Read the article, Introducing COBRAs: Exploring motivations for brand-related social media use. (Estimated time commitment: 1 ho

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233894948

Introducing COBRAs

Article  in  International Journal of Advertising · January 2011

CITATION

1 READS

13,322

3 authors:

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Packaging design and consumers' product inferences View project

Multiscreening & Advertising Effectiveness View project

Daan Muntinga

University of Amsterdam

16 PUBLICATIONS   394 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Marjolein Moorman

University of Amsterdam

23 PUBLICATIONS   737 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Edith G. Smit

University of Amsterdam

139 PUBLICATIONS   2,306 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Edith G. Smit on 08 July 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

� 13� 13

International Journal of Advertising, 30(1), pp. 13–46 © 2011 Advertising Association Published by Warc, www.warc.com DOI: 10.2501/IJA-30-1-013-046

Introducing COBRAs Exploring motivations for brand-related

social media use

Daniël G. Muntinga, Marjolein Moorman and Edith G. Smit University of Amsterdam

Social media websites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter provide unlimited means for internet users to interact, express, share and create content about anything, includ- ing brands. Such consumers’ online brand-related activities (COBRAs) have significant consequences for firms. To effectively anticipate and direct these consequences, under- standing people’s motivations to engage in brand-related social media use is imperative. This article makes a first effort to come to such an understanding. Instant messaging (IM) interviews were conducted with people engaged in COBRAs about their motivations to do so. Reporting motivations for the full spectrum of COBRA types (consuming, con- tributing and creating), the authors provide marketers and brand managers with valuable insights into consumer behaviour in a social media-dominated era.

Introduction

The rise of Web 2.0 technologies has led to a wealth of social media web- sites, popular examples of which are YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. These platforms provide many opportunities for internet users to share and create content about anything, including brands. Social media have thereby transformed online consumer behaviour (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010), which has important consequences for firms, products and brands. Depending more and more on each other than on companies for informa- tion, consumers are becoming increasingly influential with respect to the brands they are interacting about (Muñiz & Schau 2007; Cova & Dalli 2009). Moreover, their interactions with and about brands have a much stronger impact on consumer behaviour than traditional forms of market- ing and advertising (e.g. Chiou & Cheng 2003; Villanueva et al. 2008).

14�

INTERNATIONAL JOuRNAL OF ADVERTISING, 2011, 30(1)

Scientists, advertisers and marketers who wish to keep pace with these ‘new forms of customer empowerment’ (Cova & Pace 2006) face the chal- lenge of developing a good understanding of the appeal that such brand- related interactions have for their target consumers.

Watching brand-related videos on Absolut Vodka’s YouTube chan- nel, talking about IKEA on Twitter and uploading pictures of their new Converse sneakers to Facebook are examples of consumers’ online brand- related activities (COBRAs). We use this COBRA concept as a behavioural construct that provides a unifying framework to think about consumer activity pertaining to brand-related content on social media platforms. under its sign, a wide range of consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to- brand behaviours are clustered. As such, it conjoins concepts that describe idiosyncratic online behavioural phenomena. For instance, ‘electronic word-of-mouth’ (eWOM) is associated with online consumer-to-consumer interactions about brands, and the term ‘user-generated content’ (uGC) is used for the content produced and uploaded by consumers rather than companies. Moreover, the COBRA concept also encompasses early typologies of consumer behaviour in computer-mediated environments, such as Hoffman and Novak’s (1996) distinction between experience- and goal-orientated activities – for instance, internet surfing and online shop- ping respectively. Enveloping these concepts and the social media-based brand-related behaviours they cover, then, the COBRA concept allows us to collectively investigate and compare behaviours that were previously investigated only separately.

While the impact of COBRAs on consumer perceptions and behaviour is subject to an increasing number of studies (e.g. Shang et al. 2006; Duana et al. 2008; Lee & Youn 2009), it is also important to examine COBRAs’ antecedents – in particular consumers’ motivations for engaging with brand-related content on social media (cf. Rodgers et al. 2007). In the con- text of media use, motivations are understood as the incentives that drive people’s selection and use of media and media content (Rubin 2002). They have been shown to influence website effectiveness, attitudes towards brands and advertisements, and purchase behaviour (Rodgers 2002; Ko et al. 2005). To date, however, people’s motivations to engage in COBRAs have been scarcely investigated (Burmann 2010). In addition, no study has examined COBRAs and their motivations in the context of other COBRAs. Consequently, we lack an overview of motivations for

� 15

INTRODuCING COBRAS

the full spectrum of brand-related social media uses, and we need such an overview to fully understand and anticipate consumers’ online brand- related activities.

The aim of our study was to provide a first, comprehensive understand- ing of consumers’ motivations for brand-related use of social media. In this article, we first present our COBRAs typology. We then move on to the results of the instant messaging (IM) based interviews we carried out in order to classify COBRA motivations. We close with a discussion on how our findings relate to the literature on motivations for both general social media and consumers’ online brand-related activities.

A COBRA typology

To facilitate the exploration of COBRA motivations, a COBRA typol- ogy was developed. Existing typologies of online consumer behaviour usually categorise behaviours into various user types that are associated with specific behaviours. For instance, Mathwick (2002) developed four internet user types, namely lurkers, socialisers, personal connectors and transactional community members. While lurkers observe other people’s conducts and contributions on online communities, socialisers engage with other people, provide feedback and maintain relationships with family, friends and other acquaintances. user typologies have also been applied to social media. Li and Bernoff (2008) for instance distinguish six types of social media users: inactives, spectators, joiners, collectors, critics and creators.

user typologies, however, are limited in the sense that people often engage in multiple roles. That is (applying Mathwick’s typology), depend- ing on his or her motivations and goals, someone can be a lurker at a given moment, and seconds later be a socialiser. While user typologies thus are oversimplifications of reality, typologies that classify behaviour into usage types are not, because they assume people to engage in more than a single behaviour. However, usage typologies are far less common than user typologies , especially when it comes to social media. An exception is Shao’s (2009) theoretically derived typology of generic social media use. Similar to Shao, we took the activeness of social media use into account and developed a continuum from high to low brand-related activity. COBRAs were categorised into three dimensions that correspond to a

16�

INTERNATIONAL JOuRNAL OF ADVERTISING, 2011, 30(1)

path of gradual involvement with brand-related content on social media, namely consuming, contributing and creating. These dimensions form the basic units of analysis in our study (see Table 1 for several examples).

Consuming brand-related content

The consuming COBRA type represents a minimum level of online brand-related activeness. It denotes participating without actively contrib- uting to or creating content. People who consume watch the brand-related videos that companies or other people create, and view the product rat- ings and reviews that others post, and the dialogues between members of online brand forums. In addition, they download branded widgets, play branded games and send branded virtual gifts.

Table 1: COBRA typology as a continuum of three usage types – consuming, contributing and creating

COBRA type Examples of brand-related social media use

Le ve

l o f

br an

d re

la te

d- ac

tiv en

es s

Consuming

• Viewing brand-related video

• Listening to brand-related audio

• Watching brand-related pictures

• Following threads on online brand community forums

• Reading comments on brand profiles on social network sites

• Reading product reviews

• Playing branded online videogames

• Downloading branded widgets

• Sending branded virtual gifts/cards

Contributing

• Rating products and/or brands

• Joining a brand profile on a social network site

• Engaging in branded conversations, e.g. on online brand community forums or social network sites

• Commenting on brand-related weblogs, video, audio, pictures, etc.

Creating

• Publishing a brand-related weblog

• Uploading brand-related video, audio, pictures or images

• Writing brand-related articles

• Writing product reviews

Note: this list of examples of brand-related social media use is not exhaustive – COBRAs come in countless forms. The examples mentioned are both literature (e.g. Li & Bernoff 2008) and author generated.

� 17

INTRODuCING COBRAS

Contributing to brand-related content

The contributing COBRA type is the middle level of online brand-related activeness. It denotes both user-to-content and user-to-user interactions about brands. People who contribute to brand-related content converse on a brand’s fan page on a social networking site, make contributions to brand forums, and comment on blogs, pictures, videos and any other brand-related content that others have created.

Creating brand-related content

The creating COBRA type represents the ultimate level of online brand- related activeness. It denotes actively producing and publishing the brand-related content that others consume and contribute to. People that create write brand-related weblogs, post product reviews, produce and upload branded videos, music and pictures, or write articles on brands.

