What do marketers post on brands’ Facebook pages in Islamic countries? An exploratory study of local and global brands in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the “posting” behavior of marketers on brands’ Facebook pages and whether these “posting” behaviors differ between local and global brands in Saudi Arabia.

Design/methodology/approach

The study randomly selected a total of 400 Facebook brand page posts from a matching sample of top 20 global and 20 local brands in Saudi Arabia using content analysis.

Findings

One of the notable findings show that global brands are more likely to post content that consists of prizes/giveaways, games/competitions and socializing than local brands, while local brands are more likely to post informative content than global brands. The findings also show that local brands are more likely to use content that includes Islamic messages, women in modest clothing, Arabic language and Saudi dialect than global brands.

Research limitations/implications

This study is limited to 20 global and 20 local brands. More product categories are needed.

Practical implications

The findings of this study have implications for marketers in regards to what types of communication content is more likely to be posted on brands’ Facebook fan pages in Saudi Arabia – especially for those global brands that are interested in having a localized brand Facebook fan page for Saudi Arabia.

Originality/value

The first study to compare Facebook strategies used by global brands and local brands in the same market.

Citation

Abuljadail, M.H. and Ha, L. (2019), "What do marketers post on brands’ Facebook pages in Islamic countries? An exploratory study of local and global brands in Saudi Arabia", Journal of Islamic Marketing, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 1272-1287. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIMA-11-2017-0131