Marketing professor’s research indicates iconic brands may want to avoid extensive social media

A recent research project led by Brian Whelan, assistant professor of marketing in the College of Business at Western Carolina University, reaches the surprising conclusion that a higher level of social media activity on behalf of instantly recognizable brands results in a decrease in consumer attachment to those brands.

That is among the findings described in a paper titled “The Triadic Influence of Brand Personality, Cultural Dimensions and Social Media Activity on Consumer Attachment in Iconic Brands,” scheduled for publication in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Cultural Marketing Strategy.

For the project, Whelan and two faculty colleagues from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte examined the relationships between brand personality, cultural dimensions and social media activity on the development of customer preferences for brands that have achieved the coveted status of “iconic.”

The researchers define “iconic brands” as those that most readily come to the consumer’s mind when thinking of specific product categories. Iconic brands lead the marketplace in terms of sales and shareholder happiness, have instant name recognition and symbolic relevance, and appear frequently throughout pop culture such as in motion pictures, television shows, music and other mass media.

For their study, Whelan and his UNC-Charlotte colleagues selected the two top brands from three distinct categories of products. From the world of athletic apparel, they looked at the brands Nike and Adidas. From the soft drink industry, they examined Coca-Cola and Pepsi. And, from the technology and smartphone sector, they focused on the Apple Phone and the Samsung Galaxy.

The researchers developed a survey consisting of 23 questions related to brand personality, social media activity, cultural disposition, emotional attachment to brand, brand loyalty and individual demographics. They distributed the survey instrument through Amazon Mechanical Turk. The survey generated nearly 750 valid responses.

Whelan and his co-authors then used two different dependent variables – emotion attachment to brand and brand loyalty – to measure the survey participants’ preferences to the iconic brands, based on their individual responses to the survey questions.

While the study has produced a potential treasure trove of data for marketing professionals, Whelan said he believes one specific finding to be of interest to the general public.

“Our research showed that more social media activity actually led to less attachment to iconic brands,” he said. “Conventional thinking when it comes to social media activity is that it's advantageous for all brands to have robust social media activity in order to connect with consumers. In our research, consumers who engaged less on social media were more loyal and attached to iconic brands. This indicates that social media activity does not necessarily lead to loyalty and attachment, and in fact may be a detractor when it comes to iconic brands.”

Whelan characterized that particular finding as “interesting and counter-intuitive,” and he said he plans on exploring the issue in-depth in future research.

“The paper illuminates the connection between brand personality, cultural disposition and social media activity as influencing factors generating attachment and loyalty for iconic brands. This is novel because it's the first such study that specifically examines these three factors specific to iconic brands,” Whelan said.

With the unexpected finding that higher levels of social media activity may lessen consumers' brand loyalty and attachment to iconic brands, marketing practitioners tasked with managing iconic brands may need to consider alternative methods to deepen customer engagement.

Whelan cautioned that it is too early to draw firm conclusions for marketing practitioners, but notes he is continuing to explore the topic further.

“This is just one study and additional research is needed, but It's likely more advantageous to be focusing on other brand-loyalty activities aside from traditional social media to get true emotional attachment when it pertains to iconic brands,” he said. “There may be many reasons for this, which I will look to explore in additional research.”

A follow-up study is already in process that, among other variables, examines factors influencing consumer behaviors regarding service-oriented iconic brands. “For example, brands like American Express, Geico and UPS may have different factors influencing the formation of consumer preferences for them because they do not offer tangible products,” Whelan said.

There is also the opportunity for further study by examining factors influencing consumer behaviors regarding different iconic brands. “For example, service-oriented brands like American Express, Geico and UPS may have different factors influencing the formation of consumer preferences for them because they do not offer tangible products,” Whelan said.

In addition, the research behind this particular study is static and does not examine the dynamic changes of iconic brands or look at how common brands grow into iconic brands, but that is an additional area he plans to explore, he said.

“The notion of de-iconization, where a brand loses iconic status over time, is generally understudied. There is a virtual absence of research that examines whether ‘fallen’ iconic brands are able to reestablish their iconic status once they no longer considered iconic – for example, Sears, J.C. Penney or Radio Shack – or if they may be resurrected they are when no longer commercially viable, such as Blockbuster or Pan Am,” Whelan said.