Abstract

Social media influencers (SMIs) are now a significant element in organizations’ marketing mix. However, there has been little attention paid to how SMIs might change the way people process a commercial specifically designed to enhance corporate reputation. Three studies were conducted to understand possible influencer impacts on how people respond to commercials designed to enhance corporate reputation. In Study 1, we found that when a commercial was introduced by an influencer, message attitudes and perceived corporate reputation were more positive via reduced persuasion knowledge (PK), as compared to the impact of the commercial presented by itself. In Study 2, the influencer enhancement effect disappeared when sponsorship was disclosed, again as mediated by increased PK. The findings are consistent with prior research; however, this research is the first to explore disclosure effects in the context of corporate reputation with video stimuli. In Study 3, the style of the influencer’s message (narrative versus nonnarrative) influenced response to the corporate commercials, with a narrative introduction engendering more favorable message attitudes and corporate reputation perceptions through decreased PK. However, the positive effect of an influencer’s narrative introduction occurred only when sponsorship was not disclosed.

摘要

社交媒体影响者（SMI）现在已成为组织营销组合中的重要元素。但是，很少有人关注SMI如何改变人们处理旨在提高公司声誉的商业广告的方式。进行了三项研究，以了解影响者对人们如何响应旨在提高企业声誉的商业广告的影响。在研究1中，我们发现当有影响力的人介绍商业广告时，与其说商业广告的影响相比，通过减少说服知识（PK）可以使信息态度和企业声誉得到正面评价。在研究2中，当赞助被披露时，影响者的增强作用消失了，同样是由增加的PK介导的。这些发现与先前的研究一致。然而，这项研究是第一个探索在视频刺激下企业声誉背景下的披露效果的方法。在研究3中，影响者的信息风格（叙述性和非叙述性）影响了对公司商业广告的反应，而叙事性介绍通过降低PK带来了更有利的信息态度和公司声誉感知。但是，只有在没有公开赞助的情况下，影响者的叙事性介绍才会产生积极作用。叙述性介绍通过降低PK带来了更有利的信息态度和企业声誉认知。但是，只有在没有公开赞助的情况下，影响者的叙事性介绍才会产生积极作用。叙述性介绍通过降低PK带来了更有利的信息态度和企业声誉认知。但是，只有在没有公开赞助的情况下，影响者的叙事性介绍才会产生积极作用。