In your small group, find a relevant
Journal Article from the Library portal. Use the following questions and the reading
given to guide you in understanding the Journal Article. Present a summary of
your chosen Journal Article on your respective blogs.
1.
What is the Research Topic?
Who “Likes”
You.. and Why?
A Typology of
Facebook Fans
2.
What Background Information did the authors give you in order for you to
understand their research?
The authors
talked about different type of fan behavior affect the pages that they like.
3.
Why do you think each of those
topics/sections of Background Information is necessary?
Give a brief
knowledge for reader to make sure they know what the research is about
4.
What are the Research Questions of this study, if
any?
“Do
you have a Facebook account that you have accessed since March 1st?”
“Have
you selected a brand you ’Like’ on Facebook in the past year?”
5. What is the Hypothesis of this study, if any?
Different kinds of people have different
insights on why they become fans of brands.
6. What is covered in the Literature Review?
How Facebook likes enhance marketing
communications, characteristics of Facebook fans, Characteristics of an
Exploratory Facebook Fan Typology, research design, survery design, data
collection, sample, measures, cluster analysis, and scale validation.
7. Why do you think the above topics are
covered in the Literature Review?
- Targeting
strategies and brand communications can be enhanced by pragmatically
studying four key segments of Facebook Fans.
- “Fan”-atics
have strong loyalty and brand love. Fan-atics help spread WOM due to
their numerous Facebook friends. Facebook “shares” may encourage Likes
from Fan-atics.
- Self-expressives
like to impress others. They may be influenced by messages about brands’social
desirability.
- Incentives
for Liking may not be effective for all Fans types: Utilitarians who Like
for incentives have lower loyalty and brand love and also offer less WOM
than other Fans.
- Authentics,
with strong brand loyalty and brand love, are less active on Facebook,
although they have strong social ties. This group is best reached on
Facebook through their friendship networks.
8.
What Method(s) did the authors use to conduct their research? Briefly
outline what they did and how they did it.
Survey design, data collection, sample,
measures, cluster analysis and scale validation.
9.
What were the Results obtained from the Method(s)?
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) tested for differences across the four clusters. Post hoc multiple comparison tests using Tukey’s HSD for equal variances and Games-Howell for unequal variances investigated significant group differences among cluster means. The
variables used to inform the exploratory typology of Facebook Fans provide a more detailed profile of each cluster.
4 different clusters:
- Fan-Atics
- Self-expressives
- Utilitarians
- Authentics
10. What Discussion points / Conclusions
did the authors bring up as a result of their study?
The current study provides a foundation
exploration into whether it was possible to categorize Facebook Fans who Like
brands based on their attitudes in relation to brands and their own personal
and social characteristics.
The findings suggest four Fan types:
• Fan-atics,
• Self-Expressives, • Utilitarians, and •
Authentics.
The authors are unaware of another Fan
typology based on an empirical analysis of Fans’ personal and social
characteristics and brand relationships. The findings of the current study add
weight to the idea that there is a disconnection between Likes and brand
consumption (Nelson-Field et al., 2012) and also offer a perspective in relation
to why Fans may Like, yet not buy.
The authors view this study as a start- ing
point for further research, including possible validation of clusters through
replication studies with other samples (Aldenderfer and Blashfield, 1984).
11.
What were the Implications / Significance / Importance
of this research study, according to the authors?
This
exploratory study provides insights into Liking on Facebook by examining Fans’
attitudes about their Liked brands. As this study prepares a foundation for
future studies, it does not investigate a range of brand-related activity;
rather, it provides perspective in relation to a brand related behavior,
Facebook Liking, which has received much attention in the recent literature.
Next, this study offers insights into consumers’ relationships with Facebook
and brands. This research distinguishes between Fans based on their reasons for
Liking. The challenge marketing managers face is that consumers infrequently
regard the brands they buy as being different from other brands in the
categories (Romaniuk, 2013). And although there may only be a marginal gain
from using Likes to lever- age change, it could make a small contribution. From
the perspective of the marketing literature, the finding of this exploratory
study in relation to incentives is consistent with Ehrenberg’s research on
sales promotions.
12.
What recommendations for Future Research did the authors
propose?
The
authors propose that hat follow-up larger-scale studies test the robustness of
the clusters and pro- files identified among a broader profile of consumers,
spanning all ages. Besides, it recommended that further research with
cross-cultural samples be under- taken to provide a basis for comparisons and
to contribute additional insights into Fan types. Further research could
explore the nature of Face- book Fan typologies that include those who have
un-Liked a brand and compare the results with the current study to deter- mine
whether insights can be gained in relation to customer defection. Fur- ther
research could also investigate whether there are gender differences between
Fans, their reasons for becoming Fans, and the relationships between their
Likes and their offline brand relationships. Next, they should investigate
whether those
who
are intrinsically motivated to Like a brand (with or without incentives) have a
greater propensity to offer positive WOM, have greater brand loyalty and brand
love, than those who receive extrinsic rewards (such as incentives) but who are
not intrinsically motivated. Future research also is needed to examine factors
that sustain intrinsic motivation in this context. Lastly, future research
could examine the relationships between the characteristics of different Fan
types and their offline brand relationships.
13. Were
their Limitations in the study, according to the authors?
Lack of prior research studies on the topic
Cultural and other type of bias
14. What
Kind of Sources did the authors use for their entire research paper?
Journals, University papers, Internet,
Reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment