Do you want to be roasted? The boundaries of using dark humor as a brand-to-brand communication strategy
Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing
ISSN: 2040-7122
Article publication date: 5 May 2023
Issue publication date: 7 March 2024
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the use of dark humor in brand-to-brand communications on social media and its impact on consumers' brand perceptions. In particular, this study looks at roasting messages in which a brand humorously insults its peers.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a sampling method to recruit 286 participants from the United States. They employed an ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc analysis to test the hypotheses, as well as Hayes' PROCESS to test the mediation and moderation effects, including Johnson–Neyman procedure.
Findings
The authors found that not all customers find roasting messages funny. Rather, consumers' personality and age will influence their perceived humor of the messages and their brand evaluations. Customers who are young and extroverted are likely to believe roasting messages to be funny. They thus perceive the brand to be cooler and more sincere when using such a communication approach, compared to when the brand neutrally interacts with others. Meanwhile, brands may find less success with old and introverted customers.
Originality/value
This research sheds light on how the consumers' perception of humor in a roasting type of brand-to-brand communication has an impact on consumers' psychological perceptions of brand coolness and brand sincerity. To guide practitioners, it explored how the interaction between a consumer's personality and age moderates the aforementioned relationship.
Keywords
Citation
Saavedra Torres, J.L., Bhattarai, A., Dang, A. and Rawal, M. (2024), "Do you want to be roasted? The boundaries of using dark humor as a brand-to-brand communication strategy", Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 220-237. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-12-2022-0370
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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