E-tailing & Brand Communication in Facebook: Comparing Germans and Koreans

Purpose – Marketing has shifted towards communicating tailored messages and brand contents to consumers with the rise of the Internet and smartphones. These technologies and the brand contents provide the e-tailers with opportunities for brand loyalty and online shopping via SNS, especially Facebook. Thus, this study attempts to scrutinize the effects of the characteristics of brand contents on consumers’ engagements. As well, Facebook allows global communication, and yet, Eastern and Western people still live under different cultures. Therefore, this study attempts to compare Germans and Koreans on Facebook. Research design, data, and methodology – 225 survey data were collected from Germany and Korea. The effects of Vividness, Entertainment, Credibility, and Relevance on Engagement in brand contents and the moderating effect of nationality were examined with the hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Results - Vividness and Entertainment are the most important characteristics to engage consumers in the brand contents regardless of nationality. However, Relevance is more important to Germans while Entertaining and Vividness are to Koreans. Conclusions - To engage young Facebook users and let them shop online, entertaining and vivid brand contents will be effective. Tailored brand contents are essential for users from different cultures on Facebook.