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Conspicuous political brand interactions on social network sites

Marder, Ben, Marchant, Caroline, Archer-Brown, Chris, Yau, Amy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8782-0102 and Colliander, Jonas 2018. Conspicuous political brand interactions on social network sites. European Journal of Marketing 52 (3/4) , pp. 702-724. 10.1108/EJM-01-2017-0059

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Abstract

Purpose Acquiring ‘Likes’ for a political party or candidate’s Facebook pages is important for political marketers. For consumers these ‘Likes’ are conspicuous, making their political affiliation visible to their network. Our study examines the roles of the undesired social-self and visibility (conspicuous vs. inconspicuous) in predicting consumers’ intention to ‘Like’ political brands. We extend knowledge on the undesired social-self, transference of theory from general marketing to a political domain and provide practical advice for political marketers engaging social network sites. Design/methodology/approach We gather data from two surveys run with Facebook using electorates in the run up to the UK 2015 and US 2016 elections (n = 1,205) on their intention to ‘Like’ political brands under different visibility conditions. Findings Data supports the theorized relationship of the undesired social-self with social anxiety intention to ‘Like’ when ‘Liking’ is conspicuous. However also indicates that all users - irrespective of proximity to the undesired social-self - prefer to ‘Like’ inconspicuously. Research limitations/implication The research is limited by the generalizability of the specific context and the use of self-report measures. Practical implications Political marketers should reconsider promoting conspicuous consumption for that which is more inconspicuous. Originality We provide the first examination of the undesired social-self in driving behavior under different visibility conditions. Furthermore we challenge the extension of existing knowledge of the self-concept within political marketing, based on the ‘norm’ for consumers’ to avoid disclosing political views publically.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Business (Including Economics)
Publisher: Emerald
ISSN: 0309-0566
Date of Acceptance: 9 November 2017
Last Modified: 23 Oct 2022 13:46
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/111687

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