Excerpt
Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
1. Introduction
1.1 Research Gap
1.2 Research Question
1.3 Structure
2. State of Research 5
2.1 Advertising
2.1.1 Definition of Advertising
2.1.2 Polarisation in Advertising
2.2 Social Media
2.2.1 Definition of Social Media
2.2.2 Brands on Social Media
2.3 Consumer-Brand Engagement
2.3.1 Definition of Engagement
2.3.2 Driving Factors for Consumer-Brand Engagement
2.4 Status Quo 25
3. Theory
3.1 Uses and Gratification Theory
3.2 Communication Accommodation Theory
4. Empirical Research
4.1 Study Design
4.2 Operationalisation
4.3 Sampling
4.4 Data Collection
4.5 Data Analysis
5. Results
5.1 Descriptive
5.2 Social Media Platform
5.3 Brand
5.4 Content Classification
6. Discussion
6.1 Summary and Interpretation of Main Results
6.2 Limitations
6.3 Managerial Implications and Future Research
References
Appendix
A. Data Analysis
B. Category System
Zusammenfassung
Die vorliegende Masterarbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem Einfluss der Social-Media- Plattformen Instagram und Facebook auf das Consumer-Brand-Engagement von polarisierenden Marken. Social-Media-Plattformen dienen nicht nur der privaten Nutzung, sondern sind ein wichtiges Kommunikations- und Werbeinstrument für Marken, um eine enge Kundenbeziehung zu schaffen. Um sich von der Masse der konkurrierenden Marken abzuheben und die Aufmerksamkeit potenzieller Konsumenten zu erregen, setzen Marken zunehmend auf humorvolle Polarisierung. Auf Basis einer quantitativen Inhaltsanalyse von Nutzerkommentaren (N = 1.500) werden die Zusammenhänge zwischen den Plattformen Instagram und Facebook und dem Consumer-Brand-Engagement der polarisierenden Marken true fruits, SIXT und BVG untersucht. Als theoretische Grundlage dienen die Uses and Gratification Theory und die Communication Accommodation Theory. Die Ergebnisse der Untersuchung zeigen, dass Facebook die Nutzer dazu verleitet, die Marke und die geposteten Inhalte zu kritisieren, während Instagram vor allem Komplimente und positive Interaktionen mit den Inhalten erzeugt. Darüber hinaus zeigt sich, dass der Einsatz von humorvoller Polarisierung einen Einfluss auf den Inhalt der Nutzerkommentare haben kann, der jedoch von der gewählten Form der Polarisierung abhängig ist. Darüber hinaus zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass sich unterhaltsame Posts im Vergleich zu informativen Inhalten positiv auf das Consumer-Brand-Engagement auswirken.
Abstract
This master thesis focuses on the influence of the social media platforms Instagram and Facebook on the consumer-brand engagement of polarising brands. Social media platforms are not only for private use but are important communication and advertising tool for brands to build strong customer relationships. To stand out from the crowd of competitors and attract the attention of potential consumers, brands are increasingly using humorous polarisation. Based on a quantitative content analysis of user comments (N = 1,500), the correlations between the social media platforms Instagram and Facebook and the consumer-brand engagement of the polarising brands true fruits, SIXT and BVG are examined. The Uses and Gratification Theory and the Communication Accommodation Theory serve as the theoretical basis. The results of the study show that Facebook leads users to criticise the brand and the posting content, whereas Instagram mainly generates compliments and positive interaction with the content. Furthermore, it shows that the use of humorous polarisation can have an impact on the content of user comments but is dependent on the particular type of polarisation. Additionally, the results show that entertaining posts have a positive impact on consumer-brand engagement compared to informative content.
List of Tables
Table 1: Adapted Category System, based on Döring and Mohseni (2020)
Table 2: Pre-Test Inter-rater Reliability calculated with Cohen's Kappa
Table 3: Inter-rater Reliability calculated with Cohen's Kappa
Table 4: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Social Media Platform and Negative Interaction
Table 5: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Social Media Platform and Criticism Post Content
Table 6: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Social Media Platform and Criticism Brand
Table 7: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Social Media Platform and Explicitly or Aggressively Hate Comment
Table 8: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Social Media Platform and Neutral Comment
Table 9: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Social Media Platform and Compliment Post Content
Table 10: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Social Media Platform and Positive Interaction
Table 11: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Social Media Platform and Compliment Brand
Table 12: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Social Media Platform and Friend Tagged
Table 13: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Brand and Criticism Post
Table 14: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Brand and Negative Interaction
Table 15: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Brand and Criticism Brand
Table 16: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Brand and Explicitly or Aggressively Hate Comment
Table 17: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Brand and Neutral Comment
Table 18: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Brand and Compliment Post Content
Table 19: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Brand and Positive Interaction
Table 20: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Brand and Compliment Post
Table 21: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Brand and Friend Tagged
Table 22: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Content Classification and Criticism Post Content
Table 23: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Content Classification and Negative Interaction
Table 24: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Content Classification and Criticism Brand
Table 25: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Content Classification and Explicitly or Aggressively Hate
Table 26: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Content Classification and Neutral Comment
Table 27: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Content Classification and Compliment Post Content
Table 28: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Content Classification and Positive Interaction
Table 29: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Content Classification and Compliment Brand
Table 30: Pearson Chi-Square Test and Cramer’s V for Variables Content Classification and Friend Tagged
List of Figures
Figure 1: Procedure of the Systematic Literature Review
Figure 2: Uses and Gratification Theory (Ko et al., 2005; McQuail, 1983) combined with Social Media Content Classification (Dolan et al., 2015)
Figure 3: Communication Accommodation Theory based on Giles et al. (1973)..
