becoming less effective in capturing and engaging the
attention of today’s perpetually connected consumers. This shift in consumer engagement is
challenging today’s brands to adapt their marketing strategies in an effort to build a brand
advantage in the face of consumers’ rapidly changing media consumption landscape. In addition,
today’s millennial generation does not trust traditional advertisements, only 6% of millennials
consider online advertising to be credible. Branded content is where businesses are turning to
meet this challenge, utilizing engaging narratives to build a trusted, remarkable, unmistakable,
and essential brand in the eye of the over-stimulated consumer.
This shift in consumers’ media habits is driven by the consumer Internet use. In 2013, over
2.4 million people utilized the Internet, with 70% using it daily. That equals 37.3% of the
world’s population. Today’s consumers are using the Internet for research 62% of the time, with
38% of interactions taking place on mobile phones. Consumers are also spending 3.2 hours each
day on one or more social networking sites, Facebook being the largest with 500 million users
logging in daily (culture-ist, 2013). With so many consumers in one place, marketers are
rethinking their strategies, especially those targeting the millennial generation.
Digital natives, Millennials are flexing their influence as they enter adulthood. Now
ranging in age from 18 to 31, they are racially diverse, relatively unattached to organized politics
and religion, linked by social media, burdened by college debt, distrustful of people and
organizations, in no rush to marry— and optimistic about the future (Pew Research Center,
2014). These digital natives have embraced the platforms of the digital era (e.g., the Internet,
mobile technology, social media) to construct personalized networks of friends, colleagues and
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affinity groups. In fact, 81% of Millennials are on Facebook, where their generation’s median
friend count is 250, far higher than that of older age groups.
Millennials access digital media daily, if not hourly, and have the ability to communicate
and purchase from a supplier anywhere in the world. Due to their familiarity and usage of digital
media, they have been identified as a driving force in on-line consumer experiences. Millennials
view peer reviews just as important as the effects of personal and expert reviews. Ninety-five
percent of Millennials say that friends are the most credible source of product information and
91% of Millennials would consider purchasing a product they recommended it (Social Chorus,
2013). In fact, seven in 10 Millennials believe it is their responsibility to share feedback about
brands when they have a good or bad experience. That sharing is why marketers are turning to
branded content as part of the media mix.
Through branded content built from engaging narratives, trust can be established with the
consumer which will ensures consumer brand confidence. To develop this content, we need to
understand the motives of an individual to seek out, share, and comment on the corporation and
its branded content. Utilizing Kenneth Burke’s pentad and Ernest Bormann’s fantasy theme
analysis, we can gain insights into those motives and their resulting narratives. Armed with this
knowledge, communicators can craft messages for use in organizational social media programs
that can establish or increase brand confidence.
To demonstrate how this paper yields strategic insights regarding message design for
content marketing and social media purposes, I begin with a focus on Burke and Bormann’s
methods and how they are complementary in the assessment of organizational narratives. I then
apply these methods to uncover the predominate pentad ratios, which suggest corporate motives,
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and the fantasy themes that appear as common narratives (i.e., rhetorical visions that have
“chained out” [Bormann, 1972, p. 397)
Literature Review
Before defining the lenses by which I will analyze corporate branded content delivered
through social media, it is clear that critics have employed methods of rhetorical criticism public
relations activity, but seldom to social media. - In short, there has been a bias toward more
traditional media channels. According to Smudde (2004):
In the corporate world of public relations, the realm of message effectiveness is key,
where measuring this phenomenon is largely a quantitative endeavor of opiniongathering; whereas, qualitative approaches, if employed, are frequently used to support
quantitative findings through such techniques as analyses of verbatim comments on
questionnaires or focus groups. (p. 420)
By applying theoretical rhetoric frameworks used in public relations research to corporate
branded content distributed through social media, we can determine the qualitative effectiveness.
Due to the relative lack of studies in which organizational critics have used rhetorically grounded
methods, I first explore the basic assumptions of Burkean theory which led to the pentad’s
development, and then supplement the pentad with Bormann’s Symbolic Convergence theory.
Once I have outlined how Bormann’s resulting method, fantasy theme analysis, complements
Burke’s pentad in order to understand branded content in social media as narratives, discussions
of the methods and their application will appear in subsequent sections.