Uses, gratifications and motivations

In our endeavour to understand the appeal of COBRAs for consumers, we took a user-centric functionalist perspective on social media: uses and grat- ifications (u&G). As opposed to effect-orientated research traditions that take the view of the communicator, the u&G approach to communication research examines media effects from the viewpoint of the individual user (Aitken et al. 2008). Rather than being used to examine what the media do to people, u&G has been employed to examine how and why people use media (Katz 1959; Katz et al. 1974). Because u&G assumes that people are active and selective in their media use, it is still considered a cutting-edge approach for investigating the internet as well as social media use, as both compel the active participation of their users (Eighmey 1997; Ruggiero 2000).

u&G researchers usually speak of motivations when describing why people consume certain media and what satisfactions they eventually receive thereof (e.g. Rubin 1984; Ko et al. 2005; Choi et al. 2009). However, it has not always been clear what constituted a motivation in u&G research, and the lack of a clear definition of a key concept has probably added to the criticism that u&G has received for having a ‘vague conceptual frame-

18�

INTERNATIONAL JOuRNAL OF ADVERTISING, 2011, 30(1)

work and a lack of precision in major concepts’ (Ruggiero 2000, p. 4). u&G researchers have dealt with such criticism by establishing a line of research that aligns more with other research traditions, and differentiates between antecedents and consequences of media behaviour. While antecedents of behaviour are referred to as ‘gratifications sought’, consequences of behav- iour are referred to as ‘gratifications obtained’ (Rubin 2002). In addition to this, u&G’s assumption of media use as goal directed reflects thinking among psychologists and communication researchers of behaviour as goal directed (cf. Kleinginna & Kleinginna 1981). Widely recognised as the key driving forces behind behaviour (Dichter 1964; Joinson 2003), motivations here are understood as gratifications sought: if media behaviour is a means to attain a goal (i.e. gratifications obtained), then motivation is the activa- tion of that goal-directed behaviour (Pervin 1989).

Social media use motivations

u&G is particularly appropriate for examining people’s use of new types of media and content (e.g. Newhagen & Rafaeli 1996; Ruggiero 2000). Since the arrival of social media in the early days of the 21st century, u&G researchers have examined how and why people use this new medium type. This has led to a body of literature on the motivations of various social media uses. For instance, Bumgarner (2007) and Boyd (2008) exam- ined motivations for using social networking sites, while Dholakia et al. (2004) studied motivations for virtual community participation, and Kaye (2007) explored people’s motivations to blog.

As new media and new content genres continue to emerge, and as each u&G study yields its own schemes and terms for classifying motivations (Katz et al. 1973), the list of media motivations and u&G categories carries on expanding (Barton 2009). Many motivation classifications have been developed for many media, genres and programmes. One of the earliest, if not the earliest, dates back to 1948, as Lasswell posited that media serve three functions: surveillance of the environment, correlation of the com- ponents of society and transmission of social heritage. This classification of why people attend to media has been refined, updated and revised many times. Today, the most cited and widely recognised u&G categorisation is that of McQuail et al. (1972), who distinguish four gratification catego- ries: diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance.

� 19

INTRODuCING COBRAS

McQuail’s 1983 categorisation is an updated version that takes precedent literature into account. Although the category labels have undergone slight changes, no great changes have been made to content: entertain- ment, integration and social interaction, personal identity and informa- tion. These motivations usually cover several second-order motivations. Entertainment, for instance, covers motivations such as enjoyment and relaxation. These are called ‘sub-motivations’.

McQuail’s (1983) four-category classification of motivations for gen- eral media use has been found relevant and applicable to modern-day media use, including the internet (e.g. Bronner & Neijens 2006; Calder & Malthouse 2008; Calder et al. 2009; Malthouse & Calder 2010). In addition, several social media motivations studies show that McQuail’s classification is also applicable to social media. They are discussed below, together with two extra motivations that emerged from general social media motivations literature and that do not correspond with any of the entertainment, integration and social interaction, personal identity, or information motivations: remuneration and empowerment.

Entertainment The entertainment motivation covers several media gratifications that are related to escaping or being diverted from problems or routine; emotional release or relief; relaxation; cultural or aesthetic enjoyment; passing time; and sexual arousal. Entertainment has been mentioned by many social media u&G researchers as an overall motivation – that is, not specified into sub-motivations such as relaxation or escapism. For instance, Shao (2009) found it to be a relevant motivation for consuming user-generated content, and Sangwan (2005) and Park et al. (2009) found that participa- tion in a virtual community or social networking site respectively is partly driven by entertainment as well. As an example of aesthetic enjoyment, Kaye (2007) found certain blog characteristics to be drivers of people’s engagement with social media, while Courtois et al. (2009) found relaxa- tion and escapism to be important drivers of uploading content.