Figure 4: Overview of Brands' Followers on Instagram & Facebook
Figure 5: Sampling Selection Process
Figure 6: Depiction of each first selected post for the research from the brands true fruits, SIXT and BVG
Figure 7: Average Like Count for true fruits, SIXT and BVG on Instagram and Facebook
Figure 8: Average Comment Count for true fruits, SIXT and BVG on Instagram and Facebook
Figure 9: Overview of the Frequency Distribution of Positive and Negative Comments
Figure 10: Overview of Content Classification Distribution for true fruits, SIXT and BVG
List of Abbreviations
CAT. Communication Accommodation Theory CMMC. Communication and Mass Media Complete e.g. for example etc. et cetera
FGC. Firm-Generated Content
k. Thousand
m. Million
SAT. Speech Accommodation Theory
SET. Social Exchange Theory
UGC. User-Generated Content
UGT. Uses and Gratifications Theory
USD. US-Dollar
1. Introduction
Every day, we interact and build relationships with brands on various social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Social media has, especially in the last decade, brought a complex and intensified change in how customers and brands interact with each other and build relationships (Li et al., 2021). Markets and industries are characterised by an abundance of goods and brands are increasingly perceived as interchangeable by customers. To be able to prevail among the existing competition, targeted communication and building relationships between consumer and brand is necessary (Esch, 2018). A relationship between consumers and brands can have a significant impact on brand perception as well as the likelihood of purchase (Henke, 2015). Consumer-brand engagement is about more than the initial purchase and represents the level of interactions and connections the consumer has with the brand (Vivek et al., 2014). Therefore, the posts that brands publish need to do more than attract attention; they should also give consumers a reason to like, comment or share the post to openly support the brand (Chwialkowska, 2019). In today's world, it is therefore no longer sufficient to focus solely on the quality of a brand and its products or services as the added emotional value that a brand conveys has become a crucial factor for the durability and success of a brand (Esch, 2018).
As people spend an increasing amount of time online to search for information, products and services, direct communication and engagement between brands and consumers have become gradually important (Arora & Sanni, 2019). Social media platforms have originally become known as spaces for user-generated content (UGC), however, these platforms are increasingly used by brands and are nowadays even considered one of the most important channels for brand-consumer communication (Barger et al., 2016). Consumers are using social media platforms to interact with brands by creating brand-related UGC in the form of comments, reviews and feedback and have “become pivotal authors of brand stories” (p. 244) by doing so (Gensler et al., 2013). Therefore, companies are exploring new ways to incorporate UGC into their social media communication strategies. This strategy is mainly used to encourage consumers to engage with the brand, to build a positive brand image as well as to form a relationship with consumers (Arora & Sanni, 2019). Thus, brands and organisations have made digital marketing and social media an essential component of their business and marketing plans to promote consumerbrand engagement (Stephen, 2016).
With around 2.89 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social network in the world (Statista Research Department, 2021), followed by Instagram as the second-largest social media network with 1 billion monthly active users (Enberg, 2020). When analysing the top 100 brands in the world, 90% of these brands have an Instagram account. Adding to that, 90% of Instagram users follow at least one brand on the social media platform (Instagram, 2019). Whilst Facebook is the most popular social media platform for marketers, both platforms offer enormous potential for brands to reach their customers (Appel et al., 2020).
Whether on the way to work, checking social media, or on TV - consumers are confronted with thousands of advertising messages every day. Perceiving and processing this flood of advertising messages is almost impossible. Therefore, consumers have learned to filter out or even ignore a large part of these advertisements (Osuna Ramirez et al., 2019). For this very reason, companies and brands need to find a way to stand out from the crowd - interesting, inspiring and entertaining marketing is one way to do so (Tenderich, 2014). Increasingly, it can be observed that start-ups especially rely on provocative and polarising advertising to stand out from the crowd and generate attention. If done right, polarising, and provocative marketing can lead to public discussion and generate free publicity (Schicha, 2019). However, this type of marketing can also lead to negative reactions which can negatively influence the brand perception of the consumers (Schicha, 2019). Three examples of humorous and polarising marketing are the German brands true fruits, SIXT and BVG. It should be noted that true fruits as well as BVG in particular pursue a very provocative-polarising marketing approach which often led to criticism and shitstorms. This polarising marketing style led EDEKA to remove true fruits campaign products from its range during the election campaign 2021 (Jansen, 2021). Differently, SIXT relies on humorous polarisation that is tailored more to the broader audience. However, the three brands were chosen for this study as they impress with their humorous marketing, which primarily incorporates up-to- date happenings (Flaig, 2019; Theobold, 2020; Breyer, 2021).
1.1 Research Gap
An extensive body of publications that deals with the general area of media and advertising impact research already exists. These explain and describe the influence of marketing measures on the recipient and give conclusions about possible effects on the image of a company. However, the field of social media marketing and the influence of social media platforms on consumer behaviour shows only limited research that has been conducted so far (Appel et al., 2020).
Although social media platforms and their advantages for brands have been the centre of research for a while, the impact of different social media platforms on consumer brand engagement has not been studied thoroughly. Also, only a rather small body of research can be found that focuses on comparing consumer engagement on more than one platform at a time (Voorveld et al., 2018). In addition, most existing research focuses on the strategic use of Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter instead of focusing on how consumers view and react to social media advertising (Chen, 2018). With its special characteristics to user experiences, Instagram can differ from other social media networks like Facebook - this also applies to users’ perception of brand communication on Instagram (Yang, 2021). Whilst brands have accepted Instagram as a social media tool for marketing purposes, there is little research focusing on the effectiveness of Instagram marketing as well as comparing different social media platforms in their level of effectiveness (Chen, 2018). Although these two platforms, in particular, seem to be enormously important for consumer-brand engagement, there has been little comparative research into the extent to which the platforms might evoke different user reactions (Yang et al., 2019). Therefore, a research potential emerges on how different social media platforms can influence consumer-brand engagement to similar content, as most studies focus on analysing only one social media platform at a time (Kusumasondjaja, 2018). Previous research has mainly focused on the type of content, the media channel, as well as the timing of the post. The use of emotions, which includes the utilisation of humour to polarise, as well as the effect on consumer-brand engagement has only been examined in a few studies (Deng et al., 2020, 2021).