Kenneth Burke and the Theory behind the Pentad
The step in determining qualitative effectiveness in branded content is to uncover what
motivates a consumer to engage with a corporation to the point where they desire to share
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information on social networks. In the following literature review, we will define our first lens
from Burke’s theory of form. Burke’s critical approach allows us to consider the identification
used to construct a social media identity through corporate branded content. And why the
individual is motivated to share, “like,” and comment on the content to continually reinforce, and
reconstruct their identity.
Past Burkean research explored and discovered that social interactions with others are what
define individual identities through the use of narratives (Ashforth, 2001, Cheney & Vibbert,
1987; Cheney, 1991, 1992; Czarniawska, 1997). These narratives form an “ongoing process of
unification in social perspective, or identification” (Singer, 2011, p. 99). The identification of
oneself is implemented “through diverse projections of us-them identity distinctions maintained
by embodied audience participation” (Burke, 1969, in Singer, 2011). In other words, an
individual’s identity is built from interactions they have with organizations containing values the
individual desires to be associated with. As Burke (1961) suggests, “One identifies himself with
some corporate unit (church, guild, company, lodge, party, team, college, city, nation, etc.) and
by profuse praise of this unit he praises himself (p. 144).
With an identity established through an individual attaching themselves to a corporate unit,
the individual further defines their identity through those social interactions with others. The
discussion created social interactions results in discourse that further defines the individual’s
identity. Taken one step further, the discussion can be read as a drama of unity and division
directed by to use Carter’s (1996) phrase, “moral negatives” (p. 62) (imperatives to do this, not
that). The moral negative in this case takes the form of guilt in the individual identification. The
guilt is derived from motives like an individual’s need to define themselves and others in terms
of what they are not (Burke, 1969), from the desire to better ones self in their social class, from a
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desire to feel good about being in a higher social class (Littlejohn, 1992), among other
motivating factors. It is from this guilt we can see the motives behind an individual’s desire to
use a narrative to construct and reinforce their identity.
Guilt manifests itself in multiples ways within an individual’s motives. Feelings such as
anxiety over not fitting in might cause an individual to post content to their social network page
in order to establish a relationship. Feelings of shame might cause an individual to seek out a
charity to connect with and assist in any way they can. Feelings of pride might cause an
individual to seek out content from an organization so that they can appear smarter amongst their
circle of friends. In all case, these feeling of guilt are the driving factors (Casteleyn, Mottart &
Rutten, 2008) of discourse within the social interactions. Individuals attempt to symbolically
eliminate guilt in order to restore their identity (moral order) through mortification (blaming
ourselves) or victimage (scapegoating), and redemption (Burke, 1961/1970 in Smudde, 2004). In
order to restore the order, individuals will seek out additional narratives from organizational
units. This actions symbolically “kills the one who disturbs the order” (Casteleyn, Mottart &
Rutten, 2008) thus purging the individual of guilt. With social interactions continually
happening, there are always challenges to an individual’s identity. Through these constant
challenges, a guilt redemption cycle forms.
This continual act of responding to perceived attacks against an individual’s identity, the
bases of the guilt redemption cycle is formed. The cycle is played out through a series of
dramatic techniques. Burke describes this process as the dramatic pentad. The pentad allows us
to examine “what is involved when we say what people are doing and why they are doing it”
(Burke, 1969a). Burke believed that all human actions were part of a drama (or theatre), and that
the motives of actors (people) could be discovered by studying their particular type of motives in
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action and discourse. For this reason, the dramatic pentad consists of five elements: agent (who
is performing the action?), act (what happened can refer to any human action?), agency (which
means or vehicle is used to perform the action?), scene (what is the (abstract or physical)
context? What is the background situation?), and purpose (why do the agents act?). Combined,
these elements form ratios allowing us to interpret drama within the guilt redemption cycle.
While act, agent, scene, agency, and purpose can be distinguished for the purpose of partial
analysis, they are bound together and, further, each of the terms shades the interpretation of the
others. (Shearer, 2004). To analyze the drama within a guilt redemption cycle, we can combine
the separate pentadic elements into ratios (e.g., scene–act ratio, agent–purpose ratio) to use as a
heuristic framework. With this framework, we can identify the dramatism, or "literal statement
about human motive" (Burke, 1968). This framework allows us to examine the motives behind
liking, sharing, and commenting on branded content posted to a corporations Facebook page.
