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Social media platforms are important channels to create a favourable customer experience. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the types of experiences customers can have with the branded content on social media.

Data were collected from 20 participants using semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data.

The results identify seven types of branded content experience which are evoked when customers interact with branded content on social media. The results also suggest that branded content experience acts as a driver of consumer engagement with branded content which eventually leads to customers' sense of virtual community.

The findings provide theoretical implications for content creators. Further research should aim at comparing the branded content experience on different social media platforms and across different product categories.

This study contributes to customer engagement and experience literature in social media content by enhancing the understanding of branded content experience concept and its conceptual relationship with customer engagement in the social media context.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-10-2019-0333

The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual framework that identifies engaging CM practices, specifically how compelling content is created. Content marketing (CM) is fast becoming a key pillar in a company's marketing mix. It is also a requisite for companies seeking to modernise their marketing practices through digitalisation to enhance online branding. However, overlapping definitions and interchangeable terms arising from different perspectives and methodological practices confound what exactly constitutes CM. Although CM is generally accepted as sharing brand content via owned media to gain earned media, a strategic approach, based on evidence-driven research, is needed to navigate through the overwhelming confusion so that companies can better plan and implement CM.

This paper addresses the scarcity of work with regard to CM practices in Asia. To address this research gap, the study examines content creation practices of five successful companies, based in Singapore, through case studies, interviews and content analyses, to propose a CM capability development framework.

The findings point to the need for content creation to align with brand values and value creation to create and socialise compelling content for positive impact. Content created for audiences and marketed by brands can generate value when it is consumed and shared. The paper also provided much needed clarity in terms of how CM capability can be gained to minimise costly trial and error.

The study is limited to companies operating in Asia. The framework will require implementation in other regions. Another limitation of the study was that it did not extend to how consumers responded to CM posts. This is an area for further research that can help validate the proposed framework.

The analytical framework adopted in this study can also be used as a functional CM model for marketing managers to construct better CM strategies and informed standards of practice by growing capabilities.

CM is also a requisite for companies seeking to modernise their marketing practices through digitalisation to enhance online branding, particularly for small- and medium-sized companies.

This paper addresses the scarcity of work with regard to CM practices in Asia.

Social media marketers are keen to understand how viewers perceive their brands on a platform and how the learning experiences from content can impact their attitudes toward a brand. This study aims to focus on examining the effect of firm-generated content (FGC) on X (formerly known as Twitter), using Kolb’s experiential learning theory to analyze the viewers’ learning process. In addition, the study investigates how the length of time a viewer follows a brand and the type of brand can influence their attitudes toward it.

This study involved three qualitative studies on X to investigate how content learning affects consumer attitudes toward two brands, namely, Nike and Subway. The study also examined the impact of the duration of following the brands, with participants following the brands for 4, 8 and 12 weeks, respectively, to assess changes in their attitudes.

The results demonstrate that content learning significantly impacts consumer attitudes. By following brands and engaging with their FGC over time, viewers can transition from being occasional or intermittent followers to becoming devoted brand enthusiasts. Through the four-stage experiential learning process, followers undergo cognitive, emotional and behavioral transformations that collectively shape their brand attitudes. The impact of content learning varies according to the brand type, and the duration of following has a positive effect on brand attitudes.

The study’s findings have significant marketing implications for social media marketers, suggesting that they should restructure their social media platforms as learning platforms to effectively engage followers. Companies should adjust their content marketing strategies from a learner’s perspective, providing followers with content that resonates with them, enhances their learning outcomes and helps shift their beliefs and brand attitudes, ultimately converting them into loyal consumers.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this qualitative research is the first of its kind to apply experiential learning theories to investigate how users learn from FGC by following brands on social media and how this learning ultimately changes their brand attitude. The study provides a unique perspective on social media marketing, enriching the understanding of content marketing and consumer experiences on social media platforms.