As consumer-brand engagement has been mostly measured by the quantitative number of likes, shares, and comments, only a small share of study focuses on the content and nature of user comments as well as commenting behaviour on Instagram itself (Chen, 2018). This, however, is another really important factor as a high level of engagement is not necessarily a good sign, just because there is a large number of comments generated by a brands post. Studying the content of user comments offers a new way to understand the nature of engagement and provides more insights into which content is likely to engage consumers (Smith et al., 2012; Yang et al., 2019).
In addition, consumer-brand engagement on a brands social media page combined with UGC shows little research and a limited theoretical understanding. Prior related research focused on consumer reviews on online shopping websites and discussion forums for books, movies, TV shows as well as hotels and restaurants. However, UGC differs conceptually in motivation and motive compared to online reviews - the few studies focusing on UGC in brand communities have treated it like an online form of word-of-mouth. Therefore, the theoretical and empirical understanding of consumer-brand engagement in the context of social media is limited and shows a high-priority research field (Yang et al., 2019).
By means of a comparative content analysis, this master thesis will investigate whether the same message on different social media platforms has a different effect on consumer responses. The theoretical goal of this master thesis is to expand the current state of research on polarising brands in relation to the social media platforms Instagram and Facebook. Furthermore, an outlook will be provided on the extent to which a social media platform affects the reactions to polarising brands. The combination of social, but also economic interest makes the field to be researched particularly interesting and can, in the best case, serve as a strategic marketing decision for start-ups and companies in the future.
1.2 Research Question
Based on the information and importance highlighted in the introduction and the research gap presented, the following research question was formed:
RQ: To what extent do the social media platforms Instagram and Facebook influence the engagement of consumers and their response to polarising posts?
1.3 Structure
To address the research problem presented in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 first provides an overview of the current state of research on the main subjects of Social Media, Advertising and Consumer-Brand Engagement, where important topics are explained and defined. Chapter 3 presents the theoretical basis drawing on the Uses and Gratifications Theory in combination with the Communication Accommodation Theory, to connect the theoretical foundations of the study with the research design. Chapter 4 describes the methods section, in which an approach for addressing the research interest is presented. The determination of the individual categories of the category system, as well as the sampling and selection, are of great importance. Subsequently, Chapter 5 presents and analyses the data collected. Chapter 6 summarises and interprets the results. In addition, implications for practice and further research are presented and the limitations of the work are explained.
2. State of Research
To identify, select and evaluate the most relevant literature to derive important findings and a basis for the research question of this study a systematic literature review was conducted as a first step (Jalali & Wohlin, 2012). For this purpose, the three main components of the work were identified as follows: Advertising (2.1), Social Media (2.2) and Consumer-Brand Engagement (2.3). Google Scholar, Communication and Mass Media Complete (CMMC) on EBSCO, Web of Science and Research Gate were chosen as the databases, selecting the languages English and German to analyse fitting studies published in 2017 and later. Multiple databases were used for the research to ensure that no publishers or authors were shown preference with their works and that the state of research was not distorted in that way (Wohlin, 2014). Different keywords were applied in the search to avoid only capturing papers using specific terms and therefore missing out on important information. After a first screening based on the information provided by the online databases, the papers were studied more in-depth.
As Figure 1 shows, for 2.1 Advertising, the tags “polarising marketing”, “polarising brands”, “provocative marketing”, “provocative brands”, “emotional marketing” were used and a total of N = 2 main journals were found to be relevant.
For 2.2 Social Media the tags “social media brands”, “social media marketing” and “social media advertising” were used and N = 4 main journals were identified.
For 2.3 Consumer-Brand Engagement, the tags “consumer brand engagement”, “consumer behaviour”, “consumer behaviour + social media marketing” were used in the search which identified N = 4 journals that were relevant for this research. After studying the N = 10 selected studies, as a second step, the forward snowballing system was applied by using the reference list of the papers identified in the systematic literature review (Wohlin, 2014). This combination of literature review methods resulted in a comprehensive body of literature that will be further elaborated in the following sub-chapters.
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
Figure 1: Procedure of the Systematic Literature Review, own presentation
2.1 Advertising
2.1.1 Definition of Advertising
„Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need.“ - (Fincher, 1999)
Any kind of communication that attempts to influence opinions, attitudes, expectations, and behaviour serves as a form of communication - including the advertising (Bergler, 1989). Advertising aims to shape markets and transform actors in a way that the behaviour of customers and competitors is influenced to the advantage of the own company (Li et al., 2021). Advertising campaigns offer the possibility to raise awareness for new products and brands as well as to inform the recipient about the benefits of a product to create a favourable perception (Bendixen, 1993). In this way, the customer is to be convinced of the advertised product or brand. Advertising is only truly successful when not only the advertiser's goals but also the recipient's needs are met (Homburg, 2017) and when the recipient is confident in the problem-solving competence of a brand (Bergler, 1989). While the goals of advertising have remained almost unchanged since the very beginning, the way to reach the goal has changed even more. It is indisputable that advertising aims to manipulate and persuade. Even though this goal is by no means a secret, advertising faces biases (Ehrenberg et al., 2002).
It is demonstrated that advertising, thanks to its many facets, can be understood as a form of strategic communication. The overlapping areas of marketing communication such as events and sponsoring, but also public relations, make a clear demarcation and classification impossible (Brown & Dacin, 1997). By using appealing slogans and texts, prominent testimonials, or through eye-catching colours, contrasts, and unusual images, it is possible to draw the consumer's undivided attention to the corresponding advertising campaign (Brown & Dacin, 1997). Advertising activities determine what people are talking about and put topics on customers' agendas - this is how brands create relevant and exciting content to be shared by their customers (Esch, 2019). Advertisements can be categorised according to five features: (1) the headline, (2) the body copy, (3) the signature, (4) the slogan, and (5) the testimonial, which are designed to enhance the consumers’ motivation and ability to process the information given from an advertisement (Dore, 2018). The goals of advertising can be divided into communicative and economic goals. Nevertheless, both types of advertising goals are in a means-to-purpose relationship. The strategic communication goals include increasing brand awareness and building positive attitudes towards the brand. Linking positive emotions to a brand offers another strategic advantage, as they allow a company to stand out from the competition (Esch, 2014). However, with the rapid change in the media landscape through digitalisation, the lines between different media outlets for advertising are blurry and point out a need for new business strategies in digital advertising. The new media landscape is especially unique for advertising as there is no time and space restriction when thinking of putting advertising in media outlets - through mobile devices every piece of information and content can be found almost everywhere (Lee & Cho, 2020).