Within Social media, the process of identification is played out when individuals seek out,
shares, “likes,” or comments on branded content produced by corporations. The content becomes
an experience built from Burke’s (1968) symbolic form, a dramatic technique in which a
storyline arranges the plot, situates characters, and attracts the audiences. The actions of sharing,
“liking” and commenting on the branded content allows the individual to build an identity within
their social media network based upon the corporation, its brand, and its values. Similarly, an
individual seeks out other individuals through social media in which they have “common
ground” (Smudde, 2004) or similar identities built around same corporation. By engaging in this
act of identification, an individual is building their social media identity through the content they
share, “like,” and comment on.
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In addition, the discussion created by commenting results in discourse that further defines
the individual’s identity. Casteleyn, Mottart and Rutten (2009) claim that social media profiles
are carefully constructed tokens of identity and challenges to that identity create guilt, an
unwanted desire. This guilt might drive an individual to seek out branded content from an
organization in an effort to be seen as an expert by the individual’s social network. Or an
individual might seek out content from an organization that highlights their philanthropy efforts
because they feel guilty over spending too much money on their products. In both cases, the
individual is attempting to symbolically eliminate guilt in order to restore their identity. It is from
this guilt we can start to see why individuals are motivated to share corporate branded content
with their social network in an effort to construct and reinforce their identity. By performing a
dramatastic analysis with the pentadic ratios we can uncover those motives and lay the
groundwork for understanding why branded content “goes viral” within social media.
Earnest Bormann and Fantasy-Theme Analysis
With Burke’s heuristic framework in place to use as a lens to examine the motives of
individuals to connect with and share branded content, next need a lens to examine why that
content is accepted and shared throughout an entire social community (goes “viral”). To build
this lens, we can examine the content through Bormann’s fantasy-theme analysis. Bormann
method of analysis grew out of examinations of small groups and how those individuals
constructed a social reality that expresses their desires, beliefs, and motives in response to
discussing common issues or problems and how larger groups either accepted or rejected that
reality. From this work, we can examine the viral quality of branded content.
Theoriest have utilized Bormann’s theories and method to describe a wide variety of issues
within public relations and communicative events. One such event was the sermons of colonial
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Massachusetts Bay Puritan ministers (Bormann, 1972). This research was expanded to examine
online conversations in text-based role playing games (RPGs; Hammers, 2007). Both of these
studies utilize Bormann’s (1982) argument that group communication is facilitated through
symbolic convergence. Symbolic convergence happens when group members begin to
sympathize, empathize, and identify with one another. By analyzing this symbolic convergence,
the group’s hidden emotions, motives, and meanings were revealed (Cragan & Shields 1992).
In addition to Bormann’s method being applied to live and online speech events, additional
studies demonstrate the ability to create and manage symbolic convergence theory in media
messages. Rarick, Duncan, Lee, and Porter (1977) utilized fantasy-theme to find a link between
mass media campaign events that influence voters as voters share and participate in the fantasies
of the media dramas. Bormann, Koester, and Bennett (1978) expanded on this and validated a
link between fantasy theme analysis and audience response in political cartoons. Barton and
O'Leary (1974) captured the here-and-now fantasies of rural living, redesigned the fantasies, and
implemented a successful recruitment campaign to attract rural physicians. Cragan and Shields
(1992) demonstrated the use of fantasy theme analysis in corporate strategic planning through an
SCT-based intervention into corporate identity, positioning, and market segmentation.
Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT) "explains the appearance of a group consciousness,
with its implied shared emotions, motives, and meanings, not in terms of individual daydreams
and scripts but rather in terms of socially shared narrations or fantasies" (Bormann, 1985). By
understanding how Burke allows individual to build identity by attaching themselves to a
corporate unit, SCT allows us to see how this act begins to define a group of individuals who are
all engaging with the corporate unit. Bormann argues that the narratives created by these
individuals engaging with corporate unit are expressing "their experiences and their hopes and
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their fears" (p. 130), forming a group fantasy. This can be seen by looking at how U2 built
awareness around the social issue of aids. U2’s red.org encourages people to purchase products
from the world’s most iconic brands. Through branded content posted by U2 and their partner
brands, fans could build a philanthropic identity within social media by “liking,” sharing, and
commenting on that content within their network. By taking part in this action, they are defining
the group created by all the individuals performing the same action. The resulting definition is a
group fantasy around the social issue of aids.