It has been suggested that brands and products often assume a role in selfies (Ham, 2014) where the expression of brands and products provokes consumer emotions that bring about greater engagement (Tsai and Men, 2013) and contributes to the interactivity with the brands. This study aims to understand how the selfie phenomenon could mobilize the interactivity between brands and target audiences, in a way that could be used as a marketing tool by companies.

A netnographic research methodology was used for the current study because it is a method specifically designed to study online communities (Kozinets, 2010). The experiences of brand selfie postings on Instagram were studied by analyzing users’ selfies to predict brand usage. A purposive sample of Instagram users was chosen, and from these, a total of 74 brand selfies were analyzed.

This study provided an understanding of consumer behavior and marketing practices in the social marketplace through a detailed exploration of the data using visual and textual analysis. The main finding of this study is that consumers both consume and produce brand meanings in digital platforms; hence, companies should view them not only as passive receivers of messages, but also potential generators and co-creators of brand messages.

An important limitation of this study is that it only examines a small number of cases, and conclusions can only be limited to the specific sample chosen. A future research endeavor could of course be carried out to include a larger sample audience for investigating the effect of brand selfies and the potential purchase decisions of peers following exposure. Theoretically, this study provided further insight into the selfie phenomenon and specifically as a marketing tool and not just a new social trend.

The growing trend in the selfie phenomenon along with social networking sites (hereinafter SNSs) have attracted the attention of both users and marketing experts in terms of consumer–brand relationship (Zhu and Chen, 2015). In line with this current trend, many studies have attempted to understand the influential impact of the selfie phenomenon through SNSs. Studies on the motivation of selfie postings (Pounders et al., 2016) and selfie-posting behavior on SNSs (Kim et al., 2016) have been carried out; however, how brand selfies posted on SNSs appeal to non-users and how they interact with them remain unclear. Consequently, the intention of the current study is to provide some insight in this area.

The purpose of this study is to summarize the findings of consumer factor research and to suggest future lines of inquiry connected to branding outcomes. Consumers are comfortable with social media and accept firms occupying the same digital space. However, some consumers more readily engage with firms online than others. Consumer factor antecedents are numerous and yet not fully explored. Online consumer engagement has also been defined and measured in various ways. The resultant outcomes related to branding also have implications for future consumer engagement. Summarizing the findings of consumer factor research and suggesting future lines of inquiry connected to branding outcomes will enhance the understanding of consumer engagement and branding strategies to maximize marketing return on investment.

The authors review literature examining key constructs and sub-dimensions on how consumer factors impact brand engagement and brand outcomes.

Three major research areas specific to consumer factors were identified: consumer status, consumer disposition, personality trait, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and cultural dimensions. Brand engagement was explored relative to affective, cognitive and behavioral engagement. Lastly, six brand outcomes were explored: brand status, disposition, attitude, affirmation connection and aversion.

This review contributes to the literature through a deeper understanding of consumer factors that lead to consumer engagement and the resultant branding factors of consumer engagement. The authors offer framework that both identifies future research needs, and insights into how firms may create, grow and enhance consumer–brand engagement.

Given the dearth of comprehensive brand engagement frameworks in the literature, the authors offer insights into how consumer factors serve as antecedents to brand engagement and identify a research agenda for advancing the field.

This paper aims to bridge the gap by understanding the context of ageing consumer behaviour in the online community. Specifically, this research seeks to identify which content typologies are critical to generating high engagement levels and, consequently, online brand advocacy and to understand the underlying motivation behind consumer online engagement.

A netnographic approach was used to comprehensively analyse older consumers’ online communities on Facebook, namely, “Silversurfers”. A total of 3,991 posts were included in the study and analysed using a content analysis approach over two years, from 2020 to 2022.