The American Marketing Association (2020) defines advertising as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large“. Adding the key components of advertising Leckenby and Li (2000) highlight five elements: (1) paid, (2) mediated, (3) identifiable source, (4) persuasion, (5) action and suggested that “interactive advertising is any paid or unpaid promotion of products, services or ideas by an identified sponsor to consumers through mediated means” (p. 3). In addition, Stewart (1992, 2016) identified seven important issues in the definition of advertising: (1) the need for accountability, (2) requirement to measure effects, (3) relationship of media to advertising, (4) relationship of advertising to other parts of the marketing mix, (5) support for the creative function, (6) understanding advertising in context, and (7) recognise the purposefulness of consumers to influence and control advertising effects. Adding a definition more focused on the rise of the internet and social media, online advertising can be defined as “deliberate messages placed on third-party websites including search engines and directories available through internet access” (Ha, 2008, p. 31). However, after revisiting established definitions of advertising, Kerr and Richards (2021) propose a new interpretation adapted to the contemporary setting where they define advertising to be a “paid, owned, and earned mediated communication, activated by an identifiable brand and intent on persuading the consumer to make some cognitive, affective or behavioural change, now or in the future” (p. 16).
Chang (2014) showed that recipients have specific expectations of new advertising presentations, which result from their experiences with the messages of a company they are already familiar with. They hope for at least a continuation, or even better, an increase in creative design (e.g., in the use of humour). However, their assessment of the advertising depends, among other things, on the level of experience and expertise they have and how professionally the creators of designed messages are assessed. The effectiveness of advertising and the response to the advertisement is also influenced by the consumers’ attitude toward the advertisement - this can also lead to varying purchase intensions (Beattie & Mitchell, 1985). Adding to this finding, Zeng et al. (2009) showed that if an online advertisement is relevant to the consumer, a positive attitude toward the advertisement will be developed and a favourable response can be expected. Focusing on younger consumers and their attitude towards digital advertising it was found that brand consciousness affects the consumers’ attitude towards digital advertising as well as their behavioural response to it (Barger et al., 2016). Another influencing factor to the effects of advertising is the reputation of a brand - Aaker and Joachimsthaler (2000) studied the brands reputation under the topic of brand equity and found it to be associated with the credibility of a brand.
Essentially, it can be stated that the economic success of a company is indicated by the influence it has on customers, as the increase in revenue, market share, and purchase frequency define a partial success of advertising (Homburg, 2017). According to this, advertising is only truly successful when not only the goals of the advertiser but also the needs of the target consumers are fulfilled. Accordingly, it is inevitable that the advertiser knows the brands’ target group well enough to address their needs with their advertising to meet the advertising objectives (Ehrenberg et al., 2002).
2.1.2 Polarisation in Advertising
“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about/’ - (Wilde, 1987, p.19).
In 1970, Levitt described advertising as an artistic means of expression, which companies are increasingly using for self-promotion purposes (Pope et al., 2004). Due to the constantly changing media consumption, only a small proportion of all communication efforts reach the consumer. Added to this, the human attention span has decreased to 8 seconds, leading to consumers expecting immediate entertainment and information from advertisements (Appel et al., 2020). According to Tenderich (2014), brand communication must be interesting, inspiring, and entertaining to establish itself as a brand in the long term and to stand out from the competition. One way to achieve this is to use experience-oriented advertising, especially in saturated markets with functionally fully developed and interchangeable products. In such markets, it is almost impossible to raise the profile of products through fact-oriented advertising, and therefore it is necessary to build up product preferences under low-involvement conditions (Kroeber-Riel & Esch, 2015). In experience-oriented advertising, emotional appeals like humour, sex, sympathy, and compassion are used to get and hold the attention of the consumer (Ehrenberg et al., 2002). Emotional appeals can be either utilised positively, e.g., happiness, joy, and security, or negatively, e.g., fear and worry (Kusumasondjaja, 2018). These appeals can either create a positive perceptual climate that leads to better processing and evaluation of the information presented or convey specific experiences for brands and companies. Emotional advertising is part of experience- related marketing measures and takes on the task of anchoring the advertisement in the emotional experience of the consumer (Kroeber-Riel & Esch, 2015).
It was found that emotional advertisements can affect how and in which way the communication will be processed and shows influences on the effects of the communication (Deng et al., 2020). Emotional advertising can trigger the consumer to a higher cognitive involvement which can then influence the consumers’ feedback, the attitude toward the ad as well as the social sharing behaviour (Deng et al., 2020). It needs to be kept in mind that a negative attitude towards advertising, which can be a result of the intrusive nature of online advertising, can lead to consumers avoiding content posted by brands altogether. This finding highlights the need for interesting and entertaining advertising in social media as consumers are more likely to not feel irritated if something appears to be important or interesting (Edwards et al., 2002). One aspect of emotional marketing is the use of provocation to polarise the audience, which was only used as a complete and conscious communication strategy in the 1990s. Benetton became a pioneer of provocative marketing, when they showed, among other things, a black woman breastfeeding a white baby, a man suffering from AIDS, or the uniform of a deceased soldier (Vézina & Paul, 1997). Provocative advertising is especially hard to manage as ads that are perceived as similar to other ads are losing provocative power. In addition, brands that are known for their provocative advertisement have to maintain originality. Provocative messages that do not contain any ambiguity are therefore more at risk to be dismissed by the audience that is shocked and will most likely not be processed. Lastly, provocation is mostly taking place when the brand refers to and uses taboos in their communication approach (Vézina & Paul, 1997). The effectiveness of provocative advertising has not yet been studied in depth. It can be said, however, that it is based on the same conceptual and strategic level as other emotional strategies such as fear, humour, irritation, and sexualisation (Schicha, 2019).
