Journal of Marketing Communications

Small businesses that utilize promotional messages aim to gain exposure through unpaid (earned) online social media platforms like YouTube. However, the sheer volume of videos uploaded to YouTube each day makes it highly unlikely for a video to receive a high number of views. To increase the chances of their videos gaining a large number of views, the STEPPS framework was developed. This qualitative and quantitative study employs content analysis of YouTube videos to explore the impact of STEPPS principles on the number of views and likes that promotional videos posted by small businesses on YouTube receive. The study findings suggest a positive association between the utilization of STEPPS principles and the higher number of views achieved on small business promotional videos. Keywords: STEPPS framework; small business digital marketing; promo videos YouTube; online spread; content analysis

This study seeks to understand what specific digital marketing capabilities higher education institutions expect from digital marketing managers. After analyzing 255 job advertisements for digital marketing managers in North American, European, and Asia-Pacific countries, we identified 79 specific digital marketing capabilities, which were organized into 6 main themes, namely: market, results, management, media, stakeholders, and learning. Anchored on the dynamic capability framework, this study shows that 56 capabilities have not been addressed in the existing reviews of literature and 26 others were not required in the job advertisements. We also found that there is no difference in terms of digital marketing capabilities between regions or experience levels required of higher education institution managers. The findings of this study provide a framework to assess achievement in digital marketing, recruit new staff, and design digital marketing curricula for educators. This work can also serve as the basis for analyzing emerging capabilities and rebalancing the resources dedicated to new and traditional digital marketing capabilities. Finally, the capabilities presented in the framework could be further explored in order to fill the gap in the literature.

This study investigates the interplay between scarcity cues, individual motivations, and consumer behavior in the context of collec-tible markets, focusing on Popmart's Labubu series. Leveraging Social Comparison Theory, we explore how self-expressive motivation (SEM) and self-presentational motivation (SPM) influence the relationship between scarcity cues and Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), and how FoMO subsequently affects consumers' willingness to pay for premium products. A sample of 442 Labubu collectors participated in the study, providing insights into the psychological and behavioral drivers of purchasing decisions. Results from Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) indicate that scarcity cues significantly increase FoMO, which in turn has a strong positive impact on willingness to pay. SEM and SPM were found to moderate the effect of scarcity cues on FoMO, with SEM reducing and SPM amplifying this relationship. These findings highlight the importance of understanding consumer motivations and social comparison processes in developing effective scarcity-based marketing strategies. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed for brands operating in limited-edition markets. ARTICLE HISTORY

This study investigated the practices influencers should use to retain their followers and motivate them to repurchase products and services newly recommended by the influencers. Drawing on the tricomponent attitude model (TAM), the study explored the impact of followers’ purchase satisfaction on their repurchase intentions, mediated by followers’ retention practices (i.e., affective commitment, loyalty, and para-socialization). It also examined the moderating role of influencer-follower congruence on the relationship between para-socialization and followers’ repurchase intentions. To validate the proposed conceptual framework, this study surveyed 363 female followers of 12 female commercial fashion influencers in Iran. The data was analyzed using the PLS-SEM. The results of the PLS-SEM confirmed all hypotheses. This study offers fashion influencers valuable insights into how they can build enduring emotional relationships with their followers, thereby enhancing their career effectiveness. The study’s main theoretical contribution lies in conceptualizing four new variables in influencer marketing: followers’ purchase satisfaction, affective commitment, loyalty, and repurchase intention. This research is among the few studies that address the influencer-follower emotional relationship from the perspective of TAM.

Organizations including corporations face significant challenges in communicating emergencies with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities, one of the hard-to-reach populations in this increasingly diverse landscape. Lacking inclusivity in organization-led emergency communication can pose life-threatening challenges to CALD communities. Moreover, simply translating emergency information does not represent an adequate diversity-infused strategic approach. Authentic engagement through storytelling can enliven awareness, preparedness, response, and resilience among CALD communities when facing emergencies. Through multicultural service organizations, we recruited 28 participants from CALD communities in a regional Australian city. Using narrative inquiry, we unearthed personal accounts of lived experiences about emergencies, engaging participants as active agents in diverse sense-making. The findings highlight new opportunities to enhance inclusive emergency communication that is applicable to wide-ranging organizations. The multicultural resources identified from storytelling offer practical implications for diversifying emergency communication strategies.

In the fast-developing ambiance of social media, brand anthropomorphism has emerged as an important strategy for consolidating consumer-brand relationships and enhancing identification, advocacy, and engagement. This study investigates these associations using the lens of Social Identity Theory (SIT), employing a sample of 256 consumers who selected brands with anthropomorphic traits. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA), the findings show that brand anthropomorphism significantly influences consumer brand identification, partially mediating its impact on engagement and advocacy. Consumer brand engagement exerts a modest but significant influence on consumer brand advocacy. Moreover, a perceived level of brand anthropomorphism is a necessary condition for consumer brand identification. These findings suggest that brand anthropomorphism strategies, when well implemented, can be beneficial for managing brand-consumer relationships, especially within the social media digital landscape. This study expands the literature on brand anthropomorphism by combining three brand-related constructs and indicates that anthropomorphism exerts a stronger effect on identification and advocacy, but a less intense effect on engagement. These findings demonstrate the importance of brand anthropomorphism as a brand relationship strategy, leading to positive consumer behaviour and optimising performance in an increasingly omni-channel retail milieu, thus strengthening brand equity and brand ambassadors.