For the fantasies to work, however, the entire group must be "caught up in a drama"
(Bormann, 1985, p. 130), and this drama must have good (people with aids) and bad characters
(AIDS); the leading character must be attractive to the group; members must feel sympathy or
even empathy for the character; the group must become emotionally involved in the story; the
group must feel anger at antagonists who thwart heroes from achieving goals; and group
participants must have appropriate responses to the story (pp. 130-31). Such sharing of a
common group fantasy or fantasies Bormann calls symbolic convergence, which is the overlap of
"private symbolic worlds" that create a "common group consciousness" (p. 134).
To examine this symbolic convergence, Bormann (1972) developed a method of rhetorical
criticism. Within social media, a corporation presents a piece of branded content reflecting their
values, or fantasy. The fantasy is either accepted (“liked,” shared, or comment on) or is ignored
(p. 398). If accepted, the content is placed on the individual’s social network in an effort to
construct or reinforce their identity. From there, other members on the individual’s network have
the option to take up the fantasy by “liking,” sharing, or commenting on it through their own
networks, attaching it to their identity. This process, complete with its narrative, is continual
being accepted or rejected by the entire social network. The more the fantasy is accepted, the
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more the fantasy "chains out" through the network (p. 398). These fantasy theme are most
effective when they draws on current cultural beliefs of the social community. As Hart (1977)
notes, fantasy themes are related to myths. Myths, however, are universal stories while fantasy
themes often tend to be "local variations" of myths. With a fantasy continually being shared and
accepted by the community, "a rhetorical movement emerges" that begins to define the dramatic
world (Bormann, 1972) of the community, infecting future themes.
With corporations posting various types of content surrounding a single fantasy, the
network has the opportunity to accept multiple smaller, integrated fantasies. When accepted,
these fantasy themes construct a "rhetorical vision,” (Bormann, 1972) reinforcing the main
fantasy and expressing a more coherent sense of the corporate’s social reality. Such visions are
not statements about reality, instead, they state the corporations vision of reality by emphasizing
it’s attitudes, values, and beliefs. Foss (1989) notes in Rhetorical Criticism, "Rhetorical visions
often are integrated by the sharing of a dramatizing message that contains a master analogy" or
metaphor. The metaphor becomes a kind of “calling card” for the corporation’s rhetorical vision
by combing "together the various elements of the vision into a more or less elegant and
meaningful whole" (p. 293). The metaphor represents the convergence of values, attitudes, and
motives associated with the shared vision. This process is continually refining corporation’s
brand within the mind of the individual, the individual’s network, and the friends of the
individual.
With the communities formed by social media, we can see how an individual creates an
identity for himself through the content he “likes,” shares, and comments on. This desire for
building an identity comes from the guilt the individual has for wanting to appear smarter, for
wanting to appear socially conscious, or for other personal motives. By engaging in this act,
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others discover the content and then expand on the individual’s identity by sharing the content
themselves or by commenting on the content. By sharing, the individual and the others are
accepting the content, and the fantasy they contain. As this process repeats itself, the content
begins to chains out and “goes viral” while continually building confidence in the individual who
shared the content in the beginning.
The above literature review into Burke and Bormann demonstrates a how their theories can
be applied to the examination of branded content. Combined, both theories allow us to explain
human communication by assuming that human beings are social storytellers who share fantasies
in order to define their individuality, establish their location in culture, build group
consciousness, and create a social symbolic reality. The following research will apply the two
lenses to examine corporate branded content. This examination will allow future content to be
crafted with more engaging narratives. With this, brands can build an increased level of trust
between the brand and the consumer in order to ensure the brand remains essential and relevant
in the eyes of the consumer.
Research Questions
The following three research question guides this study: (1) what pentad ratios emerge
from examine branded content, (2) are fantasy themes being reinforced, and (3) is the vision of
the corporate brand accepted as a rhetorical vision? The following research will lead to an
understanding of the types of branded content, or narratives, shared through social media that
connects with the millennial consumers on a level where they desire to share the narratives with
their friends. Given the growing popularity of corporations using branded content containing
engaging narratives, this approach holds great promise by offering a method for shaping and
interpreting the results of research beyond this paper.
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Method and Data
In order to answer the research questions, we will utilize content made available to the
consumer through corporate Facebook pages as our artifact. In order to allow us to examine the
ratios, we will build off an approach utilized by Smudde (2004), and Casteleyn, Mottart and
Rutten (2009) by attaching the five terms of the dramatic pentad: agent, act, agency, scene, and
purpose to the comments on the Facebook post. The agents will be individuals who have like the
Facebook page, as one cannot comment if they do not. The act they are all involved in, is, of
course, expressing their thoughts, which is the agency, about the branded content being shared.