Humour can come as a witticism, puns, jokes, satire, and parody and can be used to enhance and challenge the interpersonal and social relations between a brand and its customers (Dore, 2018). Warren and McGraw (2016) define humour in advertising as ,,a psychological response characterised by the positive emotion of amusement, the appraisal that something is funny, and the tendency to laugh“ (p. 407). According to the authors, humour can be determined by at least one of the three indicators: behavioural (laughing), cognitive (viewing something as “funny”), or emotional (feeling amusement) (Warren & McGraw, 2016). The four reasons for finding something humorous are surprise (something is experienced as unexpected), confrontation (a difference is perceived between two concepts that do not normally go together), atypical (something that deviates from the typical expectation), and offence (something is perceived as irrational (Warren & McGraw, 2016). Humour is one of the most frequently used means of communication in the advertising (Kloss, 2007). MacInnes et al. (1991) found that humour is a particularly effective tool as it leads to increased brand information, however, were not able to confirm whether the effect is only positive for the online processing of an advertisement or if it has a trade-off effect on the brand itself. One form of humour that engages in the form of provocation and polarisation is sentimental or resonant humour, which implies mild social aggression by using taboo themes and words that are aimed to surprise the consumer and attract attention, as does provocation (Dore, 2018). By using humour, the advertiser's image and the advertising message can be influenced positively. This is especially important as the perception of credibility and the associated trust in the advertising message plays a crucial role for a brand, as it strongly impacts the brand-consumer relationship (Warren & McGraw, 2016). Nevertheless, it must be noted that the different perceptions of humour can lead to distortions in advertising research. For example, humour may not be conveyed as humorously in written communication, such as in print advertising, as it is, for example, through verbal communication in the broadcast media advertising (Dore, 2018). The unpredictability of humour as a stylistic tool in advertising can thus lead to the polarisation of consumer-brand relationships and can be understood as a move from neutral feelings to an extreme feeling. It is often described as an optimal response to ambiguity (Marticotte et al., 2016).
The polarising approach in advertising works up cognitive and emotional involvement with a brand and therefore leads the customer to associate the brand with it. This communication technique is often used to hate-acknowledging advertising which underlines claims, promotes trust as well as a positive feeling towards the brand and leaves a consumer feeling more connected to a certain group and can enhance preferred views (Baliga et al., 2013; Osuna Ramirez et al., 2019). Research on brand polarisation has not established a clear definition yet and has been mostly overlooked in marketing and advertising research. However, some aspects of the communication approach can be found when looking into brand rivalry, which is related to attitude polarisation that happens when consumers identify with group norms and distance themselves from out-group norms (Osuna Ramirez et al., 2019). Lou et al. (2013) state that brands use polarisation to increase brand lovers' loyalty, as teasing brand haters strengthens their attachment to the brand given that it is associated with extremely passionate feelings - positive and negative. The feelings evoked through brand polarisation can be similar to emotions towards sports teams - it is most likely that a fan of a certain team tends to hate the team’s biggest competitor. However, instead of projecting these feelings onto two teams or brands, brand polarisation leads to consumers feeling either love or hate for one brand (Osuna Rammez et al., 2019).
The effectiveness of provocative and polarising advertising has not yet been studied in-depth, but several studies have nevertheless focused on the influence of certain aspects such as fear (LaTour & Zahra, 1989), negative emotions (Moore & Harris, 1996), irritation (Aaker & Bruzzone, 1985) and eroticism and nudity (Pitts et al., 1991). However, experiments show that controversial advertisements have a more positive impact on the attitude towards the ad than non-controversial ads (Pope et al., 2004). The consumer responses to advertisements depend on the appeals - emotional appeals have been shown to work most effectively when a consumer is highly involved with a brand and the message of the advertisement is low. In contrast, rational messages are more effective when consumers are both highly involved with the brand and the advertisement (Kusumasondjaja, 2018). Additionally, sharing information about the social engagement of a brand whilst using polarising advertising suppresses the (negative) thoughts about the advertiser's commercial intention and manipulates the recipient to give more thought to the social engagement rather than to the polarising message. Therefore, advertising that includes polarising elements within a specific scenario is proven to be retrieved easier from the consumers’ memory (Gensler et al., 2013). Even so, polarising advertising can also pose risks for a brand since it not only attract more attention from consumers but also leads to a more intensive examination of the message (Nam et al., 2015). Shocking the consumer may not only create a high level of awareness but can also result in a low level of acceptance or a high level of disapproval of the brand (Vézina & Paul, 1997) and can therefore negatively influence the brand perception of the consumer’s (Schicha, 2019).
As the era of social media brings along interaction between consumers and an urge to belong to brand communities, brand polarisation can help brands to gain needed attention. Polarisation allows brands to use the strong emotions of the brand’s lovers and haters to develop engagement as both groups feel an urge to express their thoughts and feelings about a polarising brand (Hollebeek & Chen, 2014). Overall, it can be said that the targeted use of emotional advertising which includes humorous polarisation, provocative communication, and the breach of social norms can at best become an advertising success - at worst it becomes a PR disaster that can destroy a brand's image. Therefore, polarisation as an advertising strategy should be used with care and caution (Waller, 2005).
2.2 Social Media
2.2.1 Definition of Social Media
“Social media allows big companies to act small again.“ - (Baer, 2015)
Social media is being used by billions of people worldwide and is known as one of the most defining technologies of our time. People use social media platforms to create, access, and spread information within their online communities and networks (Appel et al., 2020). The era of social media started approximately 30 years ago when “Open Diary”, a social network site that gave diary writers a commonplace, where they could blog within a community (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). In May 1997 SixDegrees.com was launched as the first recognizable social network service as we know it nowadays. SixDegrees.com was the first service to combine the basic features of today's social network platforms: the service allowed users to create profile pages, list friendships with other users, and search the friend lists of other users. A messaging system allowed users to communicate with each other up to the third degree of acquaintance and a forum system allowed discussions to take place. The use of the network was free of charge as SixDegrees.com financed itself through advertising. In the following years, especially after SixDegrees.com was shut down in 2000 and the access to highspeed internet expanded, social media sites like Ryze.com (2001), Friendster (2002), LinkedIn (2003), MySpace (2004), YouTube (2005), Facebook (open for everyone in 2006), Instagram (2010) and TikTok (2014) influenced not only how the internet was used itself but also the business, cultural and research landscape (Arora & Sanni, 2019). Since its beginning, the way social media has impacted the behaviour of consumers and marketing practises has been driven by the platforms themselves which have evolved into an environment where content, information, behaviours, people, organisations, and institutions can be interconnected (Appel et al., 2020). The business model of social media platforms, historically and nowadays, have been, and still are, funded by companies through the possibility of advertising tailored to specific target groups. This digital marketing practice is becoming more accurate through software algorithms and can reach target groups even more effectively (Appel et al., 2020).
