Online brand messaging, e.g., blogging or posting on social media platforms, has an important role in digital marketing strategy. Such messaging is largely text based and provides an opportunity for brands to interact with many consumers simultaneously. The marketing literature, however, has yet to provide sufficient guidance on effective online brand messaging strategies. In particular, research has yet to address how the inclusion of second person pronouns in online brand messaging affects relevant consumer outcomes. The present research proposes that second person pronouns should work to enhance consumer involvement and brand attitude as a result of increasing the extent that consumers engage in self-referencing. A field study involving actual brand posts on Facebook and two subsequent experiments provide support for this hypothesis. In addition, drawing on cultural dimensions theory, individual levels of collectivism are identified as a boundary condition. The presence (vs. absence) of second person pronouns in online brand messaging enhances involvement and brand attitude for consumers that are lower, but not higher, in collectivism. The results provide marketers with needed guidance for creating effective online brand messaging.

Brands regularly attempt to stimulate consumer engagement by posting messages on social media platforms (e.g., Facebook), but their messages are often ignored. How can managers write social media messages that engage consumers? The present research sheds light on how the language of brand messages influences consumer engagement. Text analyses of brand messages posted on Facebook and Twitter shows that brand messages that include words that express certainty (e.g., always, everything, forever) are associated with higher levels of consumer engagement (e.g., likes, comments, shares/retweets). The results of two controlled experiments demonstrate that messages expressing certainty increase engagement by influencing how consumers perceive brands. Specifically, expressing certainty makes brands seem more powerful, and perceptions of power exert a positive effect on engagement. In addition, the indirect effect of certainty on consumer engagement is stronger (weaker) among consumers with higher (lower) power distance beliefs. These results assist marketing managers by demonstrating how language influences consumer engagement on social media.

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Despite a recognition that consumers want to be cool and value cool brands, the literature has only just begun to delineate what makes things cool. Writing by scholars, quotes by celebrities, and norms in fashion advertising are consistent with the view that people become cool by being emotionally inexpressive. The relationship between emotional expression and coolness, however, has not been empirically tested. Our research uses an experimental approach to examine whether being emotionally inexpressive makes people seem more or less cool than smiling. In contrast to the belief that being inexpressive is cool, we find that in noncompetitive contexts—an endorser in a clothing advertisement and an athlete interacting with fans—being inexpressive makes people seem cold rather than cool. On the other hand, in competitive contexts—such as an athlete facing his opponent—being inexpressive makes people seem cool by making them appear dominant. Our results have important implications for marketers, advertisers, and consumers trying to cultivate a cool image.

This research uncovers a social factor that helps to explain how a consumer’s cultural orientation affects the extent to which they engage in online word-of-mouth (eWOM). The first study aggregates archival data from 52 countries and finds a positive relationship between collectivism and the extent that consumers share product-related information on social networking sites; however, collectivism is not found to relate to the extent that consumers rate and review products online. A second study examines why collectivism is positively associated with sharing product-related information on social networking sites. Collectivism is measured at the individual level among consumers in two culturally distinct countries—India and the United States. The results demonstrate that a collectivistic orientation is positively associated with similarity among members of one’s online social network (i.e., homophily) and that homophily is positively associated with sharing product-related information on social networking sites. In an increasingly global online marketplace, these findings provide needed guidance on how culture affects eWOM.