How marketer-generated content characteristics affect consumer engagement? Empirical evidence from China's WeChat food marketing
ISSN: 0007-070X
Article publication date: 28 June 2021
Issue publication date: 3 January 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Leveraging marketer-generated content (MGC) can increase firms' success. However, few studies uncover the effects of MGC-related attributes on consumer engagement in the context of food marketing. This paper aims to explore the influence of MGC characteristics (valence, content types, vividness and interactivity) on consumer engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses WeChat official account data of seven food companies from China and conducts negative binomial regression models.
Findings
The findings indicate that different MGC-related characteristics have separate impacts on consumer WeChat engagement. Title valence, transactional title content and title with punctuation vividness negatively affect consumers' consuming engagement. Knowledgeable or entertaining title content and title with interactivity both positively affect consumers' consuming engagement. Moreover, transactional body text content negatively influences consumers' contributing engagement, whereas entertaining body text content shows positive effects. Vivid and interactive MGC body text attributes enhance consumers' contributing engagement behavior.
Originality/value
This study contributes to social media research in food marketplaces and sheds light on the effect of different WeChat MGC characteristics on separate consumer engagement.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation grant (No. 71773138; No. 72073136; No. 71633005) and the Beijing Technology and Business University Young Teachers Scientific Research Starting Fund (No. QNJJ2021-45). And the authors would like to thank the reviewers for the insightful suggestions. The interpretations, conclusions and recommendations, however, are the authors' creations and do not necessarily represent the positions of the institution. No conflict of interest exists in the submission of this manuscript, and the manuscript is approved by all authors for publication.
Citation
Tan, S. and Chen, W. (2022), "How marketer-generated content characteristics affect consumer engagement? Empirical evidence from China's WeChat food marketing", British Food Journal, Vol. 124 No. 1, pp. 255-274. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-12-2020-1169
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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