Boyd and Ellison (2007) define social network sites as “web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system” (p. 211) and are therefore giving social media platforms a more socially based drive. In a more technologically based approach, Kaplan et al. (2010) define social media as “a group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and which allow the creation/exchange of user-generated content” (p. 61). Appel et al. (2020) define social media as “a technology centric - but not entirely technological - ecosystem in which a diverse and complex set of behaviours, interactions, and exchanges involving various kinds of interconnected actors (individuals and firms, organizations, and institutions) can occur” (p. 80) and thus highlight the connection between the technological and social motives of social media and its use and illustrate the immense dimensions that social media platforms have taken hold of. Social media has therefore become less about the technical aspects and more about how users are using the environments of these platforms (Appel et al., 2020).
Social media platforms consist of profiles that show a list of friends who are also registered to the platform, personal information about the user like age, interests, and jobs as well as a profile picture. Most social media platforms offer a feature where users can leave comments on other users’ pages and their posts - additionally private message features are also implemented in most social networks (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). The most common way for users to access social media services is via web-based apps as well as desktop and or download services that can be used on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Using these devices interactively, users, communities, and organisations can share, discuss, and modify UGC posted online (Kietzmann et al., 2011). Social media sites are especially unique as they allow users to either stay connected to people who are part of their extended social circle, as well as meet and get to know strangers. However, most social media users are using networking platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to communicate with users and brands as well as to share and create content about their lives (Muntinga et al., 2011). To highlight the history as well as general information first, Facebook is a social networking platform which was founded by Mark Zuckerberg. It was originally launched under the name FaceMash in 2003 before its name was changed to TheFacebook in 2004. In its beginning, Facebook was only open for Harvard students, in 2006 the network became open to everyone with a valid email address (Good, 2013). Facebook mainly consists of a “news feed” where new posts of friends and liked fan pages appear. Connecting with other users on Facebook requires a bi-directional approval (Chen, 2018). In 2012 Meta Platforms, Inc., formerly known as Facebook Inc., bought the photo-sharing app Instagram, which was founded in 2010, for 1 billion USD (Frenkel et al., 2022). Consumers are using Instagram to snap and edit photos with filters and share them with their followers - friends, family, and strangers, and is, therefore, a social media platform designed for visual content and can be used on smartphones and tablets. On Instagram, users have the choice to have a public or a private profile. With a private profile, users must send requests to follow another user, but no bi-directional confirmation is required (C. Yang, 2021). As an Instagram profile can be connected to the users’ Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr accounts, users can choose whether to publish their content only on Instagram or other platforms as well. Instagram differs from Facebook as it is only possible to create content by posting photos or videos (Chen, 2018).
With the growth of Web 2.0, its technological, economic, and social drivers, the phenomenon of UGC in social media networks grew as well. UGC “can be seen as the sum of all ways in which people make use of social media” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, p. 61) and often describes the media content created by social media users that is publicly available. UGC posted on social media can be described as an open- ended expression as users publish them with the ulterior motive to engage with a brand or other customers, whilst not being focused on purchase intentions (Yang et al., 2019). UGC needs to be published on publicly accessible websites or social networking sites, it needs to show a creative effort and has to be created in a nonprofessional manner (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). This growth in UGC led to websites focusing and implementing social media sites features and becoming social networks themselves - like YouTube for video sharing and later Instagram for sharing photos (Boyd & Ellison, 2007).
2.2.2 Brands on Social Media
Social media sites have not only changed the way how the internet is used but have also had an influence on business dynamics that led to a shift in the competitive position of firms and gave consumers more power (Deng et al., 2021). Additionally, relationships and interactions between customers and brands have never been more intense than during the rise of social media platforms. These changes have created various challenges for brands and their communication activities as they must combine advertising strategies with social media presence to engage customers (Liu et al., 2010). Increased consumer engagement, brand loyalty, and awareness can lead to increased sales, which provides benefits for brands around the world (Swani et al., 2013; Arora & Sanni, 2019). In addition to firm-generated content (FGC), consumers are generating an enormous amount of UGC by consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-firm connections. Thus, firms are looking for new ways to incorporate UGC into their social media communication strategies and to also create valuable FGC that leads consumers to interact and engage with the brand (Smith et al., 2012). This often results in firms using UGC and consumergenerated brand stories and merging them with firm-generated brand stories and FGC - mostly when the brand stories are positive or serve to improve or build the company’s image (Arora & Sanni, 2019). In addition, it was found that consumers tend to show more trust in UGC rather than FGC as they consider the information found in UGC more reliable (Arora & Sanni, 2019). Brands have the chance to enrich the experience of users by reacting to consumers’ posts, participating, liking, and influencing conversations on social media (Dhaoui & Webster, 2021).
A result of this change is that companies use a mix out of traditional marketing strategies - benefiting from social media to strengthen consumer-to-consumer, consumer-to-firm, firm-to-consumer, and firm-to-firm interactions (Arora & Sanni, 2019). Social media helps brands to form deep relationships with their consumers by having intense interactions as well as giving marketers new interfaces of communication that can be adjusted to the consumers different media habits (Kusumasondjaja, 2018). On the other hand, marketers can also benefit from social media data which offers information about customers that can be used for market research, to find new marketing and product ideas as well as offering improvement strategies to improve marketing strategies (Li et al., 2021). This change in advertising through social media platforms has led to brands being permanently active on social media while simultaneously posting more targeted advertising campaigns on various media channels (Kusumasondjaja, 2018).