The corporate Facebook page is the scene in which the action takes place and the purpose is what
moves the consumer to a particular act in a particular situation.
With the terms identified, we can combine these terms into ratios to discover the dominant
term through a content analysis. The analysis examines the relationship between any of the five
elements of pentad. As previously mentioned, a ratio is a pairing of two terms of the pentad (for
instance, scene–act ratio, agent–purpose ratio), which means that ten ratios are possible. In each
ratio, one has to try to determine whether one term influences the other. In a scene–act ratio, for
instance, does the scene shape the act? Or in an act–scene ratio, does the act affect the scene?
Consequently, one ends up with a list that looks like this: ‘agents–act: yes’, ‘act–agents: no’,
‘agents–scene: unclear’, etc. Reviewing these ratios leads to discovering which pentadic term is
the most dominant in this artifact.
To identify where symbolic convergence occurs, the fantasy-themes that develop and
chain-out during communication can be examined. A fantasy theme emerges when a specific
idea or discourse is expressed, shared and supported within a community. Bormann (1972) states
this occurs when “The tempo of the conversation would pick up. People would grow excited,
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interrupt one another, blush, laugh, forget their self-consciousness” (p. 397). For the purpose of
this study, chaining-out will be determined by combining the number of “likes”, comments, and
shares a piece of branded content receives when placed upon a corporate branded Facebook
page. These interactions on the Facebook page represent the community responding
appropriately to a fantasy results in a public display of verbal and nonverbal acceptance of the
branded content.
To determine the artifacts, the research will utilize branded content produced by the top
content marketers according to Kapost (2014). Kapost is an interactive marketing company
which helps brands develop and maintain content marketing in addition to providing tools and
software. Their top 50 list was developed by scoring hundreds of companies based on the quality
and frequency of new content, audience engagement and creativity. The resulting list represent,
according to the industry, the brand innovators, executors and pioneers of content marketing. The
Kapost top 50 list was crossed referenced with Fortune’s Top 500 list of companies to uncover
the top corporations employing content marketing. The following companies Facebook pages
were identified to review: General Electric (9), Intel (53), Cisco Systems (55), The Coca-Cola
Company (58), Oracle Corporation (82), American Express Company (90), The Allstate
Corporation (92), and Xerox Corporation (137). Utilizing the last 8 branded content items
published on companies’ Facebook page and their top 30 comments, patterns of characters,
actions, and settings will be identified. Following identifications, patterns will be identified and
organized into prevalent fantasy themes. Each theme represents examples of symbolic
convergence and identifies various social needs met through interaction with social media.
Analysis
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Branded content built from engaging narratives allowing for confidence to be built and
reinforced in the consumers’ minds. Social media is where brands are turning to in order to
deliver those narratives. The following analysis of branded content placed on corporate
Facebook pages and the subsequential “likes,” shares, and comments will allow us to understand
the motives behind an individual’s desire to share branded content. In addition, we will analyze
how the fantasy contained within those narratives chain out to the larger community.
Pentadic analysis
To understand the motives, 80 Facebook posts from 8 corporate brands were examine
along with 1283 comments on those post to uncover what pentadic elements were being utilized.
For the purpose of this research, the scene was determined to be the Facebook Page. With Pages
having the ability for only the corporation to start the conversation, they are an ideal channel for
message distribution. Within this space the corporations can provide informational brand
building content an individual can utilize to build and reinforce their identity like “Ever wonder
how dense your breakfast really is” (GE, 2014) while at the same time, controlling the message.
With contented being posted, individuals who have “liked” the page can place comments,
share the articles, or “like” the content. These individuals become the agent. By interacting with
the page and expressing the agent’s thoughts, which is the act, they are attaching the content of
the post onto their identity for others to see. Through comments like “Wow... that's a mighty
impressive waste of technology” (Intel, 2014), “Why can't those "brightest minds" make Java
more secure? I gave up installing it many years ago” (Oracle, 2014), and “Hell NO!” (Xerox,
2014), the agents are publicly attaching their identity to the company, for good or bad.