Results revealed that photography is the most active media type among older consumers. This study extends the literature on content marketing, identifying 17 new content types that reflect the four motivation states of older consumers to engage with the online community: cognitive/informative oriented, affective/emotional oriented, co-creation/interactive oriented and nostalgic oriented. Moreover, this investigation stressed affective/emotional oriented and nostalgic oriented as the primary motivations for higher engagement levels.

The older population is growing, which makes the ageing market potentially huge. However, more literature needs to address it, especially in online communities. Finally, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study develops an original content typology framework in which firms can consider implementing effective content typology strategies for the older consumer segment.

The marketing literature uses five different experience terms that are supposed to represent different streams of research. Many papers do not provide a definition, most of the used definitions are unclear, the different experience terms have similar dimensionality and are regularly used interchangeably or have the same meaning. In addition, the existing definitions are not adequately informed from other disciplines that have engaged with experience. This paper aims to build a comprehensive conceptual framework of experience in marketing informed by related disciplines aiming to provide a more holistic definition of the term.

This research follows previously established procedures by conducting a systematic literature review of experience. From the approximately 5,000 sources identified in three disciplines, 267 sources were selected, marketing (148), philosophy (90) and psychology (29). To address definitional issues the analysis focused on enlightening four premises.

This paper posits that the term brand experience can be used in all marketing-related experiences and proposes four premises that may resolve the vagaries associated with the term’s conceptualization. The four premises address the what, who, how and when of brand experience and aim to rectify conceptual issues. Brand experience is introduced as a multi-level phenomenon.

The suggested singular term, brand experience, captures all experiences in marketing. The identified additional elements of brand experience, such as the levels of experience and the revision of emotions within brand experience as a continuum, tempered by repetition, should be considered in future research.

The multi-level conceptualization may provide a greater scope for dynamic approaches to brand experience design thus providing greater opportunities for managers to create sustainable competitive advantages and differentiation from competitors.

This paper completes a systematic literature review of brand experience across marketing, philosophy and psychology which delineates and enlightens the conceptualization of brand experience and presents brand experience in a multi-level conceptualization, opening the possibility for further theoretical, methodological and interdisciplinary promise.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of craftsmanship content and social distance embedded in the craftsmanship content on luxury brand experiences, perceived luxury and brand purchase intentions using a social media video.

The authors conducted a single factor (close social distance vs great social distance vs control group) using a between-subjects experimental design. The social distance was manipulated by the presence (i.e. a close social distance) or absence (i.e. a great social distance) of a consumer scene in a craftsmanship video shown on social media. The control group watched a video with non-craftsmanship content. Then, brand experience, perceived luxury and purchase intentions were measured.

The results showed that the control group perceived less luxury and had lower brand experiences and purchase intentions than the group that watched the video without a consumer scene. In addition, participants who watched the craftsmanship video that included a consumer scene (i.e. a close social distance) had stronger brand experiences than those who watched the video without the scene (i.e. a great social distance). The brand experience increased perceived luxury and purchase intentions.

By manipulating social distance and providing better brand experiences in social media, experiential marketing allows luxury brands to reconcile two apparently incompatible goals: maintaining an exclusive image while increasing purchase intentions.

The proliferation of digital communication on social media provides new opportunities for businesses to take advantage of Internet memes to boost customer engagement. Academic literature on digital communications mostly focuses on popular forms such as selfies, branded posts, and branded emoticons. Less attention has been paid to brand memes and their implications for brand management. Based on the cue utilization theory, this research aims to investigate the informational cues of brand memes foster brand partnerships.

The structural equation modeling and importance-performance matrix analysis were used to empirically validate the research hypotheses with 595 respondents to an online survey.

Three informational cues of brand memes (i.e. comprehensibility, novelty, and meme-brand congruity) stimulated consumers' attitudes, which in turn impacted consumer-brand relationships. Another brand meme informational cue, sarcasm, negatively moderated the relationships between the three informational cues and consumer-brand relationships.

Our findings indicate that a brand can engage consumers in conversations on social media and foster long-term consumer-brand relationships through brand memes.