Two of the biggest and most important social media networks which also form the basis for this study, are Instagram and Facebook - the basic background and structure of the platforms were explained in Chapter 2.1. With around 2.89 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social network in the world (Statista Research Department, 2021), followed by Instagram as the second-largest social media network with 1 billion monthly active users (Enberg, 2020). It must be noted, however, that although Instagram has fewer active monthly users, the social media platform has a 14 times higher engagement rate than Facebook, meaning that posts on Instagram are showing higher engagement with fewer followers compared to Facebook (Instagram, 2019). One way to analyse the efficiency of brand campaigns is the engagement rate, as it provides insights into how actively involved consumers are with posted content. Reports show that only 1% of users who follow a brand engage with content posted by a brand by liking, commenting, and sharing. Even the most popular Facebook brand pages show a maximum engagement rate of 4.3% (Deng et al., 2020). Facebook is however still an important social media network for research as it is the most popular social media marketing platform in the world with more than 80 million business accounts having active brand pages (Statista, 2020). When analysing the top 100 brands in the world, 90% of these brands have an Instagram account and 90% of Instagram users follow at least one brand on the social media platform (Instagram, 2019). Instagram as a social media platform is particularly successful for global enterprises compared to their competition because of its clear positioning (Yang, 2021). Instagram and Facebook thus offer enormous potential for companies and brands to reach their customers.
Showing the importance of both Instagram and Facebook, both were found to be effective platforms to build long-term interaction with consumers, whilst other platforms like Twitter are better for sharing information (Kusumasondjaja, 2018). However, with a large number of different social media platforms and the constantly changing formats, marketers have problems tracking their successes and failures and distributing their efforts appropriately (Deng et al., 2021). Moreover, the content saturation on various social media platforms forces the consumers to consciously select or ignore content which adds pressure and risk to social media marketing actions (Barger et al., 2016). The presence of brands on social media also leads to consumers being more demanding when forming a relationship with a brand (Bowden, 2009).
Research has shown that consumers show more trust in social media compared to a traditional promotion mix (advertising, publicity, sales promotions, public relations, etc.) as a source of information about brands and products. This is also connected to a positive product or brand experiences that are often discussed on social media - which then generates empathy and positive feelings in other users interested in the brand (Arora & Sanni, 2019). Social media from a marketing view is more about what users do on these platforms, rather than the technologies or services that are offered by them. Additionally, it needs to be stated, that the omni-social nature of social media environments shows that almost every part of the decision-making process of a potential customer is connected to the influence of social media (Appel et al., 2020). An interesting and important fact for marketers is that negative reviews show to have a more negative impact on the brand’s image than positive reviews have a positive effect on the image (Arora & Sanni, 2019). This finding is supported by de Vries et al. (2012), who found that negative information found on social media can lead to negative feelings towards a brand or product and can negatively impact purchase intentions. Consumers are following brands on social media to keep up to date on new products, promotional activities and to receive information about new products as well as show public support for a brand (Kusumasondjaja, 2018).
2.3 Consumer-Brand Engagement
2.3.1 Definition of Engagement
"To get customers, you need to go from the heart to the brain to the wallet.” - (Vaynerchuk, n.d, as cited in Willaerts, 2019)
The interaction between a person and a brand can be described as consumer or customer engagement - regardless of the motivation to purchase the brands products or services (Patterson & Yu, 2006). As previously described, social media platforms are becoming a crucial part of people’s lives and brands must acknowledge that the engagement between consumers and brands is an important part of building strong relationships. Therefore, content posted by brands must not only attract attention but should also give consumers a reason to like, comment, or share the post to openly support a band for their social circle to see (Chwialkowska, 2019). The research field of consumer engagement and its related subforms like ‘consumer behaviour’ (Vivek et al., 2014), ‘customer engagement’ (Patterson & Yu, 2006), ‘customer engagement behaviour 1 (van Doorn et al., 2010) and ‘customer brand engagement’ (Hollebeek, 2011) show a vast body of research already and will therefore be included in the state of research as well. The engagement has been researched mostly in disciplines like education, psychology as well as management. However, definitions and views of consumer engagement and its sub-categories show similarities in the different research fields (Krumsvik et al., 2013; Vivek et al., 2014).
Examining the social media engagement behaviour regarding the engagement between consumers and brands online, van Doorn et al. (2010) define it as “a customer's behavioural manifestations that have a brand or firm focus, beyond purchase, resulting from motivational drivers” (p. 254). Hollebeek et al. (2014) define customer brand engagement as “a consumer's positively valenced brand-related cognitive, emotional, and behavioural activity during or related to focal consumer/brand interactions” (p. 154). By focusing on the journey to consumer engagement and the use of social media as a tool, Vivek et al. (2014) explain that consumer-brand engagement “goes beyond the purchase and is the level of the customer’s (or potential customer’s) interactions and connections with the brand or firm’s offerings or activities, often involving others in the social network created around the brand/offering/activity” (p. 406). Arora and Sanni (2019) expand this definition further and bring it into the current media age by describing engagement as something that “encompasses consumer behaviour, consumer perceptions, and decision making processes utilized by consumers in the context of social media platforms used by firms, social media marketing strategies, and SNS (social networking sites) advertising and communication with consumers" (p. 487). Syrdal and Briggs (2018) suggest that engagement should be considered as a psychological state of mind and should be therefore separated from consumer behaviour which includes liking and sharing content. Focusing on examining consumer behaviour in social media, Barger et al. (2016) state that the consumer’s actions in response to brand-related posts can be measured by comments, shares, and posting user-generated content. This statement supports the selection of consumer behaviour as a specific field of research - however, the close interconnection of engagement and behaviour ensures that both fields of research are interrelated and should therefore not be considered separate from each other.
