Should all brands initiate online customer engagement activities to entertain consumers beyond informing them? This work presents the idea that (in)consistency between the nature of an engagement initiative (i.e., entertaining or informative) and the perception of the brand (i.e., warm versus competent) influences the extent to which consumers perceive the initiative to be authentic. This in turn influences consumers' evaluation of the initiative and the brand. The results show that entertaining initiatives are suited for warm brands, but backfire for competent brands, while informative initiatives are equally suited for both types of brands. These effects are driven by the perceived authenticity of the initiatives. The findings yield specific guidelines for managers about how to preserve the brand's essence in the online initiatives they launch to foster ongoing customer engagement. The effects were found in four experiments and one field study, generalizing across different online media platforms (i.e., Instagram, Facebook, brand website), products and services (i.e., shoes, groceries, and recipe deliveries), and samples (i.e., Mturk, Prolific, students).

所有品牌都应该发起在线客户互动活动，以娱乐消费者，而不是告知他们吗？这项工作提出了这样的想法，即参与活动的性质（即娱乐性或信息性）与品牌认知（即热情与胜任）之间的（不一致）影响消费者对该举措的真实性的感知程度。反过来，这会影响消费者对主动性和品牌的评价。结果表明，娱乐性计划适合温暖的品牌，但适得其反的条件适合胜任的品牌，而信息性计划同样适用于两种类型的品牌。这些影响是由举措的真实性驱动的。调查结果为管理人员提供了有关如何保护品牌的具体指南。他们发起的在线计划的实质是促进持续的客户参与。在四个实验和一个实地研究中发现了这些影响，这些影响概括了不同的在线媒体平台（即Instagram，Facebook，品牌网站），产品和服务（即鞋，杂货和食谱交付）以及样本（即Mturk） ，多产的学生）。