Young-A Song’s research while affiliated with University of Texas at Austin and other places

This study examines whether and how consumers with different mindsets (i.e. fixed versus growth) have different motives for and patterns of using Instagram. The findings indicate that growth-mindset individuals are more likely to engage in a variety of Instagram activities and to have various motives for using Instagram (i.e. identity expression, social interaction, relationship management, and information seeking). In terms of brand-related motives for using Instagram, interestingly, growth-mindset individuals place relatively greater emphasis on brand identification. Further implications are also discussed.

Despite the trend of leaving Facebook (#DeleteFacebook campaign), investigation on both the social and psychological factors affecting Facebook fatigue is limited. This study aims to explore the social and psychological antecedents of Facebook fatigue and identify the effects of the antecedents on overall Facebook fatigue. A total of 327 Facebook users participated in an online survey. Respondents were recruited from a major online panel in Korea. The results from the principal component analysis suggest that there are six social and psychological antecedents: impression management, unwanted posts, reputation concern, personal relative deprivation, privacy concern, and relationship concern. In addition, the results show that personal relative deprivation, privacy concern, impression management, and relationship concern positively predicted overall Facebook fatigue. This research not only sheds light on the antecedents of social networking services (SNS) fatigue that influence overall Facebook fatigue but also suggests practical implications for the everexpanding SNS market.

In brand transgression context, some consumers forgive the brand because they want to gain the relationship back while others might forgive the brand because they do not want to lose the relationship. Using a regulatory fir perspective (Avnet and Higgins 2006), this research investigates how a match of motivational approach between consumers’ goal orientation and brand apology impacts on brand forgiveness. The results show that consumers with a dominant promotion focus are more likely to forgive a brand when they receive a promotion-focused brand apology, while those with a dominant prevention focus are more likely to forgive a brand when receiving a prevention-focused brand apology.

Public diplomacy becomes concerned more about maintaining relationship with domestic and foreign audiences than delivering messages (Fitzpatrick 2007; Hayden 2009), and its increasing appearance in public relations and branding literature reflects its importance (Manheim 1994). In public diplomacy, soft power (e.g., tourism, culture) appears to function more critically in relational perspectives, compared to hard power (e.g., politics, economics) (Grunig et al. 2002). This study aims to empirically investigate how nations execute a public diplomacy using soft/hard power. To better understand specific strategies and its impacts on nations, this study adopts Stafford and Canary’s Relationship Maintenance Theory and Anholt’s Nation Branding Index. Also, reflecting the importance of social media as a tool of public diplomacy (Zaharna and Rugh 2012), social media activities, Facebook in particular, are considered. Specifically, the objectives of this study are to (1) identify differences of public diplomacy efforts between nations with strong (the U.S.) and weak (Korea) brands; and (2) investigate the relationships between the brand strength and the power focused in public diplomacy. The result of content analysis of 883 Facebook messages showed that the U.S. implemented the asymmetrical one-way relationships by delivering hard power while Korea built mutual relationships by focusing on soft power.

Both the marketing industry and academia have been paying more attention to the growth and potential of the luxury market. This research developed a theoretical framework for understanding the dimensions of luxury brand personality and a reliable and valid scale that measures these dimensions. When 30 luxury brands, ranging from fashion to automobile and retail, were assessed on a set of diverse personality attributes, six dimensions representing luxury brand personality were identified: Excitement, Sincerity, Sophistication, Professionalism, Attractiveness, and Materialism. Findings indicate that while three dimensions, Sincerity, Excitement, and Sophistication, share similar qualities with those identified in Aaker's (1997) scale for general brand personality, the other three dimensions, Professionalism, Attractiveness, and Materialism, reflect meanings unique and specific to luxury brands. Altogether, the results of this research hold the notion that luxury brands serving as consumption symbols provide both utilitarian benefits and symbolic meanings to contemporary consumers.

Purpose – This paper aims to examine whether culture impacts the execution of financial services advertising (FSA). Specifically, this study investigates how cultural values are reflected in FSA by comparing magazine ads in the USA and Korea. Design/methodology/approach – This study analyzed the content of a total of 1,889 (USA = 1,486; Korea = 403) FSA in print business/news magazines from 2005 to 2009. Findings – The finding of this study showed significant cultural differences of FSA in terms of collectivism, high and low cultural contexts, human models/celebrity presence and time orientation between the USA and Korea. However, the difference in individualistic cues between the USA and Korea was not significant. Research limitations/implications – Using the integration of multiple cultural frameworks will better explain cultural differences reflected in marketing communication in the financial services (FS) sector. Future research is needed to generalize how such frameworks are reflected in different settings, such as different media or different countries. Practical implications – The findings of this study suggest that FSA reflect cultural values, providing further implications for FS companies targeting the global market. Originality/value – This study extends the understanding of impact of cultural values on advertising by exploring the FS industry.

Consumer attitudes towards marketing communications efforts in the context of out of home experiences and entertainment, such as sporting events is an important consideration given the heightened proportion of investments in sponsorship and events (IEG, 2011). The average consumer attends various sponsored events, especially in the context of sports; however, the consumer may not be aware of the sponsor (Bennett, 1999) or consider the sponsorship in other brand-based considerations (Pham and Johar, 2001). In 2000, Speed and Thompson contributed a valuable framework of the determinants of sport sponsorship response to provide insights on how sponsorship works. Their framework was tested with individual regression analyses with hypothetical sponsorship scenarios and a student sample. Here, the authors employ a schema theory lens and reexamine the sponsor-based constructs tested with structural equation modeling with a real-world sponsorship and event attendee sample. A conceptual difference here is that an outcome variable is how enhanced purchase intent towards the title sponsor enhances interest in the sponsor’s future marketing communications. As sponsorship is often an ancillary marketing communications tool (Close, Finney, Lacey, and Sneath, 2006), it is important to examine what determines a sponsorship’s ability to spark a consumer to notice, pay attention, and recall the sponsoring brand’s advertising and promotions in other occasions.

Given the increasing popularity of nation branding across the globe, brand management at the symbolic level is a critical component of a nation's brand management program. By surveying a US sample of 304 college students, the current study identified a total of five primary antecedents of nation brand personality: government competences, people/events, natural features, pop culture and arts/history. The results also show that government competences, natural features, and pop culture are crucial antecedents in nation branding; they increase chances of a positive nation brand personality dimension (eg, agreeableness, assiduousness) or decrease the possibility of a negative dimension (eg, snobbism).

As consumers' ethnocentric tendencies heighten in intensity when a country is threatened, this cross-cultural comparison study aims to understand howthe recent global financial crisis may have influenced the phenomenon of consumer ethnocentrism (CE). This study compares the levels of CE in the U.S. and China and examines patriotism, nationalism, internationalism, and demographic factors as antecedents of CE in order to understand how consumers' ethnocentric tendencies vary across cultures. Results indicate that American consumers are more ethnocentric than Chinese consumers, while nationalism has the strongest impact on CE in both countries.