According to the body of research, social media engagement behaviour consists of three positive valences, e.g., consuming, positive contribution, and co-creation (van Doorn et al., 2010), as well as three negative valences, e.g., detaching, negative contribution, and disclosing unfavourable brand-related behaviour during interactions (Hollebeek & Chen, 2014). Engagement can describe a consumer pressing the “like” or “share” button or can be more interactive with a consumer commenting on a brand’s post and brands responding to comments made by consumers (Dhaoui & Webster, 2021). Even though engagement and therefore the brands success on social media can be quantitatively measured by likes, shares, comments, clicks, and followers (Voorveld et al., 2018), the qualitative nature (e.g., content) of the comments should also be kept an eye on (Chwialkowska, 2019). Social media platforms and the availability for brands to use these networks enable brands to communicate with consumers and customers and gather UGC from a large number of users. Users mostly interact with a brand or with members of a brand community on the brand pages by either commenting on FGC or UGC (Carlson et al., 2018).
Younger generations like Millennials and Gen Z were found to be engaging more in many social media platforms to gather information as well as to connect and socialise with other users and consumers (Arora & Sanni, 2019). It also needs to be stressed that millennials engage more positively with digital media compared to traditional media - knowing this, brands can create a positive relationship with millennials by using a more innovative and ethical based approach to their social media advertising strategies (Tanyel et al., 2013). The engagement on social media can positively influence the consumer engagement in other marketing channels - an engaged consumer is particularly beneficial for a brand as they actively participate in finding new ideas and offer collaborative behaviours like sharing knowledge and information, which can in hindsight support a brand (Carlson et al., 2018).
2.3.2 Driving Factors for Consumer-Brand Engagement
Findings on consumer engagement and more precisely consumer-brand engagement show that it is not necessarily expressed the same on different social media platforms (Deng, 2020). Whilst Facebook is mostly used for relationship- focused needs, Instagram serves as a creative outlet. The differing roles of social media platforms can influence how FGC is viewed by consumers and how they react to and engage with it. It is therefore important to recognise different platforms and their varying use when talking about the consumer engagement (Voorveld et al., 2018). Empirical findings on how different platforms can influence the consumers’ responses to similar content are still lacking as most studies are focussing on one social media platform at a time (Kusumasondjaja, 2018).
Despite the rather small body of studies comparing social media platforms, Voorfeld et al. (2018) expect that users actively choose the platforms they want to engage with brands based on characteristics like functionalities, interface, and content offered by a social media platform. Additionally, Muntinga et al. (2011) found that consumer engagement in social media follows three stages: consuming content by following and viewing content, contributing content by rating, or leaving comments, and lastly, creating content like UGC. Smith et al. (2012) studied the difference in how brands manage their Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts and how it affects the amount and content of UGC, by using data from N = 600 UGC posts for two retail-apparel brands. The study found that brand-related UGC differs across social media sites and can be mostly found on YouTube. Facebook and its innumerable number of UGC types fall between YouTube and Twitter and show mostly UGC that highlights aspects of a brand. With a focus on the nature of comments, rather than quantitative data, Yang et al. (2019) investigated the content of user comments on Facebook business pages by analysing a sample of N = 12,000 posts published by brands from six industries. The study found that negative and positive posts received more likes than neutral posts, whilst social complaints showed more likes and fewer comments than quality and money complaints posted. Most importantly, the study revealed that users on Facebook post significantly more negative than positive comments on brand and business pages. There have been no studies on the nature of user comments on Instagram - however, it seems like Instagram comments often appear more positive than user comments on Facebook.
In a recent study, Shahbaznezhad et al. (2021) focused on how the content format (text, picture, video, etc.) can influence the engagement behaviour of consumers on different social media platforms Instagram and Facebook to predict engagement. The results show that Instagram users tend to engage more passively by liking content posted by brands, whilst Facebook offers an environment that provokes consumers to actively engage with a brand’s content by commenting more. Furthermore, it was found that Instagram seems to stimulate consumers more, hence, more positive comments are posted by consumers than on Facebook and that rational photo content is more likely to generate more likes than comments. Additionally, Mortazavi et al. (2014) identified four attributes of social media networks - social relationships, entertainment, access to information, and the ease of using the network. These attributes could lead to higher engagement of social media users, given the content on social media is entertaining, educational, or interesting. The need for entertainment makes an important part of consumers consuming brand-related content as it covers the motivation of enjoyment, relaxation, and pastime. Access to information as an attribute of social media use is a crucial aspect for users to consume brand-related content and shows four submotivations - surveillance, knowledge, pre-purchase information as well as inspiration (Muntinga et al., 2011).
In previous research, brand posts were categorised according to their content type (information, entertainment, remuneration, and social/relational contents), their message appeal (rational/functional, emotional/transformational) as well as the theme of the post (corporate social responsibility, tourism, and charity themes). It was found that informational posts had a more negative impact on the number of comments and shares than other post contents (Deng et al., 2021). Berger (2014) found that the more emotional the content of a brand post is, the more likely it is that the content will be shared and will possibly even go viral. These findings are also supported by Smith (2018) and Lee et al. (2018), who found that users respond differently to posts on different platforms and showed that humour and emotion lead to greater consumer engagement. Humorous content holds an especially wide appeal as consumers often engage when a brand posts funny memes (Syrdal & Briggs, 2018). A brand that is focused on sharing its brand personality, as well as social initiatives online, can also influence consumer engagement positively (Lee et al., 2018).
However, emotional content was found to be affecting commenting behaviour negatively when it is presented in a format that is not more engaging than usual - emotional content in a photo is increasing the number of likes whereas presented in a video, it is increasing commenting behaviour (Shahbaznezhad et al., 2021). Additionally, in a qualitative study, Swani et al. (2013) found that posts that are not focused on commercial aspects and include emotional sentiments are more likely to be engaged with, as emotional content is more stimulating and helps users identify more with a brand. Nevertheless, emotional content was found not to be effective for business-to-customer accounts, which leads to the conclusion that there are possibly more effective strategies surrounding lifestyle products with a strong brand appeal. Furthermore, de Vries et al. (2012) found that the use of low- level interactive characteristics like using a website link can even have negative effects on the number of comments. Concluding in the suggestion that in order to positively influence the number of comments, brand posts should post highly interactive content - one way to achieve this is by asking the consumer a question.
[...]