Influence of messages and cues on brand attitudes in social media

Abstract

Nowadays, social media emerge as important platforms for online marketing. To ensure the success of marketing initiatives, it is important to understand the key factors and mechanisms in the process of brand loyalty enhancement. Although content quality has been addressed as a critical factor that determines branding success, a comprehensive view towards how users process brand?s messages in social media is still in its infancy. This study aims to specify influences of central and peripheral cues on brand attitudes in elaboration processes. The empirical results show that peripheral cues of brand?s messages are salient to influence customer?s perceptions towards the advocacy from brand, and such perceived advocacy plays a critical role for brand loyalty cultivation. Customers rely on both central and peripheral cues during message elaboration under conditions of either high or low elaboration likelihood, which may make the moderating effects of elaboration likelihood insignificant in social media.