These good or bad comments are the agents own beliefs. And their thoughts become the
agencies. These agencies are the manifestation of the guilt within the agent. Through their
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thoughts, and the resulting action, the agent tries to purge themselves of the guilt. With a series
of content posted on the Coco-Cola’s scene asking individuals to remember Nelson Mandela
after his death, agents placed a multitude of thoughts like “we know too well that our freedom is
incomplete” and “Mandela fought against South Africa's apartheid” (Coca-Cola, 2014). In both
cases, agents are purging themselves of the guilt associated with the death of Nelson Mandela
and their desire to hold on to his ideals through their comments. This also allows their social
network to view the agent’s comments thus building upon the agents identity.
This desire to purge the guilt becomes the purpose of the agent’s act. Through the act of
sharing the comments, “liking” them, and commenting on them, agents are attempting to purge
the guilt caused by the corporate content. In the case of Cisco, an agent posted “Extremely
expensive” (Cisco, 2014) in response to a piece of corporate content about Cisco’s efforts to
bring more girls into technology through school partnerships. The agent, taking the spending of
money as an attack, causing him to be upset over the cost of the program is attempting to purge
himself of the guilt associated with the content.
With elements analyzed and established, we combined these terms into ratios to discover
which parings represent the motives of the individual. As previously mentioned, a ratio is a
pairing of two terms of the pentad (for instance, scene–act ratio, agent–purpose ratio), which
means that ten ratios were possible. In addition, for each ratio, the dominate element was
established. From the analysis, it was shown that the individual pentadic element which
dominated was agency, appearing in 836 comments. In 126 cases, the person was expressing a
thought (act) about the company in general, not the content. Following that agent made an
appearance, usually in the form of a job request (18 times). Scene and purpose made an
appearance but not as the dominate element.
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The analysis showed that by combining these individual pentadic elements into ratios, the
following four appeared most often:
• Agency-Act. With the agency being the dominate ratio, this ratio appeared most
frequently, appearing 634 times. Comments with this ratio contained individual thoughts about
the content being placed on the scene. With the thought being the predominate element,
comments took the form of “Intel core processor very inspire to all people”; “Nice Info;” and,
“That looks like a formula for volume, not density. Density is weight or mass divided by
volume.” In the case of Allstate, agents even began posting their thoughts on the comments to
establish their authority with comments like “In Texas you can obtain liability under the Texas
Homeowner policy. You should have increased limits and the Umbrella sits on top” (Allstate,
2014). In each case, the thought combined with the act was utilized to establish the identity of
the agent within their social network.
• Agent-Agency. The agent-agency ratio made an appearance 245 times. In this case, the
agent became dominant. With these types of comments, the agent desired to espresso
themselves further by calling increased attention to their thought by using pronouns like “I”
and “My”. Being redundant since their identity is already associated with the comment, these
individuals felt strongly enough to overstate the obvious. Agents placed comments like: “I've
been inspired since the first Xeon processor,” “Love my Blue card…auto pay every month and
the rewards pay for my kids Christmas presents,” and, “If Xerox is involved in that bring it
stateside! I know it would work here!” Through the act of restating their identity, the agents are
attempting to voice a stronger opinion, thus creating a tighter relationship with the content
being posted.
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• Act-Scene. Act-scene made a much smaller appearance, appearing in 64 comments with
the act being dominant. In these instances, the individual was expressing their opinion of the
company, not the content they were commenting on. For example, the following comment
appeared on Allstate Facebook page about a placing your address visible on your street:
“Worst insurance company in the entire world” (Allstate, 2014). This act of expressing their
thought about the company was a desire to purge themselves of the thought, a simple act of
guilt-redemption.
• Agent-Scene. Similarly to act-scene, agent-scene made an appearance when an
individual was commenting on a company in the form of “I think.” On Xerox’s Facebook
page, the following comment appeared on a piece of content about customer surveys: “I think a
waste, guess money wasn't a concern to them back then” (2014). In this case, the agent was
using the scene as a platform to voice their opinion.
The above ratios were not the only ones to appear. Other ratios made an appearance, but on
a smaller scale. Overall, the comments revolved around an individual expressing their though on
the branded content in an effort to purge themselves of the guilt created by the content.. These
comments took the form of one word responses to full paragraphs motivated by a desire to build,
maintain, and reestablish their identity within their social network. The comments, in each case
were either accepting or rejecting the fantasies being presented through the branded content’s
narrative.