Integration and social interaction The integration and social interaction motivation covers various media gratifications that are related to other people. Examples of sub-motiva- tions are gaining a sense of belonging; connecting with friends, family and

20�

INTERNATIONAL JOuRNAL OF ADVERTISING, 2011, 30(1)

society; seeking support/emotional support; and substituting real-life com- panionship. Several social media researchers have identified motivations that correspond with McQuail’s description. For instance, Kaye (2007) speaks of ‘affiliation with like-minded others’ when investigating blogging motivations; Boyd (2008) found social identification to play a major role in people’s contributions to social networking sites; and Daugherty et al. (2008) found that social interaction was an important motivator of creating user-generated content.

Personal identity The personal identity motivation covers media gratifications that are related to the self. Sub-motivations include, for instance, gaining insight into one’s self; reinforcing personal values; and identifying with and gain- ing recognition from peers. Personal identity-related motivations are abundant in social media motivations literature. For instance, Boyd (2008) and Bumgarner (2007) respectively identified impression management and identity expression as important motivators of using social networking sites; Papacharissi (2007) discovered that writing a weblog is driven by a need for self-fulfilment; and Nov (2007) found that people who contribute to Wikipedia are motivated by the opportunities for self-enhancement that this generates.

Information The information motivation covers several information-related media gratifications. Sub-motivations include, for instance, surveying what rel- evant events and conditions are taking place in someone’s direct daily environment and in society; seeking advice and opinions; and risk reduc- tion. The information motivation is abundantly present in social media motivations literature. Often mentioned are opinion and advice seeking (Wang & Fesenmaier 2003; Kaye 2007), information exchange (Ridings & Gefen 2004), voyeurism (Bumgarner 2007) and surveillance (Courtois et al. 2009). Most studies, however, just mention ‘information’ when discussing this motivation (e.g. Sangwan 2005; Park et al. 2009).

Remuneration Several social media motivations studies have found remuneration to be a driver of, especially, contributing to online communities. Remuneration

� 21

INTRODuCING COBRAS

as a motivation involves people engaging in social media use because they expect to gain some kind of future reward – be it economic incentives (e.g. money or a prize) (Wang & Fesenmaier 2003), job-related benefits (Nov 2007), or personal wants such as specific software (Hars & Ou 2001).

Empowerment The empowerment motivation refers to people using social media to exert their influence or power on other people or companies. Wang and Fesenmaier (2003), for instance, found that ‘enforcing service excellence’ is a driver of participation in online travel communities, while Kaye (2007) found that people read political blogs to check whether broadcast media report events accurately.

COBRA motivations

While the previously described social media motivation studies are cer- tainly of great value for understanding general social media use, they do not explicitly address brand-related social media use. The question thus remains whether the motivations that hold for generic social media use also hold for consumers’ online brand-related activities (COBRAs). While some of the above-mentioned motivations are present in the (relatively small) body of brand-related social media motivations literature (for instance, Hennig-Thurau and Walsh (2003) found that reading customer reviews is in part driven by a need for information; Hsu and Liao (2007) discovered that community feelings motivate participation in brand com- munities; and Berthon et al. (2008) found that personal identity moti- vates the creation of user-generated advertisements), these studies only investigated the motivations for individual brand-related social media behaviours. That is, in studying the motivations for specific COBRAs (e.g. consuming reviews), the motivations for other COBRAs (e.g. creat- ing brand-related video)

Collepals.com Plagiarism Free Papers

Are you looking for custom essay writing service or even dissertation writing services? Just request for our write my paper service, and we'll match you with the best essay writer in your subject! With an exceptional team of professional academic experts in a wide range of subjects, we can guarantee you an unrivaled quality of custom-written papers.

Get ZERO PLAGIARISM, HUMAN WRITTEN ESSAYS

Why Hire Collepals.com writers to do your paper?

Quality- We are experienced and have access to ample research materials.

We write plagiarism Free Content

Confidential- We never share or sell your personal information to third parties.

Support-Chat with us today! We are always waiting to answer all your questions.