Fantasy Theme Analysis
With our understanding of pentadic ratios in place, we can start to examine the common
values, or fantasies, that manifest themselves within “likes,” shares, and comments left on the
corporate Facebook Pages. Once those fantasies are established, we can see how those fantasies
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are accepted or rejected by the agents. Through this act, we can understand which corporation
presented a series of fantasies that “chain out,” becoming a rhetorical vision for the corporation.
When we broke down the pentadic ratio of agency-act, we saw that the thought (agency)
which agents had about the comment being posted (act) was the dominate ration. Within the
comments presented on General Electric’s page we saw that the underlying fantasy being
presented through the comments posted was being accepted by the community. The last 10
pieces of content posted contained an average of 514 “likes”, 64 shares, and 17 (3 negative)
comments. With the majority of comments being posted containing the agency-act ratio, we can
see how the fantasy contained within the content resonated with the agents to the point where
they desired to interact, thus building their identity around it. In addition, the agent-agency
played out in the comments where agents were not only posting their thoughts on the content, but
identifying themselves as well. The fantasy being presented by GE, and their content involved
the value of innovation. With the resulting number of “likes,” shares, agency-act comments, and
agent-agency comments we can see how that vision connected with the agents. With that
connection established, the agents began to absorb that fantasy, building upon their identity
within social media.
Similarly, Intel’s Facebook page presented a fantasy about technology advancements that
become essential in our lives through branded content. When we examine their interactions, we
see that the average “likes” on the content reached 27,209, the average shares reached 396, and
the average comments reached 165. Within the comments, we again see the agency-act ratio
being dominate, followed by the agent-agency. Together, these results show how Intel’s fantasy
is accepted by the agents and utilized in their identity building activities. In addition, with the
numbers high and the majority being positive, we can argue that through the variety of content
Running head: Examining Corporate Branded Content
21
being presented, accepted and chaining out through the agent network, forms a rhetorical vision
around Intel. Similarly Coca-Cola’s rhetorical vision of inspiring the world accepted by the
agents, chaining out to create an average number of 15,079 ”likes,” an average number of 423
shares, and an average number 365 comments.
In contrast, we see that Xerox’s fantasy is falling short of being accepted. Within Xerox’s
Facebook page, they are presenting the fantasy of meeting customers' challenges through a series
of branded content. With their content, the average number of “likes” was 17, the average
number of shares was 1, and the average number of comments was 0. When a comment was left
on the page, it more than often took the form of an act-scene or agent-scene where the agent was
commenting on the company, not the fantasy being presented through the content. In the case of
Cisco and Oracle, similar results appeared. Where they had more “likes”, shares and comments,
the majority of comments contained the agent-scene or the act-scene ratio as well. In all three
cases, the fantasy of the three corporations being utilized in the post was not being accepted by
the agents, not chaining out, and not becoming a rhetorical fantasy.
From the analysis above, we can see that when fantasies are accepted by the agents (the
individuals), the identity of the individual is constructed in part from the fantasy. In addition, an
increased level of interaction occurs between the individual and the corporation through their
thoughts and actions. This increased level of interaction chains out, forming a rhetorical vision
about the company.
Discussion
The corporate Facebook pages examined contain over 100 million “likes” combined. The
act of liking a Facebook page is a dramatic event within itself. By doing so, the individual is
announcing to their Facebook network that they “like” this brand and the values it stands for,
Running head: Examining Corporate Branded Content
22
adopting those values into their own social network identity. Branded content provided by
corporations through salient narratives allows for this identity building to occur.
The data presented during the analysis answered our first research question, which pentadic
ratios emerged by examining the comments left on branded content. The data show that the
agency-act appeared most often. In this case, marketer crafted a formal appeal through narrative
that individuals who “liked” the corporate Facebook page find salient, framing the symbolic
appeal. Being constantly challenged by their social network to maintain their identity, the
individual comments on or shares the branded content in an effort to attached their identity to the
the appeal thus abolishing themselves of the guilt. By the act of individual placing a comment on
or sharing the content, others on their social network and who have like the corporate Facebook
page see the action, associating the content with the individual. In addition, through this action
they are challenging others to accept the refined identity or to evolve their identity and the guilt
redemption cycle continues. This cycle forms a social movement which allows individuals to
continue to maintain their social identity, forming a "social bond" that is attained through the
identification (Smudde, 2004).
Similarly agent-agency appeared as the second most frequent ration. In this case, an
individual was specifically identifying themselves in the comment, and through this action
building a stronger identity with salient branded content. In these comments, the words “I” and
“my” were used in association with branded content being discussed. For example, when
American Express placed a comment about their Blue Card, an individual pronounced “I love
my Blue Card” (American Express 2014) in an effort to attached himself to the qualities of the
blue card and push down any critics who might think otherwise. The individual’s identity
Running head: Examining Corporate Branded Content
23
through social media is firmly established and reinforced by associating themselves with this
content.
To answer the second research question, is the fantasy being reinforced, we need to
examine how many times the branded content is “liked”, shared, and commented on. In the case
of Intel, the answer is yes. Intel’s brand is about developing technology that becomes essential in
the lives of its consumers. Intel’s (2014) branded content revolve around how they are building
technology to bring 30x the average wifi speed to the 49ers football stadium, allowing game
watchers to use their tablet device during the game as a second screen. Another piece of content
is about the capabilities of Intel’s new processor with the title “Are you inspired yet?” (Intel,
2014). In both cases, Intel is showcasing their ability to develop relevant technology that will
make consumer’s lives easier and better. This fantasy being presented is accepted by the
community, which is shown by the high “likes”, shares, comments and their agency-act ratio. In
the case of Intel, individuals are proud to be associated with Intel and their fantasy which results
in a high level of engagement.
Xerox, on the other hand, has a low level of engagement on its content. Xerox presents the
fantasy of a company that meets the challenges of its customers. Xerox’s branded content
revolving around this fantasy with content like “Customer Relationship Surveys – Are They
Really Necessary?” (Xerox, 2014) and “We handle more than 2.5 million contact interactions
daily in 160 centers globally. Yes, even on Friday” (Xerox, 2014). Different than Intel, Xerox
content is not salient with their consumers which is shown by the low number of “likes,” shares,
and comments. In addition, the act-agent ration is dominant on their page with the comments
referring to other fantasy rather than the fantasy Xerox is presenting. Xerox fantasy of meeting
Running head: Examining Corporate Branded Content
24
the challenges of its customers might be accepted by a few, but overall is rejected by the social
community.
The results of this study showcase the important of corporations to not only evaluate their
values, but more importantly examine the values their consumers believe they have. Once
understood, corporations can craft salient narratives for use in their social media program that
resonate with the consumer. By doing so, individuals will be encourage to “like,” share, and
comment on the branded content being presented, not just ignoring them or placing comments
about other issues. These accepted narratives become fantasies that the individual is willing to
incorporate into their social identity and encourages others to accept as well. The results are a
rhetorical vision that becomes adopted into society as in the case of Intel, answers our third
research question. GE is close to achieving this with their fantasy of innovations to help the
world, but have not yet reached the level of Intel.
Bormann and Burke give us a unique perspective into how brands can succeed in social
media. Bormann has been used to examine everything from historical speeches to how a public
portrays a corporation, especially during crises. Burke researches have applied his theories to
discover how an individual defines their identities through dramatic actions. Together, Burke and
Bormann describe the motives behind why and individuals will seek out branded content from a
corporation, share their fantasies, and encourages their network to do the same. Once this
happens, the individual and corporation have a shared fantasy, or vision about who the
corporation is and confidence is built.
Conclusion
Becoming a rhetorical vision in the eyes of a consumer is the desire of any corporation.
Once this vision becomes reality in the minds of the consumers, the corporation establishes
Running head: Examining Corporate Branded Content
25
brand confidence. Social media gives corporations this opportunity but presents some unique
challenges as well. Despite the fact that over a billion people use social media, they do not
always want to engage with brands in what they feel is their personal space. But when the values
of the company align with the desired identity of the consumer, the consumer is accepting of the
intrusion of this space. Actually, they desire it and will engage with the corporation, building on
their social identity and expanding the reach of the corporate fantasy.
When considering how this brand confidence is established, some limitations to this
research should be considered. Facebook allows the individual to “like” comments as well as the
original post, which this research did not take into account. In addition to “liking” of comments,
individuals can also “reply” to a specific comment and add to the discourse around the original
content. This research also did not examine other social networks like Twitter, Instagram,
LinkedIn, YouTube and others. Future research could explore these networks with the same
lenses to see if the results stand up. The research could also expand and compare the various
networks to see if differences between them arise. Additional research like this will expand the
knowledge of how brands can craft messages for use in their social media programs that
establish this trust, this confidence.
Running head: Examining Corporate Branded Content
26
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